Aix-en-Provence or Nice?

Nice has the sea at the foot of the city. About 7km of pebble shore runs below the Promenade des Anglais, and the sandier, calmer bays at Villefranche and Beaulieu are a few minutes east by train. In Aix, swimming means a drive or a bus and train to the coves of the Côte Bleue, the city beaches of Marseille or Cassis. All of them are small, rocky and full in August.

In practice, Aix makes for a pool vacation with the odd beach day, while Nice is a beach vacation with a city attached. The water off Nice is also a little warmer in high summer, and the mistral that can chill the sea near Marseille matters less there.

Both eat well in a simple southern way, and the difference is one of character. Aix keeps to the general Provençal table: market produce on Place Richelme, long lunches of daube and tians, rosé from the Coteaux d'Aix and calissons from the old confectioners.

Nice has a cuisine of its own with a Ligurian lean, so it has the edge on identity. Socca from wood ovens is eaten as street food, along with pissaladière and pan bagnat, and the Bellet wines from the hills are rarely seen elsewhere. In both cities the showiest terraces, on the Cours Mirabeau or the promenade, are the places to skip.

These are evenly matched, but they offer different kinds of sightseeing. Aix is about the town itself: fountains on every square, the honey-stone mansions of the Mazarin quarter and the many layers of Saint-Sauveur. Its art centres on one painter, with Cezanne's studio, the Jas de Bouffan and the Bibemus quarries set in the landscape he painted.

Nice spreads across two eras, the Italianate old town of Savoy and the Belle Époque resort of Cimiez and the Russian cathedral. Its art is broader and more modern, with Matisse, Chagall and the Nouveau Réalistes at MAMAC. Either city fills two or three days.

Nice gives you more to do after dinner. The lanes of Vieux Nice fill with pubs and wine bars, the port has quieter grown-up bars, and in summer the beach clubs keep going late. Aix is a student town of terraces around the Forum des Cardeurs. It is lively on warm nights but closes early and goes quiet in the term breaks.

Neither is a clubbing city. From Aix the serious nights are in Marseille, and from Nice they are in Monaco and Cannes.

Aix stands among the limestone of Provence: the long ridge of Sainte-Victoire just east of town, the white cliffs and turquoise inlets of the Calanques, and the vineyard roads of the Luberon and the Alpilles, with the Gorges du Verdon further out. It is walking and cycling country, best reached by car, and in midsummer the massifs can close on high fire-risk days.

At Nice the Alps come right down to the sea, which gives it more height and more water. Coastal paths run round Cap Ferrat, the Mercantour has high lakes and ibex, and in winter you can ski at Isola 2000 in the morning and see the sea by the afternoon. Diving, sailing and paddleboarding all start from town.

Both are excellent bases, for different regions. Aix opens up Roman and rural Provence: Avignon by TGV, the arena at Arles, the Pont du Gard and the Luberon villages such as Gordes and Roussillon. For the villages you really need a car.

Nice strings the Riviera together on one railway line, from Villefranche and Monaco to Menton, Antibes and Cannes, with Èze and Saint-Paul-de-Vence by bus and Italy just over the border. Almost everything is under an hour away, and none of it needs a car.

Nice is the easier choice with children. The Promenade du Paillon has water jets and big playgrounds, Parc Phoenix has animals and greenhouses, and the flat seafront suits bikes and pushchairs. The pebble beaches and the steps in the old town are the main drawbacks.

Aix is safe and largely traffic-free, and its fountains and ice cream go down well with children. Its sights, though, are mansions and museums. Families there tend to rely on a villa pool and drive out to the zoo at La Barben or the coast.

Both centres are easy on foot, but Nice is far simpler once you leave them. Its trams run straight from the airport to the centre and the port, buses climb to Cimiez, and the coastal trains handle most day trips. You need a car only for the mountains.

Aix's compact old town is a pleasure to walk. Beyond it, the TGV station is out on the plateau, Marseille airport is a bus ride away and the villages are poorly served. Most visitors end up hiring a car and hunting for parking.

Aix shops like a market town and Nice like a small city. In Aix the pleasure is in the old lanes around Rue d'Italie and Rue Fabrot, with French shoe and fashion boutiques and delicatessens, and in market days, when fabric, flower and bric-a-brac stalls fill the squares. The chains are kept to the Allées Provençales, and calissons and santons are the things to take home.

Nice has more range. Avenue Jean Médecin is a real high street with a Galeries Lafayette, the big fashion houses sit around rue Paradis, and on Mondays the Cours Saleya turns into a flea and antiques market.

Both are expensive by southern standards, and the costs fall in different places. In Aix the problem is scarce, upmarket rooms, especially during the July opera festival, plus the cost of hiring a car to see the countryside.

In Nice, summer pushes up seafront hotels, and beach loungers add up. On the other hand, cheap trams and coastal trains make day trips inexpensive, and the city's museums cost little to enter. In both, market picnics and back-street lunch menus are the way to save.

Aix is the stronger choice for the performing arts, mainly because of the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence. Every July it stages opera in the open-air courtyard of the Archbishop's Palace. The rest of the year, the Grand Théâtre de Provence hosts touring orchestras and Ballet Preljocaj dances at the Pavillon Noir.

Nice has a solid regional calendar, with the red-and-gold Opéra de Nice and the Nice Jazz Festival in July. Carnival in February is its big public spectacle. Outside those, there is little more than bar music.

Aix was built on warm springs, and that still shows. The Thermes Sextius spa stands on the site of the Roman baths, warm water runs in fountains such as the one on the Cours Mirabeau, and outside July the town is calm.

Nice has no bathing tradition. Spa time there means a seafront hotel or a thalassotherapy centre along the coast. Its restful side is an early swim and an evening walk on the promenade, and the summer crowds make that harder to enjoy.