Lucerne or Maastricht?

Neither is a beach destination, but Lucerne at least has a real summer swimming habit. The Lido, the old wooden lake baths and the lawns at Ufschötti put clean, calm water a short walk from the Old Town, with mountains behind.

Maastricht has nothing like this in the city. Locals head out to old gravel pits along the Maas, which have small sandy shores but are an afternoon outing at best. In Lucerne you swim from a lawn or jetty rather than sand, but you can build a summer day around it.

Food is one of Maastricht's main pleasures and only a side note in Lucerne. Limburg dishes such as zuurvlees and vlaai, Belgian beer and local white wines make eating out a reason to visit, and the fine dining is strong for a city of its size, best enjoyed on the terraces of the Vrijthof.

Lucerne serves hearty Swiss classics such as Chügelipastete, rösti, fondue and lake perch, in wood-panelled guild houses and on terraces by the Reuss. The choice is narrow, though, and many tables near the Chapel Bridge cater to tour groups. Neither city has much international range, but Maastricht has more good places to eat.

Both are worth a day or two of sightseeing, in different ways. Lucerne has a handful of famous set pieces: the Chapel Bridge and Water Tower, the Lion Monument and the Musegg towers you can climb, with Picasso and Klee at the Rosengart Collection.

Maastricht's appeal is its age and its long history rather than famous landmarks. It has two Romanesque basilicas, the Helpoort and medieval walls along the Jeker, and a 13th-century bridge over the Maas. Add guided tours of the Sint-Pietersberg tunnels and the Bonnefanten's mix of old masters and contemporary art.

Evenings are where the university town pulls ahead of the lakeside one. Lucerne winds down after dinner: a drink by the water, a riverside wine bar or one of a few cocktail bars in the Neustadt, and by midnight the lakefront is mostly empty.

Maastricht's students keep the brown cafés around the Markt, the Platielstraat and the Vrijthof busy late at weekends, with Belgian beer as the default, though serious clubbers still head over the border. Both towns go wild at carnival before Lent, so a visit then changes the picture in either.

Nature is Lucerne's great strength and the biggest gap between the two cities. Alpine peaks rise from the lake, with cogwheel railways and cable cars up Pilatus, Rigi and the Stanserhorn, year-round snow on Titlis, and paddle steamers to link the hikes. Winter adds skiing and sledging.

Maastricht's outdoors is gentler: marl cliffs on the Sint-Pietersberg, the green Jeker valley, the orchards and sunken lanes of the Heuvelland, and heath and forest at Hoge Kempen. It is lovely walking and cycling country, but pastoral rather than dramatic.

Both make excellent bases. What differs is what lies around them. Lucerne's trains and steamers stay within Switzerland: Bern, Basel and Zurich are each under an hour away, and boats on the lake reach the Rütli meadow and William Tell country.

Maastricht's day trips cross borders. Aachen and Liège are about half an hour away, Tongeren and Valkenburg are closer still, and Cologne, Brussels and Leuven fit into a longer day. That gives you three countries and their languages from a single base.

Lucerne is the easier choice with children. The Swiss Museum of Transport fills a whole day, and the journeys are part of the fun: paddle steamers, cogwheel trains and the summer toboggan run on Pilatus, though these depend on good weather and cost a lot.

Maastricht is safe and easy with a buggy, but its only real family outing in town is the tunnel tour under the Sint-Pietersberg. The show caves, cable car and fairy-tale park are out at Valkenburg, and the city's own pleasures are aimed more at adults.

Both centres are compact and flat, but Lucerne's transport reaches further. The station, boat piers and Old Town sit together on the lakefront. The steamers, trains and cable cars for the excursions all use one integrated ticket system, so you never need a car.

Maastricht is easy on foot or by bike within the centre, and trains run to Liège and Aachen. The hill villages and countryside are much easier with a car or bike than by regional bus, though.

Maastricht is the better place to shop, and weekend visitors from three countries come for exactly that. Fashion boutiques fill the restored houses of the Stokstraat quarter, the Grote Staat has the main brands, and Wyck adds interiors and vintage.

Lucerne's shopping is narrower. It centres on Swiss watches and jewellery around Schwanenplatz, with army knives, chocolate and cuckoo clocks as souvenirs. Come here to buy a serious watch, not to shop for clothes.

In Lucerne the money goes on three things at once, and none of them is easy to trim. Rooms in the centre are costly and dearest in summer and during the music festival, and meals are expensive even when they are simple. The steamers, cogwheel trains and cable cars are the reason for coming, not extras, so they belong in the budget from the start. It is worth working out a Swiss travel pass in advance, since it covers the lake boats and some of the mountain trips.

In Maastricht you have more control over what you spend. The biggest cost is the room, and it is the weekend that pushes it up, because the city fills with short-break visitors from three countries. Eating out is the city's main pleasure and costs as much as you let it, from lunchrooms to the fine-dining tier. Trips to Aachen or Liège are short train rides rather than costly excursions.

For classical music, Lucerne is in a different league. The Lucerne Festival brings leading orchestras and soloists to Jean Nouvel's lakefront hall, which is famous for its acoustics and has its own year-round programme with the city's symphony orchestra. The city theatre adds opera and dance.

Maastricht's stage life is provincial but varied. The theatre on the Vrijthof hosts the regional orchestra and opera, there are conservatory recitals and organ concerts in the churches, and big open-air concerts fill the square in summer. Its small jazz cafés also give it more casual live music than Lucerne on an ordinary night.

Neither city has baths of its own, so the difference lies in what is nearby, and Maastricht has more within easy reach. The thermal pools above Valkenburg are twenty minutes away, Aachen's baths, in use since Roman times, about half an hour, and the Belgian town of Spa less than an hour.

In Lucerne the best place for a soak is the Mario Botta mineral bath high on the Rigi, and otherwise hotel spas. The calm is of a different kind there: afternoons on a steamer, lakeside walks and quiet evenings, where in Maastricht you relax over long lunches on its squares.