Antibes or Basel?

This is where Antibes leaves Basel well behind. It has sandy, gently shelving beaches at Juan-les-Pins and La Salis, snorkelling coves like La Garoupe, and flat rocks around the cape for diving into clear water, all in a sea that stays warm for four months. Expect beach clubs on much of the sand and crowded free stretches in high summer.

Basel offers something quite different. You walk up the Kleinbasel bank with a waterproof bag and drift back past the old town on the Rhine current, then dry off on the gravelly banks. It is memorable, but it is only for confident swimmers and for a short summer season.

Neither town is a food destination, and both eat well on what their region gives them. Antibes is Niçoise and outdoors: the Cours Masséna market each morning, socca and pissaladière, grilled fish and rosé on a terrace, with tourist menus to avoid near the port.

Basel's table borrows from three countries. You will find tarte flambée from Alsace, Baden wines and Swiss-German comfort food, with a small fine-dining tier and the Markthalle for casual meals. Everyday meals can feel dear for what they are.

Basel is far the richer of the two. The Kunstmuseum's Holbeins and Old Masters, the Fondation Beyeler in its Renzo Piano building, the Museum Tinguely and the Vitra Design Museum would justify a trip on their own. The Münster, the painted Rathaus and the Spalentor give the old town real substance.

Antibes has one outstanding sight, the Picasso Museum in the Château Grimaldi, which holds the work he made there in 1946. Add Fort Carré, the ramparts and Villa Eilenroc, and two days is enough.

Both are quiet places after dark, but the evenings feel different. In Antibes, nightlife belongs to July and August, with beach bars and a few late clubs in Juan-les-Pins and yacht-crew pubs near Port Vauban. Out of season much of it shuts, and for a bigger night out people go to Nice.

Basel is steadier through the year. Bars cluster around the Kaserne, and a few clubs in old harbour buildings play electronic music. In summer people drink on the Rhine steps late into the evening. Its one great night out is Fasnacht, three days of drums and lanterns in late winter.

Antibes has the edge, mainly because of the sea. The coastal path round Cap d'Antibes, snorkelling and diving in clear water, sailing in the bay, the red cliffs of the Esterel and the gorges and pre-Alps above Grasse give real variety within an hour.

Basel's outdoors is about woods and hills rather than water. The Jura, the Black Forest and the Vosges all lie close, with marked trails and some light skiing, and flat Rhine paths lead by bike into Germany and France. Walkers and cyclists will enjoy it, but it has none of the Riviera's coastline.

Both make excellent bases, and the choice is about what kind of trips you want. From Antibes, the coastal railway strings together Nice, Cannes, Villefranche, Monaco and Menton. Boats cross to the Lérins Islands, and the hill villages of Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Eze and Grasse sit inland.

Basel's day trips cross borders instead. Colmar and the Alsace wine villages, Strasbourg, Freiburg and the Black Forest are all close, and so are Lucerne, Bern and Zurich, with the Rhine Falls a little further. They give you a wider mix of countries, while Antibes keeps you within one stretch of coast.

Basel is slightly easier with children overall. The Zolli is one of Europe's best zoos, there are natural history and toy museums for wet days and current-pulled ferries across the Rhine, and the trams take prams. Europa-Park is about an hour away by car.

Antibes rests almost entirely on its beaches, though for small children those are a real asset. The sand shelves gently at Juan-les-Pins and La Salis, which Basel's fast river cannot match. Beyond swimming, boats in the port and the boat trip to the Lérins Islands are the main outings.

Basel is effortless to get around. Its trams cover the city and cross into Germany and France, hotel guests travel on them free, and the main station sends direct trains to three countries, so a car is never needed.

Antibes works well on foot and along the coastal railway. The old town, the market and the port are close together, and Nice and Monaco are an easy train ride. Getting to the cape, the hill villages or the Esterel is slow by bus, though, and summer traffic and parking on the coast road are a real nuisance.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Basel gives you a little more to browse. Freie Strasse and Gerbergasse have Swiss watchmakers and chocolatiers, Spalenberg has design and craft shops, and the Christmas market around the Münster is a pretty one.

Antibes is smaller in scale and more Provençal. The covered market is the place for olive oil, herbs and soaps, and the old town has boutiques selling linens and ceramics. For fashion, people go to Cannes or Nice.

Both are costly, but Basel is the steeper bill by some way. Hotels, meals, drinks and museum tickets cost Swiss prices all year, and rooms get scarce during the big trade fairs. Free transport for hotel guests and cheaper meals just over the border help a little.

Antibes is expensive mainly in July and August, when rooms near the beaches and on the cape cost resort rates. In spring and autumn prices fall sharply, the regional trains are good value, and buying food at the market keeps costs down.

Basel has a proper year-round stage. Theater Basel puts on opera, ballet and drama, the Stadtcasino is home to the city's symphony and chamber orchestras, and early-music concerts add something unusual. The season runs from autumn to early summer.

Antibes has a single highlight, Jazz à Juan. Founded in 1960, it fills the Pinède Gould by the sea each July. Outside that week the Anthéa theatre carries a regional programme, and for opera you would go to Nice.

Basel makes the better base for a spa day. The saline thermal baths at Rheinfelden are about twenty minutes away, and the German spa towns of southern Baden are close, with warm mineral pools and saunas. The city itself moves at a calm pace, with quiet Sundays and a riverside made for doing nothing.

Antibes offers thalassotherapy and the hotel spas on the cape. Its restfulness depends on the season, gentle in May, June and September, but much less so when summer crowds and traffic arrive.