Annecy or Nice?

Nice has the better beaches. The city faces the open Mediterranean along a long pebble shore, private clubs rent loungers that make the stones comfortable, and the sandy coves at Villefranche, Beaulieu and Juan-les-Pins are within easy reach. Swimming is good from June to October.

Annecy offers lake bathing instead: grassy lawns at Albigny and the Marquisats, with short strips of shingle and jetties into very clean green-blue water. The village beaches at Talloires and Menthon-Saint-Bernard are pretty, but the water only stays warm for about ten weeks of summer.

Nice is the better place to eat. Its Ligurian-leaning cooking gives you socca hot from wood ovens, pissaladière, pan bagnat and stuffed vegetables, which work as easy street food and light lunches in warm weather. The Bellet wines from the hills are a local rarity.

Annecy's Savoyard cooking is built around fondue, raclette and tartiflette, with lake fish such as féra and char for a lighter meal. The arcaded markets are excellent, but the canal-side menus repeat each other, and heavy melted cheese is a hard sell in July. In both places the best cooking is away from the tourist terraces: in Annecy's lake villages, and in Nice's family places around Vieux Nice and the port.

Nice has much more to see. There are two layers of history: the Italianate lanes and baroque chapels of Vieux Nice, and the grand villas and Russian cathedral of the Belle Époque resort. On top of that comes a serious art collection, with Matisse in Cimiez, Chagall's biblical cycle and Yves Klein at MAMAC.

Annecy's main sight is the canal-lined old town itself, with the island Palais de l'Isle and the château museum above it. It is a beautiful place for an unhurried day, but there is little beyond that day.

Neither is a clubbing destination, but Nice keeps going later. Vieux Nice's lanes fill with wine bars and cocktail bars, the port has more grown-up bars, and summer beach clubs keep the seafront busy, with Monaco and Cannes close by for glossier nights.

Annecy's evenings are a drink by the canals or the lake. Outside summer the town is mostly asleep by midnight, and a real night out means going to Geneva or Lyon.

Annecy has the stronger outdoor setting, mainly because everything starts on the doorstep. You can walk from town up Mont Baron or Mont Veyrier, the Tournette and the Bauges give full mountain days, and paragliders launch above Talloires. Cycling, rowing and sailing on the lake are just as easy, and the Aravis ski slopes are under an hour away.

Nice offers a different mix of sea and mountains: coastal paths around Cap Ferrat, cycling on the corniches, diving, and the Mercantour's high lakes about two hours inland. The range is wide, but the real wilderness is further away, and summer heat limits walking in the middle of the day.

Both are good bases for day trips, but Nice has more variety close by. Monaco, Èze, Villefranche, Menton, Antibes, Cannes, Grasse and Sanremo across the Italian border are mostly under an hour away by train or bus, and each feels quite different.

Annecy's best outings are Geneva, Chambéry, Aix-les-Bains and Chamonix under Mont Blanc, with Yvoire and Évian on Lake Geneva. They are rewarding, but they are more spread out, and several work best by car.

Families do about equally well in both, but the days look different. Annecy is a summer playground: pedal boats, lake cruises, the flat shore cycle path, and toboggan runs and treetop courses in the hills, plus a flat old town that is easy with a pushchair.

Nice works better for city days with children, with the water jets and playgrounds of the Promenade du Paillon, the animals at Parc Phoenix and the Oceanographic Museum in Monaco. Its pebble beaches and the stepped lanes of Vieux Nice are harder going with little ones.

Nice is easier without a car. Trams link the airport, the centre and the port, buses climb to Cimiez, and the coastal trains reach most day-trip towns. You only need a car for the mountains.

Annecy's centre is small and easy to walk, and summer lake boats and the shore bike path help. The mountains are the catch: trailheads, passes and Chamonix are much simpler by car, which matters in a town people visit mainly for the outdoors.

Nice has more shopping. Avenue Jean Médecin is the high street, the luxury houses are around rue Paradis, Vieux Nice sells olive oil, soaps and Provençal fabrics, and there is a Monday antiques market on the Cours Saleya.

Annecy's shopping is mostly edible: Reblochon, sausages, génépi and honey from the market stalls, plus a few independent boutiques and kitchenware shops along rue Sainte-Claire. Serious shoppers head to Geneva.

Both are expensive, and summer is the dearest time in each. Annecy's costs are pushed up by wealthy Geneva next door, but its main pleasures cost little or nothing: the lake beaches, the trails and the cycle path.

Nice saves you money in other ways. Cheap trams and coastal trains keep day trips affordable, the city museums cost little to enter, and socca and market picnics replace pricey seafront meals. In both, a self-catering flat or an off-season visit eases the bill.

Nice has the fuller programme. Its nineteenth-century opera house stages opera, ballet and the Philharmonic, the Nice Jazz Festival is one of Europe's oldest, and the February Carnival has parades and flower battles.

Annecy's performing arts centre on Bonlieu by the lake, with contemporary theatre, dance and circus, plus a summer classical festival and the August fireworks of the Fête du Lac. For opera or a major orchestra you go to Geneva or Lyon.

Annecy is the better place to unwind. Mornings by the water and long lunches in the lake villages are naturally calm. There are quiet hotel spas around Talloires, and real thermal bathing at Aix-les-Bains or Saint-Gervais is close.

Nice relies on seafront hotel spas and the thalassotherapy centres along the coast. Its rhythm is restful mainly out of season, while summer heat and crowds take the calm away. July and August are busy in Annecy too, but the mountains are always a short drive away.