Lugano or Lyon?

Neither city has a sea, but Lugano has a lake you can swim in right in town. Its lidos have lawns, decks and ladders into the water at the mouth of the Cassarate and along the shore towards Castagnola and Paradiso, and the villages you reach by boat have small lake baths of their own. From June to early September it makes an easy plan for a hot afternoon.

In Lyon the only place to swim is the supervised bathing lake at Miribel-Jonage on the city's edge. The Rhône quays are for sunbathing only. Clear Alpine water at Annecy or the Lac du Bourget means a day out of up to two hours each way.

The gap here is wide, and Lyon is one of France's great places to eat. There are bouchons serving quenelles and salade lyonnaise, a deep fine-dining tradition that began with the Mères lyonnaises, Les Halles Paul Bocuse and Sunday markets along the Saône. Together they make meals the centre of a stay, with Beaujolais and northern Rhône wines close at hand.

Lugano's strength is narrower: the grotto, where you eat polenta and braised meats with a glass of Ticino Merlot under chestnut trees in the hills. Beyond that the choice is thin and expensive, which is why many visitors cross into Italy for their bigger meals.

Lyon offers two thousand years of history in layers. There are the Roman theatres and Gallo-Roman museum on Fourvière, the Renaissance quarter of Vieux Lyon with its traboules, the silk-weavers' hill of Croix-Rousse and a fine-arts museum among the best in France outside Paris. It takes several days to see properly.

Lugano can be seen in a day. The arcaded old town around Piazza della Riforma, the cathedral of San Lorenzo, Luini's Passion fresco and the LAC galleries make a pleasant round, and the Hesse museum in Montagnola is worth a side trip.

An evening in Lugano means an aperitivo by the lake and a long dinner among a well-dressed local crowd, and most nights are over before midnight. The town's own young people go to Milan to go out.

Lyon has much more going on, driven by its students. There are wine and cocktail bars on the Presqu'île, pubs in Vieux Lyon, barges on the Rhône quays that work as bars and clubs, and a serious electronic scene in warehouse clubs towards Gerland, with the Nuits Sonores festival in spring. Outside weekends and term time it quietens earlier than a city its size might suggest.

Lugano's setting is in a different league. The lake winds between steep wooded mountains, funiculars climb Monte Brè and San Salvatore, a rack railway runs up Monte Generoso and a lakeside path leads to Gandria. The green valleys of Verzasca and Maggia are about an hour away, and kayaks and paddleboards are easy to hire.

Lyon's outdoor life is more urban, built around the car-free Rhône quays and the large Parc de la Tête d'Or. Beyond the city, the Monts d'Or and the Beaujolais hills are gentle country, and the serious terrain of the Chartreuse and Vercors needs a car and an hour or more of driving.

Both cities are excellent bases, but Lugano comes out ahead because it sits on the border and puts two countries within easy reach by train. Milan's cathedral and The Last Supper are just over an hour away and Como about half an hour. The castles of Bellinzona and Lake Maggiore with the Borromean Islands are in the other direction, and boats run to Morcote.

Lyon's day trips lean towards wine and old towns. There is Roman Vienne about twenty minutes away, medieval Pérouges, the Beaujolais villages and, further on, Beaune and Cluny, with Annecy and Grenoble towards the Alps.

Both cities work well with children, in different ways. Lugano relies on the outdoors: boat trips, lido slides, funiculars, the Generoso rack railway and the Swiss landmarks in miniature at Melide, which suit younger children best.

Lyon has more built attractions, including some for older children. The Tête d'Or has a free zoo, pedalos and pony rides, the Musée des Confluences has dinosaur skeletons, and there is an aquarium and Guignol puppet theatre too. In both cities the steep hills are hard work with a pushchair.

Neither city needs a car, but they work differently. Lugano is a small town you can walk along the lakefront, with a funicular to take you up the slope to the station and buses, lake boats and mountain railways for everything beyond.

Lyon is a big city whose flat, walkable Presqu'île is backed by four metro lines, trams, funiculars up Fourvière and a bike-share scheme on the riverside paths.

Lyon has the wider range. High-street chains line the rue de la République, luxury labels gather around Place des Jacobins and Part-Dieu has a huge mall. The more distinctive finds are silk scarves, the designer workshops of Croix-Rousse and the antique dealers on the rue Auguste Comte.

Lugano is narrower and more expensive. It centres on the watchmakers, jewellers and Italian fashion houses under the arcades of Via Nassa, with a designer outlet near Mendrisio, and serious shoppers usually go on to Milan.

Swiss prices follow you everywhere in Lugano, from the lakeside hotel room to the funicular ticket and the evening glass of Merlot. A grotto is the gentlest way to eat well, and the regional transport pass that comes with most hotel stays takes the edge off getting about. Even so, the same days cost far more here than in the Italian towns across the border.

Lyon is much kinder to the wallet and well below Paris. Rooms are fairly priced for most of the year, though they get tight and dear during the big trade fairs and the Fête des Lumières. Midday is when the savings are, as bouchons and bistros serve full lunch menus for much less than dinner, while an evening of fine dining costs what it would anywhere else in France.

Lyon's stage life is far fuller. Its glass-vaulted opera house is home to an opera company and a ballet, the Orchestre National de Lyon plays at the Auditorium, and the Célestins and the TNP stage serious theatre. Dance is the city's specialism, through the Maison de la Danse and the Biennale, and in summer the Nuits de Fourvière puts on performances in the Roman theatres.

In Lugano almost everything happens at LAC, home of the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana, with mostly classical programmes and theatre largely in Italian. Its summer highlight is Estival Jazz, a series of free concerts in Piazza della Riforma.

Unwinding in both places is about pace rather than spas, but the setting differs. In Lugano the lake does the work: a morning coffee under the arcades, an afternoon on a lido or a bench in Parco Ciani, a grotto lunch that runs into the evening. When you want water and heat, there are hotel spas and a big pool and sauna complex near Rivera.

Lyon's calm is that of a city: quiet Sunday mornings by the Saône, the lawns of the Tête d'Or, a hammam or day spa, and a swim at the open-air Tony Bertrand pool on the Rhône quays. For real thermal baths, Aix-les-Bains is about an hour and a half away.