Trieste or Zurich?

Neither city has sand, but Trieste has the sea. At Barcola you swim from stepped concrete and pine-shaded lawns into a clear Adriatic. The pebble coves at Sistiana and Duino, or Piran across the border, make for a prettier day, and the season runs from June to September.

Zurich swims in its lake and in the Limmat, from wooden bathing houses, lidos and the Letten river baths, where people let the current carry them downstream. It makes a lovely dip after sightseeing, but the season is shorter and there is no coast to explore.

Trieste has the more distinctive table. There are buffet counters carving boiled pork with horseradish, jota soup, sardoni, Central European cakes, a coffee vocabulary of its own, and the Karst osmize selling Vitovska and Terrano. Fine dining is limited, though.

Zurich is polished rather than characterful, with Geschnetzeltes and rösti in the guild houses, fondue in winter and a respectable fine-dining tier. It is stronger on chocolate and the Luxemburgerli of the Paradeplatz tea rooms, but street food and markets are thin and every meal is expensive.

In Trieste the whole city is the sight. Piazza Unità opens onto the sea, the Borgo Teresiano lines the Canal Grande, and San Giusto has its mosaics and castle above a Roman theatre. Miramare Castle, the great synagogue and the Risiera di San Sabba add layers of empire and war.

Zurich is stronger on museums than on streetscape: the Kunsthaus, the Swiss National Museum and the Rietberg, plus a tidy Altstadt with the Grossmünster and Chagall's Fraumünster windows. Its essentials fit comfortably into two or three days, while Trieste's history spreads over more ground.

Zurich is the place for a late night. At weekends the clubs in Kreis 4 and 5 and Zurich West run until morning, Langstrasse stays rough-edged and busy, and every August the Street Parade fills the lake shore with techno. The main brake is the price of a round.

Trieste's evenings are about aperitivo and dinner: spritz around Piazza Unità and in Cavana, a few student wine bars, and summer kiosks along Barcola. There are few clubs, and on winter weeknights the streets are quiet by midnight.

Both cities have mountains nearby, but Zurich's are bigger. Rigi, Pilatus and the Glarus valleys are about an hour away for high-alpine hiking, the Uetliberg is a short train ride from the centre, and in winter Flumserberg is close enough for a day's skiing.

Trieste's outdoors is limestone and sea: the Strada Napoleonica above the gulf, the Rilke Path at Duino, the Val Rosandra gorge, and the Grotta Gigante and Škocjan caves. It also offers sailing and snorkelling in the Miramare reserve, which a lake cannot match, though the Bora can make winter walks bitter.

Both are excellent bases, but they work in different ways. From Trieste your outings reach into three countries: Roman Aquileia with its mosaic floor, star-shaped Palmanova, Cividale and the Collio wine villages in Friuli, Piran and Ljubljana in Slovenia, and the Istrian towns for those with a car. Venice makes a long but realistic day by train.

Zurich is the easier base if you don't want to drive. Trains from the main station reach Lucerne, Bern, Basel and St Gallen's abbey library in about an hour each, the Rhine Falls pair with Stein am Rhein, and boats run up the lake to Rapperswil. Trieste's wine country and Istria, by contrast, are much easier by car.

Zurich makes life with children much simpler. Its zoo has a Madagascar rainforest hall, the lake lidos have shallow areas, the boat trips suit all ages, the Technorama is a short ride away in Winterthur, and the trams take buggies easily.

Trieste is safe and calm but has fewer outings: the gardens at Miramare, the Grotta Gigante, a small aquarium and a science centre. Swimming off rocks and the steep streets behind the waterfront make it better for older children than for toddlers.

Zurich is about as easy as cities get. Trams, the S-Bahn, funiculars and even the lake boats share one ticket, and the airport is a short train ride from the main station.

Trieste takes more effort. Its flat waterfront centre is easy to walk, buses run out to Barcola, Miramare and the Karst, and boats cross to Muggia. But San Giusto means long flights of steps, and you will want a car for the wine country and trips across the border.

Zurich is the shopping city of the two, mainly thanks to the watchmakers, jewellers and department stores of Bahnhofstrasse. It also has design shops in the viaduct arches of Zurich West and boutiques in the Niederdorf, though prices are high everywhere.

Trieste has ordinary chain shops on Corso Italia. Its charm is in the antique shops of the old town and in things to eat and drink: roasted coffee, Karst wine and honey, and presnitz.

Trieste is far easier on the wallet. Buffet plates, coffee at the bar and buses cost little, rooms are reasonable except in high summer and around the regatta, and the best pleasures, Barcola and the Karst paths, are free.

Zurich is among the most expensive places in the world to visit, from the simplest hotel room to a casual lunch. Supermarket picnics by the lake and the free lidos help, but the same trip will cost far more there.

Zurich has the deeper stage. The Opernhaus is one of Europe's most respected opera houses, the Tonhalle Orchestra plays in a restored nineteenth-century hall, and the Schauspielhaus is a leading German-language theatre. Rote Fabrik and the venues of Kreis 4 and 5 cover jazz, indie and electronic music.

Trieste holds its own on opera, with the Teatro Verdi's season, a Habsburg love of operetta and summer concerts in the castle courtyard on San Giusto. Beyond the theatres, live music is thin.

For proper bathing, Zurich wins. There are thermal pools and a rooftop pool in the vaults of the old Hürlimann brewery, winter saunas in the lake bathing houses with cold plunges in between, and Baden's hot springs, in use since Roman times, twenty minutes away.

Trieste offers a slow pace rather than spas: long sittings in coffee houses and sunset strolls along the Molo Audace. For thermal baths you have to leave the city.