Lucerne or Stuttgart?

Neither city has a beach, but only Lucerne has a lake you can swim in. In July and August locals swim from the Lido, the old wooden lake baths and the lawns at Ufschötti, in clean, calm water of around 20-22°C with mountains behind it.

In Stuttgart the Neckar is a working river with barges, so summer swimming means outdoor pools, some fed by mineral springs. The nearest open water worth the trip is Lake Constance, more than two hours away.

Stuttgart is the better place to eat. Swabian cooking has its own repertoire of Maultaschen, Käsespätzle and Zwiebelrostbraten. Vineyards inside the city limits supply the Riesling and Trollinger, the Art Nouveau Markthalle is good for browsing, and there is serious fine dining too.

Lucerne serves sound Swiss classics in its guild houses, such as Chügelipastete, fondue and perch from the lake. The range is narrow, though, and many tables near the Chapel Bridge cater to coach tours, so meals tend to cost a lot more than they deliver.

The two are fairly even, but they offer very different sightseeing. Lucerne has the intact medieval picture: the covered Chapel Bridge, frescoed squares, the climbable towers of the Musegg Wall and the carved Lion Monument, with Picasso and Klee at the Rosengart Collection. It takes a day or two.

Stuttgart lost much of its old core in the war, so its strengths are industry and modern design. It has the Mercedes-Benz and Porsche museums, the Staatsgalerie and the Le Corbusier houses of the Weissenhof Estate, with baroque Schlossplatz as the historic centrepiece. Allow two to three days.

Stuttgart has more to offer after dark. Bars and lounges on Theodor-Heuss-Strasse fill at weekends, and small clubs in basements and old industrial spaces play electronic music. The Cannstatter Volksfest beer tents and the late-summer wine village make it lively for whole weeks.

Lucerne is mostly about a drink on a riverside terrace and an early night, and the lakefront is nearly empty by midnight. The big exception is Fasnacht, when the town stays out in costume until dawn.

This is Lucerne's strongest category and where the two differ most. The lake winds into real mountains. Pilatus, Rigi and the Stanserhorn can be reached by cogwheel railway and cable car, Titlis has year-round snow about an hour away, and paddle steamers let you combine boat, train and hike in one day. Winter brings skiing, though low cloud can hide the views for days.

Stuttgart's outdoors is gentler: wooded hills, vineyard paths above the Neckar, deer forests, and the cliffs and caves of the Swabian Jura or the Black Forest about an hour away. It is good walking and cycling country, but not high mountains.

Both are excellent bases, and the difference is the kind of outing. From Lucerne, Zurich, Bern and Basel are each under an hour by train, and the lake itself is an excursion, with steamers to the Rütli meadow and Altdorf, where the William Tell story is set.

Stuttgart's trips are more about palaces, castles and old towns. Ludwigsburg's baroque palace and the university towns of Tübingen and Heidelberg are within an hour, and Maulbronn monastery and Hohenzollern Castle are further out. Strasbourg makes a long day across the border.

Lucerne's big day out with children is the Swiss Museum of Transport on the lakeshore, a hands-on collection of trains, planes, ships and cars with a planetarium. After that, the fun is in the journeys: paddle steamers, cogwheel trains and the summer toboggan run on Pilatus. All of these need clear weather, and there is no zoo to fall back on when it rains.

Stuttgart's answer is Wilhelma, a historic zoo and botanical garden set among Moorish-style pavilions. Add the narrow-gauge railway on the Killesberg, the fairy-tale garden at Ludwigsburg and the car museums for older children. The hills make pushchairs harder work than on Lucerne's flat riverside.

Lucerne is the easier of the two. The station, the boat piers and the Old Town sit together on the lakefront, most sights are a flat walk away, and the boats, trains and mountain lifts all use the same Swiss tickets. You only have to check the connections.

Stuttgart's centre is just as walkable, but the city climbs steeply up the sides of its basin. Beyond Königstrasse and Schlossplatz you rely on the Stadtbahn, the S-Bahn, a rack railway, or the steep public stairways called Stäffele.

Stuttgart is the better shopping city. Königstrasse is a long pedestrian high street, and a long-established family department store just off it covers luxury fashion. Independent shops cluster around Calwer Strasse and the Bohnenviertel, and the outlet town of Metzingen is about half an hour away.

Lucerne's shopping is mainly Swiss watches and jewellery on Schwanenplatz, along with army knives, chocolate and cuckoo clocks for tour groups. Clothes and homeware are thin on the ground.

Stuttgart is clearly the cheaper stay, though it is not a bargain. Hotels cost much less at weekends and outside trade fairs, and tavern meals and day tickets are fair for what you get.

Lucerne is one of the most expensive places you could choose. Central rooms and simple meals are costly, and the boat, rail and cable car trips that make the visit worthwhile add a lot more. Swiss travel passes and lakeside picnics help a little.

Stuttgart has the deeper year-round programme. The Stuttgart Ballet is one of Europe's most respected companies and shares the state theatre with a bold opera house. The Liederhalle has a strong Bach tradition, and there are big musicals and jazz throughout the week.

Lucerne's moment is the Lucerne Festival, mainly in late summer, when leading orchestras play Jean Nouvel's lakefront hall, which is famous for its acoustics. Outside those weeks it has the good but limited calendar of a small city.

Stuttgart has a real bathing tradition that Lucerne lacks. The springs of Bad Cannstatt and Berg feed public mineral baths, where you can soak in naturally fizzy warm water indoors or outdoors and then use the saunas.

Lucerne offers calm rather than spas. You get slow lakeside walks and lazy steamer afternoons, and the nearest proper soak is Mario Botta's mineral bath high on the Rigi, about an hour away.