Bern or Saint-Tropez?

Saint-Tropez is the real beach destination of the two. Pampelonne gives about 5km of pale sand and clear water, with beach clubs or public stretches to choose from, and wilder coves such as Cap Taillat lie further south.

Bern's version is a river swim: walking up the Aare from the Marzili and floating back on a cold, powerful current, or taking the train to Lake Thun. It is memorable for confident swimmers, but it is cooler water, a shorter season and no sand.

Saint-Tropez eats better, with grilled fish, bouillabaisse, aïoli and local rosé, a fine market on the Place des Lices and genuinely good top-end dining. The catch is that simple, honest meals are hard to find and much closes in winter.

Bern's cooking is heavier and more traditional: the Berner Platte, rösti and fondue in guildhall rooms and arcade cellars, plus excellent chocolate and Emmental cheese at the markets. It is dependable all year, but the range is narrow.

Bern has far more to see. Its whole old town is a World Heritage Site of arcades, painted fountains, the Zytglogge and the Minster, and the museums go well beyond its size, from the Paul Klee collection to the Einstein Museum.

Saint-Tropez has one notable gallery, the Annonciade with its Signac-era pointillist and Fauvist paintings, plus the citadel and the lanes of La Ponche. It makes a pleasant morning or day, not the reason for the trip.

In summer Saint-Tropez is in another league: beach-club afternoons at Pampelonne, drinks on the harbour terraces and a few famous clubs open until dawn, all with dress codes and table service. Out of season it falls almost silent.

Bern's evenings are steadier and quieter, spent in vaulted cellar bars, around Aarbergergasse and by the river, with the Reitschule for rougher late parties. It suits a relaxed drink rather than a big night.

Both have fine landscapes, but Bern's reach is greater. The Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau are about an hour away by train, with cable cars, high hiking and winter skiing, and closer by there are the Gurten, the Aare paths and the gentler Emmental and Jura.

Saint-Tropez's outdoors is coastal: the Sentier du Littoral past coves and capes, the cork-oak forests of the Maures, sailing and snorkelling, and the national park islands of Port-Cros and Porquerolles. Summer heat and fire risk limit it in July and August.

Bern is the far better base. Lucerne, Basel and Zurich are about an hour by train, Fribourg and Gruyères, Murten, Thun and Solothurn are closer still, and you can see a different town every day without a car.

From Saint-Tropez the outings are pleasant but smaller: hilltop Ramatuelle and Gassin, Grimaud's castle, the canals of Port Grimaud by boat, wine estates and Porquerolles. Most depend on roads that jam badly in high summer.

Bern is the easier family city: calm and safe, with the bear park, the Dählhölzli zoo, natural history dioramas and a big playground on the Gurten, plus mountains nearby for extra days. Just keep children out of the Aare itself.

Saint-Tropez works mainly for the sand, since Pampelonne and Gigaro shelve gently, but the town's harbour and clubs are aimed at adults. Traffic, heat and prices push many families to stay across the gulf.

Bern is effortless. The old town is a short walk end to end under the arcades, trams and buses run on one fare with Swiss punctuality, and the main station sits at the top of the centre for every day trip.

Saint-Tropez is tiny on foot, but there is no railway and buses are slow, so reaching the beaches means a car, scooter, bicycle or taxi. In summer the gulf road jams for hours, and the passenger boats from Sainte-Maxime and Port Grimaud are often the best way in.

Saint-Tropez has the more striking shopping, with big fashion houses in the lanes behind the port, resort wear and jewellery, and hand-stitched Tropézienne sandals from old-town workshops. Much of it shuts in winter.

Bern is more modest but open all year: watch and chocolate shops under the arcades, antiques, books and crafts in the cellar shops of Gerechtigkeitsgasse, and market cheese.

Neither is a place to save money, and both are among the costliest stops in Europe. The difference is in how you cut the cost. In Bern, hotels usually include a local transport pass, many pleasures are free, and supermarket counters handle lunch.

In Saint-Tropez the expense peaks in July and August and adds taxis or parking, so budget visitors stay inland or across the gulf, picnic from the market and use the public beach, or come in late spring or autumn.

Bern offers a proper evening programme: opera, ballet and drama at the Stadttheater, the symphony orchestra in the Casino, new dance at the Dampfzentrale, a spring jazz festival and the Gurtenfestival in July.

Saint-Tropez has little beyond summer open-air concerts and beach-club sets, though the Bravade procession each May is a genuine local tradition. For opera or theatre you would drive to Toulon or Nice.

Bern is the more restful place most of the year, with quiet Sundays, slow riverside lunches, a large thermal bath complex in the west and the Oberland's mountain spas within reach.

Saint-Tropez can be just as calm in May, June and September, with pétanque under the plane trees and morning walks to the citadel, but in high summer it is crowded and loud, and its spas are mostly for hotel guests.