Arles or Montpellier?

Neither is a beach town, but Montpellier's coast is closer and easier to reach. Palavas and Carnon are about 11km away by tram and bus. From there, fine sand runs east to the dunes of l'Espiguette, and Sète adds more beaches to the west.

From Arles, the sea is about 40km away across the Camargue at Saintes-Maries, or further still at Piémanson and Beauduc. These beaches are wilder and emptier, even in August. However, you need a car to get there, and they have little shade, few services and plenty of mosquitoes from the marshes.

Montpellier has more to eat and drink. Oysters and mussels come from the Thau lagoon, there is tielle from Sète, and the Languedoc vineyards begin at the city's edge. The Halles Castellane and Laissac are good for browsing and eating, and the students keep cheap places open all year.

Arles has a narrower, more rural table, built around gardiane, Camargue rice and tellines. Its high point is the long Saturday market on the Boulevard des Lices. There are fewer restaurants, and many close in winter, so choice thins out off-season.

Arles has the greater weight of history. Its UNESCO-listed core includes the arena, the antique theatre, the cryptoporticus, the Alyscamps and Saint-Trophime, which is remarkable for a town of its size. The Museum of Ancient Arles, the Van Gogh connections and the Rencontres photography festival add depth.

Montpellier's interest lies in the city as a whole. There is the medieval Écusson with its courtyard mansions, the Peyrou terrace and aqueduct, the Jardin des Plantes and Bofill's Antigone. Its Musée Fabre is the stronger single art collection of the two.

This is where the two differ most. In Montpellier, students fill the bars, pubs and wine bars around Place Jean-Jaurès and the Écusson even midweek. After closing time the night carries on at clubs out towards Lattes and the coast.

In Arles, an evening means a late dinner on the Place du Forum and a few bars, then quiet streets. The exception is the feria at Easter and in September, when bodegas keep the town up for a few nights. The rest of the year, people in Arles who want a night out drive to Montpellier.

Both sit between the same wetlands and limestone hills, so the difference is in what lies closest. In Arles the Camargue begins at the edge of town. You can explore it on horseback from the ranches, by bike around the Étang de Vaccarès or on foot through the bird reserve, and the Alpilles to the north-east are good for hiking.

From Montpellier the Camargue is about an hour away, but the hills are more varied. There is the climb up Pic Saint-Loup, canoeing in the Hérault gorges, and the Cirque de Navacelles and the Cévennes further out. The windy coast also suits kitesurfing.

Both are excellent bases, and their lists overlap: Nîmes, the Pont du Gard, Avignon and Aigues-Mortes are within reach of either. Arles is better placed for Provence. Avignon is about 20 minutes by train, Les Baux, Saint-Rémy and Montmajour are close at hand, and Marseille and Aix are about an hour away.

Montpellier looks west and into the hills instead. Sète, Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert and Pézenas are close, and Carcassonne is reachable by train. Arles itself makes an easy day out from Montpellier.

Montpellier gives children much more to do. There is the Zoo de Lunaret in its wooded park, the aquarium and planetarium at Odysseum, trams that take a pushchair, and gentle beaches within easy reach.

Children in Arles usually enjoy the arena towers and the dark cryptoporticus, and the Camargue adds pony rides and flamingos. But nearly every outing beyond the town needs a car, the cobbles are hard on buggies, and the summer mosquitoes wear children down. It suits older children better than toddlers.

Both centres are easy on foot. In Arles every sight is within about fifteen minutes' walk, and Montpellier's Écusson is largely closed to cars, though it sits on a gentle hill. The real difference is beyond the old town. Montpellier's trams reach the station, Antigone, Odysseum and the edge of the city towards the beaches, while Arles has only a small shuttle around the centre and infrequent regional buses.

Both have good trains to the neighbouring cities, and both need a car for the Camargue and the hills. In Arles, though, hiring one is close to essential for a longer stay.

Montpellier has the broader choice. The Écusson lanes hold boutiques, bookshops and wine shops, and the Polygone and Odysseum have the big-brand stores. Arles is smaller and more particular, with Provençal printed cottons, santons and gardian shirts, Camargue salt and rice from the Saturday market, and photography books from a town known for publishing them.

Costs are much the same in both, roughly those of provincial France. In Montpellier, students keep cheap food and drink easy to find and the tram saves on transport, while in Arles rooms are reasonable for Provence but most visitors add the cost of a hire car. Both get dearer in high summer, and Arles also during its ferias and the photography festival.

Montpellier has a year-round stage that Arles lacks. Opera, ballet and the national orchestra share the Opéra Comédie and the Opéra Berlioz, and the city is home to a national choreographic centre. In summer the Montpellier Danse festival and the Radio France festival's often free concerts add more.

In Arles, live performance is mostly a summer, open-air affair. There are concerts in the Roman theatre and arena, Les Suds world music festival in July, and the bullfights, brass bands and course camarguaise of the feria. Out of season there is little beyond a modest town theatre.

Arles has no spa culture and no thermal water within easy reach, so unwinding there is about tempo rather than treatment. The heat of the day slows everything to a crawl, the Rhône quays are calm by evening, and a farmhouse stay out in the Camargue or the Alpilles is as close as it gets to a retreat.

Montpellier gives a wellness trip more to work with. Besides day spas in town, it has real thermal water at Balaruc-les-Bains on the Thau lagoon, about half an hour away, where you can book a single day instead of a full cure. The catch is noise, since the student crowd keeps the old town lively. Go to Montpellier for treatments, and to Arles if quiet is what you are after.