Arles or Lyon?

Arles has a real coast within reach and Lyon doesn't. About 40km south of Arles, across the Camargue, you find dune-backed sand at Saintes-Maries and huge empty strands at Piémanson and Beauduc, with shallow, calm water in summer. The catch is the drive, little shade and the mosquitoes.

Lyon is three hours from the Mediterranean. Swimming there means the supervised lake at Miribel-Jonage or a long day out to Lake Annecy, which makes Arles the only one of the two where a sea day fits easily into the trip.

Lyon is in a different league for food. Its bouchons serve quenelles, andouillette and praline tart with a pot of local red, the city has a long tradition of fine dining, and Les Halles Paul Bocuse and the Sunday markets by the Saône are full of Bresse poultry and Saint-Marcellin. Beaujolais and northern Rhône wines come from just outside town.

Arles eats well but on a smaller scale: gardiane bull stew, Camargue rice, tellines and a very long Saturday market on the Boulevard des Lices. It is good for market produce and lunches on terraces, but the choice of restaurants is narrow, and many close in winter.

Both cities have Roman theatres and UNESCO-listed centres, but Lyon has more breadth. Arles packs its arena, cryptoporticus, Alyscamps and the carved portal of Saint-Trophime into a short walk, with Van Gogh's legacy and the Luma tower by Frank Gehry on top, and two full days cover it all.

Lyon needs several days. Its sights run from Lugdunum on Fourvière through the Renaissance lanes and traboules of Vieux Lyon to a major fine-arts museum on the Presqu'île, the silk-weavers' hill at Croix-Rousse and the Institut Lumière, where cinema began.

Evenings in Arles mean dinner on a square and a last drink on the Place du Forum, and then the town is quiet. Only the Easter and September ferias, when bodegas appear in the streets, keep it up late.

Lyon has a proper night out, kept going by its students. You'll find wine and cocktail bars between Hôtel de Ville and the Terreaux, pubs in Vieux Lyon, and barges moored on the Rhône that serve as bars and clubs. Warehouse-style electronic clubs out towards Gerland add later options.

Arles has the wilder landscape, though the gap is small. The Camargue begins at the edge of town, with lagoons, salt flats, flamingos, white horses and black bulls, best explored on horseback or by bike along the dykes. The olive-covered ridges of the Alpilles add proper hiking.

Lyon's outdoor life is more urban and gentler. You can run along the car-free Rhône quays, row on the lake in the Parc de la Tête d'Or and walk in the Monts d'Or. The Vercors and Chartreuse, an hour or more away by car, are the places for serious mountain days.

Arles has the richer choice of short trips. Avignon's Papal Palace is about 20 minutes away by train and Nîmes is half an hour, while the Pont du Gard, Les Baux, Saint-Rémy and Montmajour are all close by. For a cluster of first-rate Roman and medieval sites, few bases beat it.

Lyon's day trips are mostly about wine and old towns, and they are more spread out. Roman Vienne is a short train ride away, and Pérouges, the Beaujolais villages, Cluny and Beaune are within reach. Annecy and the Alpine lakes take about two hours each way.

Arles works best for older children who like history and animals. Climbing the arena towers and walking through the dark cryptoporticus make the Roman town feel like an adventure. Out in the delta there are horse rides at the ranches, flamingos at the ornithological park near Saintes-Maries and shallow sea for paddling. Nothing in Arles is built just for children, though, and the summer heat and mosquitoes soon tire younger ones.

Lyon gives you more to fill the days, and more of it is close together. The animals are in town rather than out in the marshes, and there is an aquarium on the southern edge. The Musée Miniature et Cinéma in Vieux Lyon is a good pick for older children, and a theme park lies about an hour east. Pushchairs struggle in both cities, on the cobbles of Arles and on Lyon's stepped hill lanes, but in Lyon the flat Presqu'île makes up for it.

Inside its old centre, Arles is easy. Everything is within about fifteen minutes' walk, and the station is close for trains to Avignon and Marseille. Beyond the town, though, the buses are infrequent, and the Camargue really calls for a hire car or a bike.

Lyon covers far more ground without a car. Metro, trams and buses share one ticket, funiculars climb Fourvière, bike-share runs along the river paths, and a tram goes straight to the airport. The hills are steep, but you never need to drive.

Lyon has the fuller shopping scene. There are chain stores on the rue de la République, luxury labels around Place des Jacobins and a large mall at Part-Dieu. The more personal finds are Lyon silk, designer workshops on Croix-Rousse and the antique dealers of the rue Auguste Comte.

Arles is about local crafts and souvenirs. Look for Provençal printed cottons, santons, gardian shirts, Camargue salt from the Saturday market, and photography books from a town known for publishing. For fashion, people from Arles go to Aix or Marseille.

The two cost about the same overall, but the money goes in different places. Arles is a cheaper base than the smart villages nearby, and one combined pass covers its sights, but most visitors pay for a hire car, and rooms get tight during the summer festivals and the ferias.

In Lyon you save on transport and eat generous set lunches in bouchons. City hotel rates apply, though, and they rise sharply during trade fairs and the Fête des Lumières.

Lyon has a year-round stage life that Arles can't match. It has an opera house and ballet under the glass vault of the Opéra, the Orchestre National at the Auditorium, the Célestins playhouse and the Maison de la Danse, one of Europe's leading dance venues. In summer the Nuits de Fourvière festival puts shows in the Roman theatres.

Arles is mostly a summer and open-air town for performance. There are concerts in its own Roman theatre and arena, world music at Les Suds, and the bullfights and brass bands of the ferias. It has no opera or orchestra.

Neither city has a bathing tradition of its own, but Lyon gives you a bit more to do. It has hammams, day spas, the large open-air pool on the Rhône quays, and Aix-les-Bains for thermal baths within a day trip.

Arles relaxes you through its pace rather than treatments. Expect shaded squares, siestas in the summer heat and quiet evenings by the river. Its best retreats are converted farmhouses with pools out in the Camargue and the Alpilles.