Portofino or Zurich?

Portofino has the sea, and that decides it. You swim from ladders and rock platforms in very clear water on the way to the lighthouse, at the small bay of Paraggi, or from the pebbles below the abbey at San Fruttuoso, which you reach by boat. The water stays warm from June into early October. The drawback is that every spot is small, and most of the sand at Paraggi is taken by paid loungers.

Zurich's lake and river are lovely for a summer dip, whether from the wooden bathing houses at Utoquai or drifting down the Limmat at Letten. But the season is short and you lie on grass and decking, so it is a swim between museums rather than a reason to come.

Zurich gives you more choice, if not more character. You can eat veal in cream sauce with rösti in old Altstadt taverns, fondue in winter, Luxemburgerli in the Paradeplatz tea rooms, and casual international food in Kreis 4 and 5, with a respectable fine-dining tier on top.

Portofino's strength is Ligurian cooking: pesto trofie, cheese focaccia from Recco and fritto misto. In the village itself, though, it comes from a few harbourside terraces where you pay more for the view than the cooking deserves. People who care about food go to Camogli or the trattorie in the hills.

Zurich is far richer in sights. It has major collections at the Kunsthaus, the Swiss National Museum and the Museum Rietberg, and an old town around the Grossmünster and Fraumünster, where the Swiss Reformation began, that rewards two or three days.

In Portofino the village itself is the sight: coloured houses around the harbour, San Giorgio, Castello Brown and the walk to the abbey of San Fruttuoso. There is no museum of note, and a day covers it.

Portofino's evenings mean a dressed-up aperitivo and dinner at the bars and terraces facing the yachts. After that there is little, and outside July and August the village goes quiet early. For a real night out you have to go to Santa Margherita or Genoa.

Zurich has a proper club scene. Electronic music fills Kreis 4 and 5 and the old industrial halls of Zurich West until morning at weekends, Langstrasse keeps its bars busy late, and in summer people drink in the lake bathing houses. The high price of a round is what cuts nights short.

Both are excellent for the outdoors, in very different ways. Portofino offers the sea: a protected headland where trails, some with chains, run high above the water to San Fruttuoso and Punta Chiappa, and a marine reserve with red coral walls and the Christ of the Abyss for divers.

Zurich offers lake and mountains: promenades along the shore, the Uetliberg ridge straight from the city, and Rigi, Pilatus and the ski slopes of Flumserberg within about an hour. Choose Portofino for coastal walking and diving, Zurich for alpine hiking and a winter day on skis.

Both make good bases, but Zurich, at the hub of the Swiss rail network, reaches further with less effort. Lucerne, Bern, Basel and St Gallen are each about an hour away, the Rhine Falls and Stein am Rhein lie to the north, and the trains run all year.

Portofino's outings are more scenic along the way: boats down the Riviera di Levante to Camogli and Portovenere, summer ferries to the Cinque Terre, and Genoa within the hour. Once the ferries stop for the season, getting around takes more planning.

Zurich is much easier with children. It is clean and orderly, the zoo and its Madagascar hall fill a day, the lidos have shallow water and lawns, and the Technorama and the Swiss Museum of Transport are short train rides away.

Portofino is safe, and children enjoy the boats and the castle walk, but there are no playgrounds, the steep steps defeat pushchairs and most of the sand is in paid clubs. Families usually stay in Rapallo and make the trip to Genoa's aquarium.

Zurich is about as easy as a city gets. The centre is walkable, trams reach every district, and one ticket covers trains, funiculars, the Uetliberg line and the lake boats, with the airport a short ride away.

Portofino takes a few minutes to cross on foot, though the climbs to the church and castle are steep. The hard part is getting there, along a single narrow road from Santa Margherita with crowded summer buses and almost no parking. From spring to autumn the ferries are often the better way in.

Both have the big luxury names, but Zurich has much more around them. Bahnhofstrasse runs from the station to the lake past watchmakers, jewellers and long-established department stores. The Niederdorf lanes and the viaduct arches in Zurich West add antiques, design shops and a covered food market.

Portofino has a few lanes behind the piazzetta with fashion and jewellery boutiques, resort wear, lace and jars of pesto. You can see it all in under an hour, and for anything more people go to Chiavari or Genoa.

Both are very expensive, but Portofino's costs are easier to get around. Its few hotels are luxury addresses and the piazzetta charges for its view, but walking the headland and riding the local bus cost little. Most visitors sleep in Santa Margherita, Rapallo or Camogli, eat there too and come over for the day.

Zurich offers no such escape, because the whole city is dear. A simple room, a casual lunch, a round of drinks, transport and museums all cost a lot. Supermarket picnics by the lake, the free lidos and drinking fountains and the visitor card that combines transport and museum entry soften the bill, but only a little.

Zurich has a serious stage life. The Opernhaus puts on opera and ballet, the Tonhalle Orchestra plays its restored hall and the Schauspielhaus produces leading German-language theatre. For jazz, indie and electronic acts there are the Rote Fabrik and the venues of Kreis 4 and 5.

Portofino has almost nothing beyond the odd summer concert in the piazzetta or at the castle. Opera or a concert means an evening at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa.

Zurich has more places to actually bathe. There are thermal pools in the stone vaults of the old Hürlimann brewery, winter saunas in the wooden lake and river baths with cold dips between sessions, and the Roman spa town of Baden twenty minutes away by train.

Portofino has only its hotel spas, and its calm comes from the setting: quiet mornings, long lunches by the water and shaded paths. It is most restful away from the midday summer crowds that come off the tour boats.