Andorra la Vella or Marseille?

Andorra la Vella has no beach to offer. The Mediterranean is about three hours away by road, and its glacial lakes are for looking at rather than swimming in, so warm water means a pool or the Caldea lagoons.

Marseille has a real seafront. The Prado beaches of shingle and sand are good for families, small coves like the Vallon des Auffes are popular for a swim before work, and the clear inlets of the Calanques and the Frioul islands are a half-day trip. The mistral can chill the water overnight, but from June to September swimming is an everyday pleasure.

Marseille is the place to travel for the food. Bouillabaisse eaten slowly in a Corniche harbour, chickpea panisses, navette biscuits, and the spice shops and grocers of Noailles give it a range a mountain capital cannot match, though the set menus around the Vieux-Port are best avoided.

Andorra la Vella feeds you well after a day outdoors rather than giving you a reason to come. The meals worth remembering are found in the bordas of the side valleys: escudella, trinxat and lamb grilled over wood fires. Back in town, the restaurants along the shopping avenues vary a great deal.

Andorra la Vella's heritage takes about a day. It covers the stone lanes of the Barri Antic, the fortified Casa de la Vall where the parliament sat for centuries, and Romanesque churches such as Santa Coloma just outside town.

Marseille has more than two and a half thousand years of history, although it is spread through a working city rather than kept in a preserved core. Notre-Dame de la Garde looks down on the forts of the Vieux-Port and the MuCEM. Le Panier holds the Vieille Charité, and further out are Saint-Victor's crypts, the Château d'If and Le Corbusier's Cité Radieuse. Even a long weekend leaves plenty unseen.

In Andorra la Vella, evenings mean a pub or a wine bar and an early night. The capital's bars liven up a little on winter weekends, but the real après-ski happens up in the resort villages.

Marseille goes out properly and informally. Graffiti-covered bars and pavement tables around Cours Julien and La Plaine stay full until late, people drink pastis on terraces along the Vieux-Port, and summer brings warehouse electronic nights and rooftop parties. Some central streets feel edgy late at night, so a taxi home is sensible.

Both cities have outstanding landscapes on the doorstep, but of very different kinds. Andorra la Vella is a high Pyrenean world of peaks near 3,000m. It offers skiing in winter and, from late spring, trails to glacial lakes and refuges, with the UNESCO-listed Madriu-Perafita-Claror valley starting at the edge of town.

Marseille's wild country is coastal and sun-baked. The Calanques national park offers white limestone ridges, a celebrated coastal path, sport climbing on the cliffs, and kayaking and diving among the inlets, with Sainte-Victoire and the Sainte-Baume forest within an hour. In summer, heat and fire risk can close Marseille's massifs, while Andorra's high passes keep their snow late into spring.

Marseille is a much better base for day trips. Aix-en-Provence and Cassis are close, Arles and Avignon are each about an hour by train, and Nîmes, the Pont du Gard, the Luberon villages and the Bandol vineyards all fit into a day.

From Andorra la Vella the choice is pleasant but limited. La Seu d'Urgell's cathedral and market are about half an hour away, Puigcerdà and the enclave of Llívia take about an hour, and Foix's castle is a two-hour drive over the pass into France.

Each city works for children only in a particular way. Andorra la Vella is safe and clean, with ski schools, gentle beginner slopes, summer toboggan runs, rope courses, an animal park and Caldea's family pools for a wet day. Away from the mountains, though, the long, traffic-heavy shopping street soon bores older children.

Marseille's appeal for families is the summer seaside: the Prado beaches, the lake and lawns of Parc Borély, and boat trips to the Château d'If. Steep streets, heat and narrow pavements make a buggy hard work. Neither city has a zoo, aquarium or theme park.

Both have walkable centres with steep stretches, but transport works differently in each. Andorra la Vella relies on buses up the valleys and ski buses in winter, and with no railway in the country, getting there means a long road journey from airports in Spain or France. A car helps for the trailheads.

Marseille has a main railway station, two metro lines, trams and small ferries across the Vieux-Port and out to the beaches. The beaches and Calanques trailheads are spread out, though, and the buses that serve them get caught in traffic.

For buying things, Andorra la Vella comes out ahead. Its low-tax avenues run unbroken into Escaldes-Engordany, lined with department stores and shops selling ski gear, outdoor equipment, perfume, electronics and spirits. It is a place to stock up, not to discover anything, as there are few independents and almost no local crafts.

Marseille is better for character. You can pick up green cubes of olive-oil soap and santon figures from workshops around Le Panier, or browse the fabrics and kitchenware of Noailles. Its fashion offer runs out quickly beyond Rue Paradis and the centre at La Joliette.

Andorra la Vella is a little easier on the budget. Rooms are good value outside the peak ski weeks, the set lunches are fair, and low taxes keep drinks and shopping cheap, although ski passes, equipment hire and Caldea cost what mountain resorts usually charge.

Marseille's savings lie in its street food, cheap transport and free walks in the Calanques. Rooms near the Vieux-Port and the beaches go up sharply in July and August.

Marseille offers a real choice of evenings: the art deco Opéra, serious drama at La Criée in the old fish market, and contemporary work at the Friche la Belle de Mai. It also has deep roots in French hip-hop and Mediterranean music, celebrated each autumn at the Fiesta des Suds.

Andorra la Vella mostly comes alive for music in summer, with the jazz festival in Escaldes-Engordany and the classical festival in Ordino. For the rest of the year, there is little more than the occasional concert in the town's halls.

Andorra la Vella has the stronger offer here, thanks to one place: Caldea. Hot springs feed its lagoons, pools and saunas, and there is a quieter adults-only section, just along the river from the centre. For real quiet, though, head to the stone villages of the side valleys rather than the busy avenues.

Marseille has no bathing culture beyond a few local hammams, and its centre is noisy. The calm moments here are a long harbour lunch on the Corniche or a night in Cassis.