Piran or Zurich?

Neither place has a proper sandy beach, but Piran is the better place to swim. You climb down ladders into clear Adriatic water from the platforms around the Punta, the sea stays warm right through summer, and if you want sand and sunbeds the shuttle takes you along to Portoroz.

Zurich swims in fresh water: wooden bathing houses and lawned lidos along the lake, and the Letten river baths, where people let the current carry them downstream. It is a pleasant dip after a day of sightseeing, but the water is cooler and the season shorter than on the coast.

Zurich has the wider and more reliable choice. It has veal with rösti and fondue in old guild-house dining rooms, international and casual places around Langstrasse, a fine-dining tier, and chocolate and Luxemburgerli worth a trip in themselves. The drawback is the bill.

Piran keeps things simple: squid, mussels and scampi buzara by the water, olive oil and Refosk from the hills, and salt from the pans next door. It is fresh and good, but the harbour menus soon start to look alike.

Piran's culture is the town itself. You wander the Venetian Gothic lanes, linger on Tartini Square and climb to St George's and the old walls for the view over the roofs. A small maritime museum and a monastery cloister round off a single unhurried day.

Zurich gives you more to see. The Kunsthaus collection, the Swiss National Museum and the Rietberg's world art come on top of an Altstadt that has the Grossmünster, where the Swiss Reformation began, and Chagall's windows in the Fraumünster. You need two or three days to do it justice.

Zurich is in another league after dark. Electronic music is deeply rooted there, clubs in Zurich West and Kreis 4 and 5 run until morning at weekends, Langstrasse stays busy late, and the Street Parade takes over the lake shore every August.

In Piran, an evening means a glass of wine at sunset on the Punta and an early night. For a casino or a summer club you go to Portoroz, and even that is modest.

Piran's outdoors is gentle and coastal. You can paddle beneath the flysch cliffs at Strunjan, watch the wading birds on the Secovlje salt pans, cycle the Parenzana through the vineyards, or drive up to the Karst and the Skocjan caves.

Zurich has far more scale. The Uetliberg ridge starts at the edge of the city, Rigi and Pilatus offer high Alpine hiking within about an hour, and in winter there is skiing at Flumserberg, which nothing near Piran can match.

Both are excellent bases. Zurich has the edge mainly because everything is by train: Lucerne, Bern, Basel, St Gallen and the Rhine Falls are all easy days out, and the lake boat takes you to Rapperswil.

Piran's appeal is three countries within reach: Trieste's coffee houses, Rovinj and Motovun in Croatian Istria, Predjama Castle and summer boats to Venice. With no railway, though, you will mostly need a hire car.

Zurich is better set up for children. The zoo has its indoor rainforest hall and elephant park, the lake lidos have shallow areas, and Technorama and the Swiss Museum of Transport make easy outings by train with a buggy.

Piran works for a few calm days. The old town has no cars, the sea is warm and still, and there is a small aquarium, but the swimming is off concrete ledges and the town soon runs out of things to keep older children busy.

You can walk across Piran's car-free peninsula in a quarter of an hour, and a shuttle runs to Portoroz, so getting about in town is no effort. Going further is the problem: there is no railway, the buses are slow, and the Istrian hill towns really need a car.

Zurich solves all of that. Trams, S-Bahn, funiculars and lake boats share one ticket, the airport is a short train ride away, and you never need to drive.

Zurich is a real shopping city, at least at the top end. Bahnhofstrasse is lined with watchmakers and jewellers, there are design shops under the railway viaduct arches, and the Niederdorf has antique dealers. Piran sells a few crafts, and its best buys are things to eat and drink: salt flower from the Secovlje pans, olive oil and coastal wine.

Piran is much easier on the wallet. Old-town rooms in high summer are the main expense, but staying in Portoroz, eating in konobas and drinking local wine keep costs reasonable, and swimming and walking are free.

Zurich is expensive in almost everything, from a simple hotel room to a casual lunch or a round of drinks. The travel pass, the free lidos and picnics by the lake take the edge off, but only a little.

Zurich gives you a proper season to choose from. There is opera and ballet at the Opernhaus, the Tonhalle Orchestra in its restored hall, theatre at the Schauspielhaus, and jazz and indie gigs at the Rote Fabrik.

Piran's music is mostly a summer thing, with concerts in honour of Tartini in its churches, the cloister and the square. Outside the warm months there is little to go to.

The two are about level, but they relax you in different ways. Piran's wellness comes from the sea and the salt. You can lie in brine and salt-pan mud at the outdoor thalasso spa among the lagoons, use the seawater pools in Portoroz, and enjoy the slow pace of a town without cars, especially in May, June and September.

Zurich's version is thermal and urban. There are pools in the stone vaults of the old Hürlimann brewery, winter saunas in the lake bathing houses with cold plunges in between, and Baden's hot springs a short train ride away.