Lausanne or Luxembourg?

Lausanne has the lake at its doorstep. In summer people swim from the lawns, piers and shingle at Vidy, Bellerive and Ouchy, and the old Bellerive lido makes an easy afternoon without leaving town. It is still lake bathing on narrow grass and concrete shores, and the season lasts barely two months.

Luxembourg has no water to swim in within the city. Bathing means a trip of about an hour to the Upper Sûre reservoir, or out to the gravel-pit lakes at Remerschen, and on most days the indoor pools are the realistic option.

The two are close, and both are better for wine than for cheap meals. Lausanne's cooking is rooted in Vaud: lake perch, papet vaudois with saucisson, and fondue in winter, with Chasselas tasted straight from the growers in the Lavaux caveaux and a Saturday market around the Riponne.

Luxembourg is more of a crossroads, mixing French restaurants, German and Belgian brasseries and long-established Portuguese and Italian kitchens, alongside Moselle Riesling and crémant. Both have a serious fine-dining tier and thin pickings in between, so in Luxembourg the lunch menu is the meal to plan around.

These two are evenly matched, but what you go to see is different. In Luxembourg, the city itself is the sight. The UNESCO-listed fortress wraps around a sandstone plateau, you can walk through the Bock casemates cut into the rock, and the Chemin de la Corniche looks down into the Grund.

Lausanne's old town is steep and atmospheric around the Gothic cathedral, where a night watchman still calls the hours, but its museums carry more of the weight: the Olympic Museum at Ouchy, the cluster at Plateforme 10 and the Collection de l'Art Brut. Either city takes about two days.

Neither is a party city, but Lausanne has more going on. Thousands of students from the university and the EPFL fill the clubs and late bars in the Flon's old warehouses, and in summer the waterfront at Ouchy stays busy into the evening.

Luxembourg's nights are shorter and smaller. They centre on the Rives de Clausen, the pubs of the Grund and later venues in Hollerich, and peak on Thursday and Friday because many residents leave at weekends. On a Saturday night, Lausanne is the livelier of the two.

Lausanne is in a different league here. Across the lake the French Alps rise straight from the water, the Lavaux terraces offer one of Switzerland's finest vineyard walks, and within about an hour you can be hiking or skiing at Villars, Les Diablerets or Glacier 3000, with the Jura on the other side.

Luxembourg's nature is gentler and starts right in town, in the wooded Pétrusse and Alzette gorges. Its best walking is in the mossy sandstone passages of the Müllerthal and the hills of the Ardennes. These are rewarding day hikes, but there are no mountains, and autumn shows them at their best.

Both make excellent bases, and Lausanne has the richer spread close to hand. Montreux, Vevey and the Château de Chillon are a short ride along the lake, Geneva, Bern and Fribourg are easy by train, and Gruyères and boats to Évian round it out, almost all without a car.

Luxembourg's advantage is its borders. Roman Trier and the cathedral city of Metz are each under an hour away in different countries, Nancy is a little further, and closer to home there are Vianden's castle, Echternach and the Moselle wine villages.

Lausanne gives children more to do. There is the interactive Olympic Museum, a freshwater aquarium-vivarium, and the woods at Sauvabelin with animals, pedal boats and a wooden lookout tower. Paddle steamers and the lakeside pools make summer easy, though the steep streets are hard going with a pushchair.

Luxembourg is calm and safe, and its public lifts and funicular make buggies easier to manage. The fortress tunnels and ramparts are its big adventure, but beyond the natural history museum and the small Parc Merveilleux there is little built for children, so it suits a short stay rather than a full week.

Both are small cities built on several levels, and both handle it well in their own way. In Lausanne the m2 metro does the climbing, rising more than 300m from the lake to the upper town, and the station opens onto the punctual Swiss rail network.

Luxembourg's trick is that trams, buses and trains are free across the whole country. Public lifts drop to the Grund and Pfaffenthal and a funicular climbs to Kirchberg. The one thing to avoid is driving at rush hour.

Neither is worth the trip for shopping, and they differ mainly in what is on offer. Luxembourg's Grand-Rue has the luxury and premium fashion labels that Lausanne lacks, and the Villeroy & Boch porcelain outlet is a local speciality.

Lausanne is better for Swiss things to take home. Rue de Bourg is the place for a watch or chocolate, and Lavaux wine comes straight from the growers. Both have few independent shops.

Both are among the most expensive places to visit in Europe, but Luxembourg is the easier of the two on a budget. Its transport is free, several museums charge nothing, weekend hotel rates can fall when business travel drops off, and staying in Trier or Metz is a practical option.

Lausanne offers fewer ways to save. Picnics from supermarkets and bakeries, the free lakeside promenades and a glass of Chasselas in a village caveau are the main ways to keep the cost down.

Lausanne has the stronger stage life and makes much of its own. Dance leads, with the Béjart Ballet Lausanne and the Prix de Lausanne, while the Théâtre de Vidy creates contemporary work that tours Europe, and the opera and chamber orchestra run full seasons. In July the Montreux Jazz Festival is a short train ride away.

Luxembourg's highlight is the Philharmonie on Kirchberg, a fine hall for orchestral music, with touring productions at the Grand Théâtre and summer concerts at Neimënster in the Grund. Most of what is on comes from elsewhere.

Neither city has a bathing tradition of its own, and both make a calm base. Lausanne has more spa options nearby: grand lakeside hotel spas, private clinics, and thermal water at Yverdon-les-Bains or at Lavey-les-Bains, the hottest springs in Switzerland. Its steep centre is busier, so the calm is mostly by the lake and in the vines.

Luxembourg has one main spa town, Mondorf-les-Bains, about half an hour away. In return, the city itself is quieter, and evenings, weekends and the river walks through the Grund are peaceful.