Avignon or Barcelona?

You don't go to Avignon for the sea. The nearest real swim is in the green pools of the Gardon below the Pont du Gard, and the Camargue sands are a drive of more than an hour. The rest of the time, most visitors swim in a hotel or rental pool.

Barcelona has sand along its own edge, from Barceloneta to Mar Bella, and you can reach it on foot or by metro. The city beaches are man-made and crowded in high summer. Even so, a swim after sightseeing is an ordinary part of the day, and quieter sand at Castelldefels or Sitges is a short train ride away.

Barcelona eats better and with far more range. You can go from workers' set lunches and market counters at Santa Caterina or Sant Antoni to serious tasting menus, with a distinct Catalan cuisine, seafood rice and late-morning vermouth on the way.

Avignon's table is narrower but well rooted: daube, tians and goat's cheese, with Les Halles as the place to see the produce. Its real advantage is wine. Châteauneuf-du-Pape and the Côtes du Rhône are poured by the glass on the doorstep, while Barcelona's equivalent is the cava of the Penedès.

Avignon's heritage is one concentrated ensemble: the vast Gothic Palais des Papes, the broken bridge, the ramparts and a few good museums such as the Petit Palais. It is superb, but you will have covered it in a couple of days.

Barcelona has more depth and more variety. Gaudí's Modernista buildings exist nowhere else, and beneath them lie the Roman walls of the Gothic Quarter, Santa Maria del Mar, the Picasso Museum and the MNAC's Romanesque frescoes. That is enough to fill a week rather than a weekend.

This is where the two differ most. Outside July, an evening in Avignon means a glass of wine on Place Pie, a few student bars, and quiet streets by midnight. Anyone after a proper night out drives to Marseille or Montpellier.

Barcelona barely starts before midnight. You can move from cocktail bars in the Born's cellars to the open squares of Gràcia and the pintxos bars of Poble Sec, then on to electronic club nights that run until dawn, and midweek nights stay busy too.

Both have fine country close by, but of different kinds. From Avignon you head for Provence: the bare summit of Mont Ventoux, the Luberon's ochre trails, the Alpilles, canoeing on the Gardon and the flamingos and horses of the Camargue. Nearly all of it needs a car.

Barcelona's outdoors starts at the city edge, with the Collserola trails and the Carretera de les Aigües reached by metro, and sailing or paddleboarding off Mar Bella. Montserrat's pinnacles and the Costa Brava's coastal paths are further out. In both cities, spring and autumn are the walking seasons.

Avignon is one of the best bases anywhere for day trips. Nîmes, Arles, Orange and the Pont du Gard are each about half an hour away, a run of Roman sites few regions can match. Saint-Rémy, Les Baux, Gordes and the Rhône wine villages are close behind, though the villages really need a car.

Barcelona's trips are more spread out but easier by rail. Girona and Tarragona are quick on fast trains, Montserrat and Sitges make easy half-days, and the Dalí museum in Figueres and the Penedès cava cellars round things out.

Barcelona keeps children busy without leaving the city. There's the aquarium, CosmoCaixa, the zoo, the funfair on Tibidabo and the beach, and PortAventura is an hour away. Children are welcome in restaurants late in the evening, too.

In Avignon, a family gets the Palais tablet tour, a dance on the bridge and the Rocher des Doms playground, and then needs a car. The best family days are out of town, at the Pont du Gard or in the Camargue.

Inside its walls Avignon is easy: everything is within twenty minutes' walk, and trains run to Arles, Nîmes and Marseille. Once you head for the hill villages or Ventoux, sparse buses mean hiring a car or booking a tour.

Barcelona is larger but easier to get around. The flat centre is good walking, and the metro, trams, buses and local trains share one ticket system, so you never need a car. The only real effort is the climb to Park Güell, Montjuïc and Tibidabo.

Barcelona is a proper shopping city. Passeig de Gràcia has fashion houses among Modernista façades, and there are independent designers in the Born, small craft shops in Gràcia and vintage shops in the Raval.

Avignon is modest by comparison: chains on Rue de la République and Provençal cottons, lavender and soap in the lanes nearby. Its best buys are edible, such as tapenade, calissons and wine. Serious antiques hunters go out to L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue.

Overall costs are similar, but the money goes in different places. In Avignon, rooms inside the walls become scarce and expensive during the July festival, and seeing the countryside usually means paying for a hire car. Spring and autumn are much kinder, and good local wine is cheap for its quality.

In Barcelona, the hotel bill, the city tourist tax and the entry fees for Gaudí's buildings are what add up. Local habits help: weekday set lunches, neighbourhood tapas and a transport pass all keep a stay reasonable.

Both are strong, but on different schedules. Avignon puts almost everything into three weeks of July, when the Festival d'Avignon fills the Cour d'honneur and the Off fringe runs well over a thousand shows a day. The rest of the year there's the Opéra Grand Avignon and a few small theatres.

Barcelona spreads its programme across the year: opera at the Liceu, concerts under the glass ceiling of the Palau de la Música, jazz cellars and flamenco stages. Sónar, Primavera Sound and the Grec festival add the big moments.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, and neither town centre is especially restful. Avignon's version of rest is a farmhouse guesthouse among the vineyards with a pool and nothing to do. Its drawbacks are the July crowds and days of mistral.

In Barcelona, you get a few Arab-style bath houses in the old town and quiet evening paths on Montjuïc. Visitors who mainly want rest usually do better in a seaside town nearby than in the city.