Antibes or Marseille?

Antibes has the better beaches for an ordinary day by the sea. Juan-les-Pins and La Salis are real sand that shelves gently, with the ramparts across the bay. Cap d'Antibes adds rocky coves such as La Garoupe, with very clear water. The catch is that private beach clubs take much of the sand, and the free stretches fill early in high summer.

Marseille's city beaches at the Prado are shingle and imported sand, fine for local families but plainer. Its best swimming is in the Calanques, more dramatic than anything around Antibes but reached on foot or by boat. The mistral can also chill the water from one day to the next.

Marseille is the stronger place to eat, and the more varied. It has bouillabaisse served properly in the Corniche harbours, panisses and wood-fired pizza for everyday meals, and the Noailles market with its Comorian and Armenian grocers. Fish is sold on the Vieux-Port quay every morning, so the city has the range of a large Mediterranean port.

Antibes keeps to a narrower Niçoise table: socca, pissaladière, stuffed vegetables, the morning market on Cours Masséna and a few fine tables on the cape. It is pleasant if you choose carefully, but it is not a reason to come.

Marseille has much more to see, though it is spread through a working city rather than a preserved old centre. The MuCEM is linked by footbridge to Fort Saint-Jean, Notre-Dame de la Garde stands on its hill, and Le Panier holds the Vieille Charité. Further out are the crypts of Saint-Victor and Le Corbusier's Cité Radieuse, and as France's oldest city it has history going back to its Greek founders.

Antibes has one outstanding sight, the Picasso Museum in the Château Grimaldi, along with a pretty walled old town and the star-shaped Fort Carré. It fills a couple of days, where Marseille can fill a week.

Marseille has the livelier night out, and one that lasts longer through the year. Students and locals fill the graffitied bars and pavement tables of Cours Julien and La Plaine, the Vieux-Port terraces carry on after the pastis hour, and warehouse electronic nights add a club side. Some streets do feel edgy late at night.

Antibes is mainly a summer affair: beach bars and a few clubs in Juan-les-Pins in July and August, and yacht crews in the pubs near Port Vauban. For the rest of the year most places close early.

Marseille wins on the outdoors because the Calanques national park begins at its southern edge. It has white limestone ridges, the coastal path to Sormiou, Morgiou and En-Vau, famous climbing cliffs, and kayaking and diving around the Riou islands. Sainte-Victoire and the Sainte-Baume forest are within an hour, though in summer the risk of fire can close the hills to walkers.

Antibes has gentler pleasures: the path around Cap d'Antibes and good snorkelling in clear water. The red cliffs of the Esterel and the pre-Alps above Grasse are a drive away, and the land right around the town is flat and built up.

Both are superb bases, so the real choice is between two regions. From Antibes, Nice, Cannes, Monaco and Menton all lie along one coastal railway. Boats cross to the Lérins Islands, and the hill villages of Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Eze and Grasse are inland.

Marseille opens up Provence instead. Aix and Cassis are close by, Roman Arles and the papal palace at Avignon are a train ride away, and the Luberon villages and Les Baux are best reached by car. Antibes gives you Riviera towns and hill villages, Marseille Roman ruins and wine country.

Neither city has much built for children, and the difference is in the kind of family day each offers. In Antibes it is all about the beach: gentle sand that suits toddlers, a small and safe town that is easy to manage, and boats to watch in Port Vauban.

Marseille has more outings, from the lake and lawns of Parc Borély to boat trips to the Château d'If. But steep streets, traffic and summer heat make it tiring with a buggy, and families tend to stay near the southern beaches.

In both you can manage the heart of a stay without a car, in different ways. Antibes is small enough to walk, from the old town to the port, with Juan-les-Pins a flat stroll away and the coastal train covering the Riviera.

Marseille is a large, hilly city. It has two metro lines, trams, and small ferries across the Vieux-Port and out to the beaches. Its buses to the Calanques crawl in traffic, much as the buses from Antibes to the hill villages are slow, and driving in summer is hard work on both coasts.

Marseille has more to browse, and more character. Noailles is packed with fabrics, teas and North African goods. Workshops in and around Le Panier make santons, and shops sell green cubes of Marseille soap. Rue de Rome and La Joliette cover department stores and chains, though designer fashion is thin.

Antibes stays small: the Provençal market for olive oil and soap, and a few boutiques selling linens and ceramics. Biot glass and Vallauris pottery are a short drive away, but serious fashion means a trip to Cannes or Nice.

Marseille is the cheaper stay. Prices are middling for a large city, with cheap street food and public transport, free walking in the Calanques and low museum charges. Central hotels are reasonable outside summer.

Antibes is a Riviera resort with resort prices, especially near Juan-les-Pins and on the cape in July and August, and beach-club loungers soon add up. Coming in spring or autumn and eating from the market make it far easier on the budget.

Antibes has one great event, Jazz à Juan. It was founded in 1960 as one of Europe's first jazz festivals and is held in July under the pines of the Pinède Gould, a few steps from the sea at Juan-les-Pins. Outside the festival there is the regional programme at the Anthéa theatre and some open-air evenings in the old town in summer. For opera or an orchestra, you take the train to Nice.

Marseille offers far more through the year. Its art deco Opéra stages a full season, La Criée puts on serious drama in the old fish market, and the Friche la Belle de Mai mixes dance, theatre and concerts in a former tobacco factory. The city also has deep roots in French hip-hop and Mediterranean music, and the Fiesta des Suds brings music from around the world each autumn.

Neither is a spa destination, and in both the calm comes from the pace of the day rather than from treatments. Antibes has seawater thalassotherapy and the grand hotel spas on Cap d'Antibes, and it is most restful in May, June and September.

Marseille has a handful of local hammams and some hotel spas, but the city is loud and dense. Its restful moments are long lunches in a small Corniche harbour, and many visitors who want quiet stay in Cassis instead.