Bordeaux or Saint-Tropez?

Saint-Tropez is far ahead for beaches. Pampelonne's 5km of pale sand and clear water are a short ride from town, quieter coves such as Escalet and Gigaro lie further south, and the swimming season runs from June to September.

From Bordeaux the sea is always a day out. There are long Atlantic surf beaches at Lacanau, where you need to stay inside the lifeguarded zones because of the rip currents, and the calmer Arcachon basin is an hour away by train. The water is cooler and the season is really just July and August.

Bordeaux is the better place to eat, by some distance, and wine is the reason. In one week you can taste Médoc, Saint-Émilion and Sauternes by the glass, alongside entrecôte cooked over vine cuttings and Arcachon oysters at the Marché des Capucins. Set lunches and good bistros in Saint-Pierre and Chartrons make eating well an everyday thing.

Saint-Tropez has grilled fish, aïoli and rosé on the sand, and its best hotel dining rooms are genuinely good. Simple, honest meals are harder to find, though. Many quayside places charge for the view, and much of the town closes in winter.

Bordeaux's main attraction is the city itself: a UNESCO-listed 18th-century centre of pale limestone curving along the Garonne, with the Place de la Bourse, the Grand Théâtre and Gothic churches such as Saint-Michel. Add the Musée d'Aquitaine and the CAPC and you have three or four days of sightseeing.

Saint-Tropez has one notable museum, the Annonciade, with Signac and Fauvist paintings of the harbour. With the citadel and the lanes of La Ponche, everything is easily seen in a day.

In July and August, Saint-Tropez has the more famous night out. Afternoon parties at the Pampelonne beach clubs lead to champagne on the harbour terraces and then a few glamorous clubs that stay open until dawn, with table service and dress codes. Out of season, it largely shuts down.

Bordeaux is lower-key but steadier through the year. There are wine bars and terraces around Saint-Pierre, cheap student bars on Place de la Victoire and late clubs along the Quai de Paludate, and the city is liveliest at weekends in term time.

Saint-Tropez has the more striking outdoors. The Sentier du Littoral runs past pine-backed coves to Cap Camarat and Cap Taillat, the Massif des Maures has cork-oak forest for hiking, and the gulf is good for sailing and snorkelling. The national-park islands of Port-Cros and Porquerolles are also within reach. Summer heat and fire risk can close trails, so walkers should come in spring or autumn.

Bordeaux's countryside is flat vineyards and Landes pine forest, best seen by bike on the greenways. The Dune du Pilat, the birdlife of the Arcachon basin and the surf at Lacanau are an hour away, but there is no real hiking nearby.

Bordeaux is the much stronger base for day trips. Saint-Émilion is a short train ride away, the Médoc châteaux at Margaux and Pauillac and the Sauternes villages are close, and Arcachon, Blaye and Cognac each make a full day out.

The outings from Saint-Tropez are pretty but smaller: the hill villages of Ramatuelle, Gassin and Grimaud, boats to Port Grimaud and Sainte-Maxime, and Porquerolles for a longer day. In summer, traffic on the gulf road slows down every trip.

Neither city is built around children, but Bordeaux is easier with them. The centre is flat, largely car-free and served by trams. The Miroir d'eau doubles as a paddling pool, and there is a puppet theatre in the Jardin Public and hands-on science at Cap Sciences. Days at the Dune du Pilat and the Arcachon beaches complete the picture.

Saint-Tropez has the better sand for small children, at Pampelonne and Gigaro, but little else for them. Its harbour and beach clubs are aimed at adults and the prices make a long stay hard, so many families stay in Sainte-Maxime and come over by boat.

Getting around is where the two differ most. Bordeaux is flat and walkable, with long pedestrian streets, an easy tram network, plenty of bike lanes and trains to Saint-Émilion and Arcachon. You only need a car for the vineyards.

You can walk across Saint-Tropez's old town in a few minutes, but that is where the ease ends. There is no railway, the buses are slow and the main beaches are several kilometres out. In July and August the single road along the gulf jams for hours, so the passenger boats across the bay are often the best way in.

For its size, Saint-Tropez has the more distinctive shopping. The big fashion houses open summer shops in the lanes behind the port, alongside resort wear and the hand-stitched Tropézienne leather sandal. The Place des Lices market adds linen, baskets and pottery. Much of it closes in winter.

Bordeaux has a wider range but less character: chains on Rue Sainte-Catherine, luxury labels in the Triangle d'Or and antiques on Rue Notre-Dame. Its best buy is wine, from cellars that will ship your bottles home.

Bordeaux is much easier on the wallet, though it is not a cheap city. Your bed is the main fixed cost, and it goes up in summer and when the big wine events are on. The trams cost little, and the limestone streets, the quays and the Miroir d'eau cost nothing. If lunch is your main meal, eating well stays reasonable. After that, the bill grows only with what you choose to add, such as château visits or a grand cru with dinner.

In Saint-Tropez almost everything is expensive, not just the room. You pay for the taxi or the parking to reach Pampelonne, the lounger at a beach club and even a coffee on the quay. To save money, you have to plan the trip differently: sleep in Sainte-Maxime or a village inland, take the boat across the gulf, buy lunch at the market and lay a towel on a public stretch of sand. May, June and September cost less, but the town never becomes a bargain.

Bordeaux has a proper season. Opera and ballet are staged in the gilded Grand Théâtre of 1780, the national orchestra plays nearby, and there is jazz, touring acts and bands in small bars, though the season pauses in high summer.

Saint-Tropez has only open-air concerts on the citadel and in gardens in summer, plus the Bravade procession each May. For opera or theatre you have to drive to Toulon or Nice.

Neither has a bathing culture of its own, so in both towns wellness mostly means hotel spas. Bordeaux has vinotherapy, grape-based treatments at spa hotels among the vineyards, and the thermal waters of Dax are within reach. Saint-Tropez can be restful, but it depends on when you go: it is loud and crowded in high summer and slow and calm in May, June and September.