Arles or Pisa?

From Arles the sea is about 40km away across the Camargue. The beaches are long and wild, at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer and the open strands of Piémanson and Beauduc, with room to spread out but little shade or service, and the mistral and mosquitoes to contend with. You need a car, and it makes a good day out rather than a reason to come.

Pisa's coast is far closer, about 12km, and city buses run there. Tirrenia and Calambrone have wide sandy beaches backed by pines, with umbrellas and loungers to rent, and the Versilia resorts are a short train ride north. The water near the Arno mouth is not very clear, but for easy afternoon swims between sights Pisa is better placed.

Neither town is a serious dining destination, and both are best for simple regional cooking, though the cooking itself is very different. Arles cooks with Camargue produce: gardiane bull stew, red rice, tellines from the beaches. The Saturday market on the Boulevard des Lices is its great event, but many restaurants close in winter.

Pisa's best eating is in the student trattorias and wine bars around Piazza delle Vettovaglie, where you can have hot cecina, ribollita and game all year at fair prices. The thing to avoid there is the tourist menus near the tower.

The two are well matched, and each takes about two days, but the sights are spread differently. In Arles the Roman town is scattered through the streets: the arena still in use, the theatre, the cryptoporticus galleries and the Alyscamps that Van Gogh painted, along with the Romanesque cloister of Saint-Trophime. Gehry's Luma tower and the summer photography festival add a modern side.

Pisa centres on one great composition, the cathedral, baptistery, Leaning Tower and Camposanto on their lawn. The rewards of the rest of the city are quieter: medieval painting at San Matteo, Santa Maria della Spina on the river, and Vasari's palace on Piazza dei Cavalieri.

Pisa has more life in the evenings, although neither has much of a club scene. During term the squares around the old market fill with students drinking outside small bars until past midnight, Borgo Stretto draws an aperitivo crowd, and in summer people head to the beach bars.

Arles usually ends the evening with a late dinner on the Place du Forum and then goes quiet. The exceptions are the Easter and September ferias, when bodegas take over the streets for a few days.

Arles has the more striking landscape on its doorstep. The Camargue is a vast delta of lagoons, salt flats and rice fields, where flamingos feed and wading birds stop on migration, and you explore it on horseback from the ranches or by bike along the dykes. The limestone Alpilles give it hill walking as well.

Pisa has the San Rossore park, gentler pine and oak forest with fallow deer, dunes and wetland running to the sea, and the olive-terrace paths of the Monte Pisano. Its real mountains, the Apuan Alps, and the Cinque Terre cliff paths lie further off.

Both make excellent bases, so the real question is how you will travel and which region you want to see. From Arles the trips are Roman and Provençal. Avignon and Nîmes are short train rides away, but the Pont du Gard, Les Baux and Saint-Rémy are much easier by car.

Pisa's best trips work without driving. Florence is about an hour by train and Lucca's walls under half an hour, and the Cinque Terre and Viareggio are also on the rail line. A car is only needed for the hill towns of Volterra and San Gimignano.

Pisa is the easier choice with children. The centre is flat, the tower lawn gives them room to run about, and the sandy beaches at Tirrenia and the bike paths of San Rossore are close by. Only the tower climb is closed to younger children.

Arles has things children love, such as the arena towers, the dark cryptoporticus, Camargue pony rides and flamingos, but almost every outing needs a car. Cobbled streets are hard work with a buggy, and summer brings heat and mosquitoes.

Pisa is much easier to get around. A shuttle train links the airport to the station, the whole centre is a flat walk, and the station is one of western Tuscany's main rail hubs, with buses out to the beaches.

The centre of Arles is just as compact, with a free shuttle and trains to Avignon, Nîmes and Marseille. Once you leave town, though, the regional buses are infrequent and the Camargue really calls for a car or a bike.

Shopping is modest in both, and serious shoppers go to Aix or Marseille from one and to Florence or Lucca from the other. What sets Arles apart is its local character: printed Provençal cottons, santons, gardian shirts, Camargue salt and a strong showing of bookshops and photography books.

Pisa is more everyday Italian, with high-street chains on Corso Italia, smarter shoes and clothes under the arcades of Borgo Stretto, and a monthly antiques market by the river.

Pisa is the cheaper stay. Its student trattorias are good value, rooms are mid-range, and you can walk or take the train almost everywhere. The main expenses are the tower climb and the beach loungers in high summer.

Arles is reasonable by Provençal standards and cheaper than the Luberon villages. But most visitors end up hiring a car, and rooms are scarce and dearer in July and during the ferias and the photography festival.

Neither town is a strong draw for performance, and they peak in opposite seasons. Arles comes alive in summer and in the open air, with concerts in the Roman theatre and arena, the Les Suds world music festival in July, and the ferias and the bloodless course camarguaise.

Pisa's season runs from autumn to spring at the Teatro Verdi, a 19th-century horseshoe-shaped opera house with opera, ballet and symphonic concerts. Arles has nothing like it.

Pisa has real thermal baths close by. At San Giuliano Terme, used since Roman times, there is a spa in a grand 18th-century bath palace, and Casciana Terme adds a large public thermal pool.

Arles has no bathing tradition at all. Its calm comes from shaded squares, siestas and Camargue farmhouses run as quiet retreats with pools, which is restful but not a spa trip.