Arles or Strasbourg?

Arles has real sea within a drive. The Camargue shore offers long, flat sand and dunes at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer and huge open strands beyond Salin-de-Giraud, with shallow, warm water in summer. Expect wind, mosquitoes and little shade. It is worth a day or two rather than a whole beach vacation.

Strasbourg has nothing comparable. Swimming there means the lifeguarded gravel-pit lakes such as the Baggersee, which has grassy banks and the tram stops nearby. They are pleasant on a hot day, but they are no reason to choose the city.

Strasbourg is the stronger place to eat. Its winstubs serve choucroute, baeckeoffe and tarte flambée with Alsace whites, foie gras is a local tradition, and there is a solid fine-dining tier in the city and the surrounding villages. Just avoid the tourist menus around the cathedral.

Arles eats well but within a narrower range: gardiane bull stew, Camargue rice, tellines and long rosé lunches on the Place du Forum. Its high point is the Saturday market on the Boulevard des Lices, and many restaurants close in winter.

The two are equally rewarding, but in different ways. Arles is about antiquity: an arena still in use, the Roman theatre, the cryptoporticus and the Alyscamps, as well as the carved cloister of Saint-Trophime and the Van Gogh connection, all within a short walk and seen in about two days.

Strasbourg's heritage is medieval and imperial. It has the pink sandstone cathedral with its astronomical clock, the half-timbered lanes of Petite France and the German-built Neustadt, plus the Palais Rohan museums and the European institutions. It takes a day or so longer to see properly.

Neither is a party town, but Strasbourg has more going on after dinner. Its university fills the bars and beer cellars of the Krutenau and around Place Saint-Étienne, and the riverside terraces stay busy on summer evenings.

In Arles an evening is a late meal and a drink on a square, and then the town goes quiet. The exception is the Easter and September ferias, when street bodegas keep the town up for a few nights.

Arles has the edge thanks to the Camargue, which begins at the edge of town. Its lagoons and salt flats are home to flamingos, white horses and black bulls, and you can explore them on horseback, by bike along the dykes or on foot through the bird reserve. The Alpilles add limestone hiking.

Strasbourg's own green spaces are gentler: riverside forests, the Orangerie and level cycle routes along the Rhine. The serious walking is an hour away in the Vosges and the Black Forest, with castle ruins, fir woods and some winter snow.

Both are excellent bases, and Arles is slightly better. Avignon and Nîmes are a short train ride away, and the Pont du Gard, Les Baux, Saint-Rémy, Aigues-Mortes and Aix are all within a short drive, so you could fill a fortnight without repeating yourself.

Strasbourg's trips cross a border. Colmar and the Alsace wine villages lie to the south, and Baden-Baden, Freiburg, Heidelberg and Basel are across the Rhine. Trains cover the cities easily, but the vineyards are easier with a car or a bike.

Strasbourg is far easier with children. The flat, pedestrianised centre, the trams, the boat trips round the Grande Ile and the storks and playgrounds of the Orangerie make days simple, and Europa-Park is about an hour away.

Arles appeals more to older children who like history and animals. They can climb the arena towers, explore the dark cryptoporticus and ride ponies on the Camargue ranches. Cobbles, heat, mosquitoes and the need for a car make it harder going with young children.

Strasbourg is much easier to get around. A tram network links the station, the old town, the European quarter and even Kehl across the Rhine, and separated cycle lanes run everywhere, so you have no need for a car until you head for the wine villages.

Arles is easy on foot, with everything within about fifteen minutes and good trains to the nearby cities. Out in the Camargue and the villages, though, the buses are sparse, and most visitors staying several days end up hiring a car.

Strasbourg has more choice. It has chain stores and a department store around Place Kléber, independent shops near the cathedral, and Alsace wines, Soufflenheim pottery and kougelhopf moulds to take home, while December brings the long-established Christmas market.

Shopping in Arles is smaller and more local. The Saturday market is the main event, along with Provençal cottons, santons, gardian shirts and a good run of bookshops and photography prints. For fashion, people go to Aix or Marseille.

Costs are much the same, at the level of a provincial French town, but the extras differ. In Arles the hire car most visitors need adds to the bill, and rooms are dearer in July and during the ferias. In Strasbourg the trams and bikes are cheap and many sights are free, but hotels rise sharply during the Christmas market and Parliament sessions.

Strasbourg has the more serious programme, with a national opera company on Place Broglie, a philharmonic orchestra, the Théâtre National de Strasbourg and the Musica festival of contemporary music each autumn. It runs through the year, but tickets need planning.

Arles is mostly a summer affair. There are concerts in the Roman theatre and arena, the Les Suds world music week in July, and brass bands and the course camarguaise around the ferias. In the cooler months the town theatre's season is modest.

Strasbourg is the better place for actual bathing. The Bains municipaux has tiled pools, a hammam and saunas used by locals, and Baden-Baden's Friedrichsbad and Caracalla baths are less than an hour away.

Arles offers a slower kind of rest: a siesta through the heat, shaded squares, evenings by the Rhône and converted farmhouses with pools. Spa treatments are limited to a few better hotels.