Munich or Zermatt?

Neither place is a beach destination, but Munich at least gives you a summer swim. People sunbathe on the gravel banks of the Isar at the Flaucher, and the Starnberger See and the Ammersee are a short S-Bahn ride away, with lawns and jetties.

Zermatt has no bathing lake at all. The tarns above the village are snowmelt, far too cold to swim in, so the only option is a hotel pool.

Munich has more variety and more cheap food. It has beer halls and chestnut-shaded beer gardens, roast pork and white sausage, the Viktualienmarkt for snacking, a serious afternoon cake culture and some starred restaurants, though cuisines from further afield are thinner on the ground.

Zermatt's best meals are on the mountain: raclette, fondue and air-dried beef on chalet terraces at Findeln or Zum See, with Petite Arvine or Cornalin in the glass. The menus are narrow, eating cheaply is hard, and many kitchens close between seasons.

Munich is far ahead. The Alte Pinakothek, the Glyptothek and the Lenbachhaus's Blue Rider paintings in the Kunstareal, the Wittelsbach state rooms of the Residenz, Nymphenburg and the Deutsches Museum could fill a week of sightseeing.

Zermatt's heritage is all about climbing. The Matterhorn Museum tells the story of the 1865 first ascent, the mountaineers' cemetery holds climbers who died on the peaks, and the old larch barns of the Hinterdorf stand on stilts. Together they make a pleasant morning, not a reason to go.

Munich gives you more choice of where to go after dark: beer halls, cocktail and gay bars around Gärtnerplatz, student pubs in Schwabing and a few techno clubs that run until dawn at weekends, plus the Oktoberfest each autumn. It is still a fairly orderly city.

Zermatt's nightlife is almost entirely winter après-ski. Slope-side bars fill up in ski boots in the late afternoon, and a few main-street clubs stay open after midnight. In summer the hikers go to bed early.

Zermatt is one of the great Alpine bases, which is hard for a city to match. Lifts take you to the Gornergrat and the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise, the skiing links into Italy, and summer brings the Five Lakes walk, the Europaweg suspension bridge, marmots and ibex, and guided ascents of four-thousanders.

Munich still does well for a city. The English Garden and its Eisbach surfers are in town, cycle paths follow the Isar, and Garmisch, the Zugspitze and Tegernsee are an hour or so away by train. The mountains are a day out from Munich rather than the view from your window.

Munich is an excellent base for day trips. Augsburg, Nuremberg, Regensburg, Salzburg and Innsbruck are all reachable by train, and Neuschwanstein and Herrenchiemsee are classic royal outings.

Zermatt is at the end of a valley, and every outing starts with over an hour on the narrow-gauge train. Sion, with its castle hills and vineyards, is the best of the trips, and Brig and Saas-Fee are pleasant. Most visitors stay up in the mountains instead.

Munich has far more made for children: the Hellabrunn zoo along the Isar meadows, the children's area of the Deutsches Museum, the transport museum, an aquarium and beer gardens with playgrounds, with Legoland within reach by car.

Zermatt's strength is that it is car-free and calm. There are nursery slopes at Sunnegga, marmots to spot and cog railways to ride. Beyond that there is little to occupy children on a wet day, and the thin air at the top viewpoints can be hard on small children.

Both are easy to get around without a car. Munich adds a full network of U-Bahn, S-Bahn and trams that reaches Nymphenburg, the Olympic Park, the airport and the lakes, around a pedestrianised old town.

Zermatt is just a short walkable strip, with electric taxis and lifts that start from the centre. The catches are the change of train at Täsch, steep climbs with luggage to hotels on the slopes, and over an hour by train to leave the valley.

Shopping is a real part of a Munich trip. Luxury houses line Maximilianstrasse and the Theatinerstrasse arcades, department stores and chains run along the pedestrianised Kaufingerstrasse, and Glockenbach and Schwabing have the independent design boutiques. The souvenir with the most character is Tracht from a specialist tailor, a dirndl or lederhosen made to fit, and the centuries-old Dallmayr food hall and the December Christmas markets give you more to browse.

In Zermatt, shopping is more of an errand along one street from the station to the church. Most windows show Swiss watches, cowbells and chocolate. The one good reason to shop is the mountain gear, which is well chosen if you have arrived without the right boots or crampons.

Neither is cheap, but Munich is easier on the wallet. Hotels are the main expense and rise sharply around the Oktoberfest and trade fairs, while beer-hall meals, picnics in beer gardens, free parks and lakes and sensibly priced transport help balance the bill.

In Zermatt nearly everything costs a lot: plain rooms, terrace lunches and the lift passes that every visit depends on. Self-catering and staying down the valley in Täsch are the only real ways to save.

Munich is one of Europe's great music cities. The Bavarian State Opera plays at the National Theatre and the Cuvilliés Theatre, there are three orchestras of real standing, operetta at the Gärtnerplatztheater, jazz clubs, and big concerts at the Olympic Park.

Zermatt has no theatre or concert hall. Its two festivals, acoustic sets at Zermatt Unplugged in spring and chamber music in the church in late summer, are worth planning around, but outside those weeks the only live music is a band in an après-ski bar.

Munich has a real public bathing culture: the Art Nouveau pools of the Müller'sches Volksbad, textile-free saunas with infusion rituals, the huge thermal complex at Erding and spa towns like Bad Tölz nearby. Lazy beer-garden afternoons and quiet Sundays slow the pace too.

Zermatt's version is the private hotel spa, often with a Matterhorn view, plus clean air and car-free quiet. The mood is active rather than restful, and there are no thermal springs in the village.