Andorra la Vella or Montpellier?

Andorra la Vella has no beach at all. It lies deep in a Pyrenean valley about three hours by road from the Mediterranean, and its mountain lakes are too cold for a real swim, so warm water means a pool or the Caldea lagoons.

Montpellier has a proper coast within easy reach. Palavas-les-Flots and Carnon are about 11km away, and the sand runs on to La Grande-Motte and the dunes of l'Espiguette. The water is shallow and gently shelving, which suits easy swimming. It is good for a few beach days in a city stay, not for a beach vacation.

Andorra la Vella feeds you well after a day outdoors. The meals worth finding are escudella stew, trinxat and lamb grilled over a wood fire in the bordas, the old stone barns of the side valleys. In town, the restaurants along the shopping avenues are uneven.

Montpellier is the better place to travel for the food. Pic Saint-Loup wines and oysters from the Thau lagoon arrive from just outside the city, and Sète's tielle and Nîmes' brandade appear on local menus. The Halles Castellane, the Arceaux market and the counters at the Halles Laissac give you good market cooking and plenty of cheap student places to eat.

Andorra la Vella's heritage takes about a day. The Barri Antic, with the fortified Casa de la Vall, is the core, and the Romanesque churches in the valleys, such as Santa Coloma with its round tower, are the main reason to go further. The rest of the town is mostly shops and apartment blocks.

Montpellier has far more to see. The car-free Écusson hides courtyards behind its stone mansions. The Peyrou terrace looks down the Saint-Clément aqueduct, and the Jardin des Plantes is the oldest botanical garden in France. The Musée Fabre's collection, from the Flemish masters to Soulages, and Bofill's Antigone district are enough to fill two or three days.

After dark, Andorra la Vella is a place for a quiet drink in a pub or wine bar. Most visitors have been skiing or shopping all day and go to bed early, and the real après-ski happens up in the resort villages, not in the capital.

Montpellier's large student population keeps it lively on weeknights too. People fill the bars around Place Jean-Jaurès and in the squares of the Écusson, and later move on by taxi to clubs towards Lattes and the coast. It is loud and casual rather than polished, and it is quieter outside term time.

Andorra la Vella has the bigger landscape. Peaks near 3,000 m surround the town, the glacial Madriu-Perafita-Claror valley begins almost at the edge of town, and the same mountains give you skiing in winter and hiking, mountain biking and refuges in summer.

Montpellier's nature is Mediterranean and spread out. To the south are lagoons with flamingos, with the Camargue about an hour away. To the north are the garrigue, the climb up Pic Saint-Loup and the Hérault gorges for canoeing. It also offers flat coastal cycling and kitesurfing, which Andorra cannot.

From Andorra la Vella the best outings are modest: La Seu d'Urgell's cathedral and market half an hour south, Puigcerdà and Llívia on the Cerdanya plateau, or Foix castle about two hours away in France. Once you have done those, there is little else.

Montpellier is one of the best bases in southern France for day trips. Nîmes and the Pont du Gard are close by. Arles and Avignon are about an hour away, and Carcassonne is an easy train ride. Sète, Aigues-Mortes and Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert fill the nearer days, though a car helps with the smaller places.

Both work with children, but in different ways. Andorra la Vella suits families who come for the mountains: ski schools, gentle beginner slopes, summer toboggan runs and rope courses, and Caldea's family pools on a wet day. Without skiing or hiking, older children may soon get bored on the long, busy shopping street.

Montpellier offers a little more. It has a pedestrian old town and trams that are easy with a pushchair. The Lunaret zoo and the aquarium and planetarium at Odysseum help, and calm beaches suit small swimmers. Midsummer heat in the centre is the main drawback.

Andorra la Vella's centre is easy to walk and runs straight on into Escaldes-Engordany, and buses link the parishes and the slopes. But the country has no railway, so arriving means a long road trip from airports in Spain or France. The valley road often jams at weekends, and a car is the easier way to reach the trailheads.

Montpellier is far simpler. Trams link the station, the old town, Antigone and Odysseum. Fast trains reach Nîmes, Avignon and Carcassonne, and the car-free centre is easy to cover on foot. You only really need a car for the hills and the Camargue.

For shopping, Andorra la Vella is the stronger choice in one particular way. Low taxes have turned its main avenues into an unbroken strip of perfume, electronics, watches, spirits and above all ski and outdoor gear, which is ideal for stocking up but has almost no local character.

Montpellier is more charming but less useful for bargains. It has boutiques, bookshops and delicatessens in the Écusson lanes, plus the Polygone mall. The best things to take home are wine, olive oil and honey from the markets.

Overall the two cost about the same. What differs is the time of year when each gets expensive. In Andorra la Vella that is the high ski season, when hotels fill and charge accordingly, and ski passes, equipment hire and the spa cost what they would in any mountain resort. Outside the peak ski weeks, rooms are often good value, and low taxes keep spirits and tobacco cheap.

Montpellier is most expensive in July and August, when rooms in town and along the coast cost noticeably more. For the rest of the year, student-priced bars and food counters, the market halls and lunch menus help a tight budget. Restaurant dinners with wine are where the bill adds up.

Outside summer, you won't find much music or theatre in Andorra la Vella. The calendar comes alive for a few months, with the jazz festival in Escaldes-Engordany, the classical festival in Ordino and open-air shows in the capital. The rest of the year brings only the odd concert in the congress hall.

Montpellier has a full season. The Opéra Comédie and the Opéra Berlioz share opera, ballet and concerts by the national orchestra. Contemporary dance is the city's speciality, led by the Montpellier Danse festival. In summer, the Radio France festival and the Printemps des Comédiens at the Domaine d'O add many outdoor performances.

For a long soak in warm water, Andorra la Vella is the better bet. Hot springs in Escaldes-Engordany feed Caldea, the thermal complex under the glass spire. Its lagoons, saunas and adults-only section make a natural end to a day on the slopes. The busy avenues are not restful, though, so for real quiet head out to the villages in the side valleys.

Montpellier has no thermal water of its own. Its wellness options are hotel and day spas, or a half-hour trip to Balaruc-les-Bains on the Thau lagoon. What relaxes visitors here is the slow pace: long lunches and evenings on shaded terraces.