Lucerne or Lyon?

Lucerne has the better swimming of the two, because its lake is right on the doorstep. In July and August locals swim from the Lido, the old wooden lake baths and the grassy shore at Ufschötti, in clean, calm water with mountains behind, and boats run to small bathing spots in the lakeside villages. The shore is lawns and jetties rather than sand, and the season is short.

Lyon itself has only the supervised bathing lake at Miribel-Jonage on its north-eastern edge, and the Rhône quays are for sunbathing, not swimming. Its best lake water, at Annecy or the Lac du Bourget, means a day trip of up to two hours each way.

Lucerne feeds you well on Swiss staples like fondue, rösti, lake perch and the veal-filled Chügelipastete, served in guild houses and wood-panelled taverns, with riverside terraces on the Reuss for coffee or a glass of Swiss white. The choice is narrow, though, and many places near the Chapel Bridge cater mainly to tour groups.

In Lyon, eating is reason enough to make the trip. Its bouchons serve quenelles, andouillette and praline tart with a pot of local red, and generous set lunches are an easy way into its deep fine-dining tradition. Les Halles Paul Bocuse and the Sunday markets on the Saône and at Croix-Rousse are each worth a morning, and the Beaujolais and northern Rhône vineyards are close by.

Lucerne's sights are famous but few. The Chapel Bridge and Water Tower, the towers of the Musegg Wall, the Lion Monument and the Picasso and Klee works in the Rosengart Collection fit easily into a day or two.

Lyon has far more to see. The Roman theatres on Fourvière, the Renaissance lanes and traboules of Vieux Lyon, the silk-weavers' hill of Croix-Rousse and the Musée des Beaux-Arts, one of France's finest collections outside Paris, fill several full days. It has no single postcard image to match the Chapel Bridge, but there is much more of it.

After dark, Lucerne means a drink by the water, a few cocktail bars in the Neustadt and a small club scene, and the lakefront is mostly empty by midnight. Fasnacht is the one time the whole town stays out until dawn.

Lyon's large student population gives it far more choice. There are wine and cocktail bars packed between Hôtel de Ville and the Terreaux, pubs in Vieux Lyon, barges on the Rhône that serve as bars and clubs, and warehouse-style electronic venues towards Gerland. It quietens outside weekends and term time, but finding a late night is easy.

Nature is Lucerne's strongest card. Pilatus, Rigi, the Stanserhorn and the glacier on Titlis are all within reach by cogwheel railway, cable car or paddle steamer, so one day can combine a boat, a mountain train and a ridge walk without a car. Winter brings skiing and sledging. The one catch is low cloud, which can hide the views for days.

Lyon's outdoors are gentler and more urban: running and cycling on the car-free Rhône quays, boating in the Parc de la Tête d'Or and easy walks in the Monts d'Or. Serious hiking in Chartreuse and Vercors, or a day at the high Alpine ski resorts, needs a car and an hour or two each way.

Both are excellent bases, but the outings are different in character. From Lucerne, trains reach Zurich, Bern and Basel in under an hour. The lake is a day out in its own right, with boats to Weggis, Vitznau and the Rütli meadow of the William Tell story.

From Lyon, the trips are mostly about wine and old towns: Roman Vienne twenty minutes south, the walled village of Pérouges, the Beaujolais villages and, further on, Cluny and Beaune. Annecy and Aix-les-Bains bring lakes and mountains within reach, though they take longer to get to than Lucerne's lake boats.

Lucerne builds a family stay around one big museum. The Swiss Museum of Transport, with its trains, planes, ships and planetarium, fills a day on its own, and the old mirror maze in the Glacier Garden and the wildlife park at Goldau add a little more. After that, the fun is in the journeys: paddle steamers, cogwheel trains and the summer toboggan run on Pilatus, all of which depend on the weather and soon add up in cost. The flat, very safe riverside centre and the lakeside lawns are easy with small children.

Lyon spreads its attractions more widely. The Parc de la Tête d'Or has a free zoo, pony rides, pedalos and a small train, the Musée des Confluences has dinosaur skeletons, and there is also an aquarium, Guignol puppet theatres and the funicular rides up Fourvière. That gives you more to fall back on when it rains, though the stepped lanes of the hills are hard going with a pushchair.

Lucerne is the simpler of the two. The station, the boat piers and the Old Town sit together on the lakefront, and most sights are a short, flat walk away. Steamers, mountain railways and cable cars all use the same Swiss tickets, so even the excursions need no car.

Lyon is bigger and takes a little more effort. The Presqu'île is flat and easy to walk, and the metro, trams, funiculars and bike-share cover the rest. The hills mean some climbing, though, and with only four metro lines some journeys need a change. It works well, but it takes more planning than Lucerne's single waterfront hub.

Shopping in Lucerne is mostly Swiss watches and jewellery around Schwanenplatz and the lakefront. Army knives, cuckoo clocks and chocolate are the classic souvenirs, and there is little in the way of fashion or design.

Lyon makes a fuller day of it, with chains on the rue de la République, luxury labels around Place des Jacobins and the large Part-Dieu mall. The more personal finds are the designer workshops on Croix-Rousse, silk scarves from the city's weaving past and antiques on the rue Auguste Comte. Pralines, sausage and cheese from Les Halles are the best things to bring home from Lyon.

This is one of the biggest differences between the two. Lucerne is very expensive at every turn, from central hotel rooms to simple meals, and the mountain railways that make the stay worthwhile take a large share of the budget. Supermarket picnics by the lake only soften the cost.

Lyon is not cheap, but it is far easier on the wallet. Hotels are reasonable for a large Western European city, except during big trade fairs and the Fête des Lumières. Set lunches in the bouchons are generous for what they cost, and the zoo is free.

Lucerne's stage life peaks with its festival, held mainly in late summer, when the world's leading orchestras and soloists come to Jean Nouvel's lakefront concert hall with its famous acoustics. For the rest of the year the hall, the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and the city theatre keep a good programme going, but there is little live music on an ordinary night apart from the Guggenmusik bands at Fasnacht.

Lyon's strength is opera and dance all year round. The Opéra, under its glass vault, is home to a well-regarded opera company and ballet, the Orchestre National plays at the Auditorium, and the Maison de la Danse and the Biennale make dance the city's speciality. Summer evenings at the Nuits de Fourvière, staged in the Roman theatres, are a particular pleasure, and jazz plays in cellar clubs on the Presqu'île.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, so the difference lies in the setting. Lucerne has the edge for calm, with quiet evenings, lakeside promenades and unhurried steamer trips. For a soak with a mountain view there is Mario Botta's mineral bath high on the Rigi, though the Old Town fills with tour groups at midday.

Lyon relaxes through its daily rhythm instead: long lunches, quiet Sunday mornings by the Saône, the Parc de la Tête d'Or and a few hammams and day spas. For real thermal water you need a day trip to Aix-les-Bains.