Lugano or Nuremberg?

Lugano at least has swimming on the doorstep. The lido at the mouth of the Cassarate and the bathing spots towards Castagnola and Paradiso have lawns, decks and ladders into a lake that reaches about 23°C in high summer. Villages you reach by boat have their own small lake baths.

Nuremberg has nothing like this in town, only outdoor pools and leisure baths. The Brombachsee and the other Franconian lakes have small sandy strips, but they are about an hour away, so a swim there is a day out rather than an afternoon. Neither city will satisfy anyone looking for sand and surf.

Nuremberg has the more distinctive food, and it is easier to eat well there on a casual visit. Finger-sized bratwurst grilled over beechwood, Schäufele with dumplings and Lebkuchen are on every corner, and Franconia's many small breweries make the taverns and beer gardens worth visiting for their own sake.

Lugano's strength is the grotto, with polenta, braised meats and Ticino Merlot at granite tables under chestnut trees, and its pastry shops are good. Beyond that the choice is narrow and costly, with little street food or international cooking. Many visitors save their best meals for a trip over the Italian border.

This is where Nuremberg pulls well ahead. Its walled medieval old town holds the Kaiserburg, St Sebaldus and St Lorenz, and Dürer's house. The Germanisches Nationalmuseum alone can fill a day, and the Rally Grounds and Courtroom 600 add a sobering second layer of history.

Lugano's arcaded old town around Piazza della Riforma is pleasant to explore. Add San Lorenzo cathedral, Luini's Passion fresco and the art collection at LAC, and you have covered the main sights in a day. The Hesse museum in Montagnola makes a worthwhile extra.

Neither city is a reason to travel for nightlife, but Nuremberg gives the better evening. In summer students fill the squares and riverbanks. The small bars and alternative venues of Gostenhof stay busy late, and students from Erlangen add to the weekend crowd.

In Lugano an evening means an aperitivo by the lake and a long dinner among a well-dressed local crowd, and most nights are over before midnight. Young locals go to Milan when they want more.

Lugano's setting is its main draw and far more dramatic. Funiculars climb Monte Brè and San Salvatore from the edge of town, and a rack railway serves Monte Generoso, with views across to the Alps. The green water of the Verzasca and Maggia valleys is about an hour away, and the lakeside walk to Gandria needs no planning at all.

Nuremberg's outdoors is gentler. The Reichswald pine forest at the city edge is good for walking and cycling, and Franconian Switzerland, an hour away, has limestone towers, caves and well-known climbing. It is good country for walkers and cyclists, but there are no mountains.

Both are excellent bases, and the difference is in the kind of trip. From Lugano you cross a border. You can see Milan's cathedral and The Last Supper, Lake Como, the castles of Bellinzona and the island gardens of Lake Maggiore, or take a boat to Morcote, so the days mix big Italian cities with lake scenery.

Nuremberg offers a run of historic German towns by train: Bamberg, Regensburg, Würzburg's Residence, the walled towns of the Romantic Road and Wagner's Bayreuth, with Munich about an hour away. It suits travellers who enjoy collecting old towns more than changing landscapes.

Nuremberg has more that is built for children. The Toy Museum, the railway museum with its full-size locomotives, a large zoo with dolphins and manatees and the play park in Zirndorf cover older children and rainy days as well. In Advent there is also a children's market with carousels.

Lugano relies on the lake and the mountains: boat trips, slides at the lidos, funicular rides and the miniature Swiss landmarks at Melide. That is ideal for younger children on fine days. The steep streets are hard work with a pushchair, though, and there is no zoo or big museum.

Both are easy without a car, in different ways. Lugano's centre and lakeside promenade are walkable, but the town is steep. The funicular down from the station, the hillside buses, the lake boats and the mountain railways do much of the work.

Nuremberg is flatter and more urban. Almost everything is inside walls about 1.5km across, and one ticket covers the U-Bahn, trams and S-Bahn out to the zoo, the Rally Grounds and Fürth. Only the cobbled climb to the castle takes effort.

Neither is a shopping destination, and each offers something quite different. Lugano's Via Nassa is about luxury, with Swiss watchmakers, jewellers and Italian fashion under the porticoes, and there is a designer outlet towards Mendrisio. For anything broader, shoppers go to Milan.

Nuremberg's main streets are mostly chains and department stores, but its souvenirs have more character: Lebkuchen in tins, wooden toys and crafts from the Handwerkerhof. In Advent, the Christkindlesmarkt on the Hauptmarkt turns shopping into a reason to come.

The gap here is wide. Nuremberg is mid-priced, with cheap local beer, filling tavern meals, inexpensive transport and modest entry charges. Only trade-fair weeks and the Advent season push hotel rates up.

Lugano is expensive in almost everything, from lakeside hotels to boat trips and mountain railways. Grotti, set lunches and the regional transport that comes with hotel stays soften the cost a little, but there is no cheap way to stay.

Nuremberg has the fuller programme. The Staatstheater, in its Art Nouveau opera house, stages opera, ballet and drama through the season, and two orchestras play at the Meistersingerhalle. In summer the free Bardentreffen brings folk and world music to the squares, and a big rock festival takes over the Zeppelinfeld.

Lugano puts almost everything into LAC, where the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana plays in a hall with fine acoustics and most of the theatre is in Italian. Estival Jazz on Piazza della Riforma is a summer highlight, but opera lovers go to La Scala.

Neither city has a bathing tradition of its own, so the difference is in the kind of rest. In Lugano you relax through the pace of the place: afternoons at the lido, benches in Parco Ciani, long grotto lunches and the spas of the big hotels, plus a large pool and sauna complex near Rivera.

Nuremberg is the place for German sauna culture. There is a thermal spa with sauna gardens in Fürth, a short U-Bahn ride away, and saline pools to float in at Bad Windsheim. Expect the saunas to be nude and mixed.