Lugano or Zurich?

Both offer the same kind of summer swim, from lawns, decks and ladders rather than sand, over the same short season from June to early September. In Lugano the main lido sits at the mouth of the Cassarate, and boats carry you to small baths in the lakeside villages.

Zurich adds the river. At Letten a young crowd lets the Limmat carry them downstream, and the historic men's and women's baths stand right in the old town.

Lugano's strength is narrow but distinctive: the grotto, with polenta, braised meats and Ticino Merlot at granite tables under chestnut trees. Outside that tradition the choice thins quickly, and many visitors save their best meals for a trip across the Italian border.

Zurich gives you more range. Veal with rösti and winter fondue in the guild houses sit alongside casual and international cooking in Kreis 4 and 5. The city's chocolate and confectionery, led by the old tea rooms on Paradeplatz, are worth a visit on their own.

Lugano's sights fit comfortably into a day. There is the arcaded Lombard old town around Piazza della Riforma, San Lorenzo above the lake, Luini's Passion fresco and an art collection split between LAC and Palazzo Reali. It makes a pleasant outing rather than a reason to come.

Zurich needs two or three days and rewards them. The Kunsthaus, the Swiss National Museum and the Rietberg hold collections of real weight. The Altstadt adds the Grossmünster, where the Swiss Reformation began, and Chagall's windows in the Fraumünster.

A night out in Lugano means an aperitivo under the arcades or on the lakefront, then a long dinner. Apart from summer weekends on the promenade, the town is quiet before midnight, and its own young people go to Milan.

Zurich is another matter. Its electronic music scene runs deep, with clubs in Kreis 4 and 5 and Zurich West open until morning at weekends, Langstrasse as the late-night centre and the Street Parade filling the lake shore every August. Drinks are steep in both cities, but only Zurich gives you a proper night out.

Both are lake-and-mountain cities, but the landscapes differ. Lugano's lake is narrow and closed in by steep wooded slopes. Funiculars climb Monte Brè and San Salvatore, the shore path leads to Gandria, the Lema to Tamaro ridge makes a fine day hike, and the green rivers of the Verzasca and Maggia valleys are about an hour away.

Zurich's lake is broader and gentler, with the Glarus Alps at the far end and the Uetliberg as its home hill. What it adds is the high Alps: Rigi, Pilatus and real mountain hiking within about an hour, and skiing at Flumserberg in winter.

Both are excellent bases, but they point in different directions. From Lugano the trips are largely Italian: Milan's cathedral and The Last Supper, Lake Como and Bergamo's upper town. On the Swiss side, Bellinzona's castles and Lake Maggiore with the Borromean Islands are within easy reach.

Zurich looks across Switzerland and north to the Rhine. Lucerne is under an hour away, Bern, Basel and St Gallen's abbey library are about an hour each, and the Rhine Falls pair with the painted houses of Stein am Rhein.

Lugano suits a calm family stay built around the water: boat trips to the villages, slides at the lidos, funicular rides and the park of Swiss landmarks in miniature at Melide. But the town climbs steeply from the shore, and there is no zoo or large museum for older children.

Zurich has more to fill the days. There is the zoo with its Madagascar rainforest hall and elephant park, Technorama in Winterthur and the Transport Museum in Lucerne, as well as lidos with shallow areas. Trams that take a pushchair without fuss make it the easier city with small children.

You can walk the centre of either city, but in Lugano the slope gets in the way. The station sits high above the old town, joined by a short funicular, and buses climb to the hillside districts.

Zurich is easier still. Trams reach every neighbourhood, and the S-Bahn, the Uetliberg railway, the funiculars and even the lake boats all run on one integrated ticket. The airport is a short train ride from the main station.

Lugano's Via Nassa and Zurich's Bahnhofstrasse sell the same things, mainly Swiss watches, jewellery and fashion. Lugano's offer is smaller, and its extras are mostly for the table: delicatessens, wine shops, the weekly market and a designer outlet village towards Mendrisio. Serious shoppers end up in Milan.

Bahnhofstrasse is longer and grander, with long-established department stores that Lugano lacks. Zurich also has the boutiques and antique shops of the Niederdorf and the design shops in the viaduct arches of Zurich West.

Neither city is cheap, but Lugano is the slightly gentler bill. Its costs gather around the things you came for: a room by the lake, boat trips to the villages, the funiculars and the rack railway. It also gives you ways to eat well for less, since a grotto meal or a set lunch costs far less than dinner on the promenade, and your hotel stay usually covers regional buses and trains. Italian lakeside towns are a short trip away for a cheaper meal.

In Zurich the expense reaches the ordinary parts of the day as well, from a modest room to a quick lunch or a round of drinks. There is no local equivalent of the grotto, so saving here means doing without rather than finding a cheaper way to do it: a picnic on the lake shore instead of a restaurant, an afternoon at a public lido instead of a spa. A visitor card that combines transport and museum entry does the job Lugano's hotel transport pass does, but there is no Italian border nearby to cross for a cheaper meal.

Most of Lugano's stage life happens at LAC, where the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana plays in a hall with fine acoustics. In summer, Estival Jazz brings free concerts to Piazza della Riforma. Otherwise there are few small venues, and for opera you go to Milan.

Zurich has an opera house of its own on the lake shore, the Opernhaus, with a full season of opera and ballet. It also has the Tonhalle Orchestra and the Schauspielhaus, one of the leading German-language theatres. The Rote Fabrik and the venues of Kreis 4 and 5 add jazz, indie and electronic acts, so evenings out have far more range.

In Lugano, wellness comes from the pace of the place: coffee under the arcades, an afternoon at a lido, a long grotto lunch on a palm-lined shore. Proper spas are mostly in the big lakeside hotels, plus an indoor pool complex near Rivera.

Zurich has real bathing places. There are thermal pools and a rooftop pool in the old Hürlimann brewery vaults, and in winter the wooden bathing houses on the lake and river become saunas with cold dips between sessions. Baden's hot springs, used since Roman times, are twenty minutes away by train.