Arles or Basel?

Arles gives you a real day at the sea. Across the Camargue are the long, wild strands of Piémanson and Beauduc and the dunes around Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, with shallow Mediterranean water that is easy to swim in. You need a car to get there, and there is little shade or service once you arrive.

Basel has no shore at all. What it has is the summer custom of floating down the Rhine past the old town in a swim bag, then drying off on the gravel banks. It is great fun for confident swimmers, but it is a river with a strong current, not a beach.

The two eat about equally well, but in different ways. Arles cooks with its own land: gardiane of Camargue bull, red rice, tellines from the delta beaches and Alpilles olive oil. Its best food moment is the long Saturday market on the Boulevard des Lices.

Basel has few dishes of its own. It borrows tarte flambée from Alsace and wine from Baden, and it has a small, accomplished fine-dining tier. Arles thins out in winter, when many restaurants close, while Basel's Markthalle keeps going all year.

Roman stone against painting collections: that is the real choice here. Arles keeps its antiquity in the open, with the arena, the antique theatre, the cryptoporticus and the carved cloister of Saint-Trophime all a short walk apart, plus Van Gogh's Alyscamps and the Gehry tower at Luma. Two full days cover it.

Basel keeps its treasures indoors. Holbein hangs in the Kunstmuseum and the Impressionists at the Fondation Beyeler, and the Vitra campus lies over the German border. The red sandstone Münster and the guild-house lanes make a handsome setting, and the museums deserve three or four days.

Neither is a party town, but Basel gives you more to do after dinner. In summer people drink on the riverside steps of Kleinbasel, all year there are bars around the Kaserne, and a few clubs in old harbour buildings play electronic music at weekends. Fasnacht turns the city over to drums and lanterns for three nights in late winter.

Arles goes quiet after a drink on the Place du Forum. The exception is the ferias at Easter and in September, when bodegas fill the streets.

Arles has the more unusual landscape on its doorstep. The Camargue begins at the edge of town, with flamingos in the lagoons, bulls and white horses on the marshes, and dyke paths around the Étang de Vaccarès to explore by bike or on horseback. The Alpilles add olive-grove hiking.

Basel's countryside is wooded hills rather than wetland. The Jura, the Black Forest and the Vosges are all close, with marked trails and some winter walking, and the flat Rhine paths make easy cycling. It suits walkers, while Arles suits wildlife watchers.

Both are excellent bases, but they open on to different worlds. From Arles you reach Roman and papal Provence: Avignon and Nîmes by short train rides, plus the Pont du Gard, Les Baux and Aigues-Mortes. The villages are much easier with a car.

Basel opens on to three countries. Colmar and the Alsace wine villages, Freiburg in Germany, and Lucerne and Bern within Switzerland are all about an hour away. Fast trains do nearly all the work, so you can go without a car.

Basel is the easier city with children. The Zolli is a short walk from the station, the Natural History Museum and toy museum are there for wet days, and the ferries that drift across the Rhine delight younger children. Europa-Park is a realistic day out.

Arles has the arena towers to climb and the dark cryptoporticus to explore. Its best family moments are outside town, on pony rides at Camargue ranches and among the flamingos. Cobbled streets, summer mosquitoes and the need for a car make it better for older children.

Basel is about as easy as a city gets. Green trams cover both banks and cross into France and Germany, hotel guests ride them free, and direct trains leave for three countries.

Arles is easy only inside its old town, where everything is within about fifteen minutes on foot and a free shuttle loops the centre. Trains reach the bigger towns, but the Camargue, the wild beaches and the Alpilles villages realistically need a car or a bike.

Basel offers a little more. Freie Strasse has Swiss watches, jewellery and chocolatiers, the lanes of Spalenberg hold small design shops, and the Christmas market by the Münster is a pretty one.

Arles is all about the market and Provence: Camargue salt and rice, printed cottons, santons, gardian shirts, and good bookshops and photography prints in a publishing town. Neither is worth a trip for fashion.

The gap here is wide. Arles is one of the more reasonable bases in Provence, with provincial French prices for rooms, lunches and market food. Hiring a car and visiting in festival weeks are the main things that push the bill up.

In Basel, hotels, meals, drinks and museum entry all cost what you would expect in Switzerland, and rooms become scarce and costly during the big fairs. Free trams and cheaper meals over the border in France and Germany soften the bill, but they do not close the gap.

Basel has a proper stage scene. Theater Basel puts on bold opera, ballet and drama, the Sinfonieorchester Basel plays at the Stadtcasino, and early-music concerts add something unusual. The season runs from autumn to early summer.

Arles comes alive in exactly the months when Basel goes quiet. In summer there are concerts in the Roman theatre and arena, world music at Les Suds in July, and the course camarguaise, but there is no opera or orchestra.

Basel is better for a spa day. The saline thermal baths at Rheinfelden are about twenty minutes away, and the German-style mineral pools and saunas of Badenweiler and Bad Krozingen are just over the border. Its quiet Sundays help too.

Arles offers rest rather than treatments: siestas through the heat, shaded squares, and converted mas in the Camargue and the Alpilles with pools. It has no thermal tradition, so it suits anyone who simply wants a slower pace.