Cannes or Lugano?

This is Cannes's clearest advantage. You get a real sandy shore on warm, calm sea, from the concession beaches of the Croisette to the wider, mostly free Plage du Midi. For clearer water and rocky swims there are the Lérins islands and the red coves of the Esterel. Expect the central beaches to be packed in high summer.

Lugano has no sea, and swimming means lidos rather than beaches. You lie on lawns and wooden decks and climb down ladders into the lake, with the main city lido at the Cassarate river mouth. It is fine on a hot afternoon, but the season is shorter and there is no sand.

Cannes eats better, thanks to the sea and Provençal produce. The Forville market is full of local cheeses, olives and the morning catch, and the bistros in Le Suquet serve bouillabaisse, socca and grilled fish. There is also proper fine dining in the palace hotels and up towards Mougins, though the waterfront itself is often overpriced and dull.

Lugano's strength is the grotto, a rustic tavern by the rock cellars, serving polenta, braised meats and Ticino Merlot under chestnut trees. Outside that tradition there is little street food or international cooking, and many visitors save their big meals for Italy.

Neither town has many sights, and each can be seen in a morning or a day. What differs is the character. In Cannes it is Riviera history: the castle museum and church on Le Suquet, the Belle Époque palace hotels built for winter aristocrats, and the film-star handprints outside the Palais des Festivals.

Lugano has more art. Luini's Passion fresco in Santa Maria degli Angioli and the city art museum, split between the LAC and Palazzo Reali, are the highlights. Add the arcaded Lombard old town and the Hermann Hesse museum in Montagnola.

Cannes has the livelier nights, though mainly from June to September and during festivals. Then the Croisette beach clubs turn into party venues, a few clubs stay open until dawn, and the streets behind the old port fill with cocktail bars. It is a champagne-and-dress-up scene rather than an alternative one, and it goes quiet off-season.

Lugano's evenings are an aperitivo under the arcades or by the lake and then a long dinner, with only one or two clubs. Younger visitors who want a proper night out head to Milan.

Both have fine scenery, but Lugano's is right on the doorstep. Funiculars run from the edge of town to Monte Brè and San Salvatore, the rack railway climbs Monte Generoso, and the Monte Lema to Tamaro ridge is a full day's hike. The green rivers of the Verzasca and Maggia valleys are about an hour away.

Cannes depends more on short trips out of town. The best of it is the red volcanic rock of the Esterel, about twenty minutes west, and the pine paths of Sainte-Marguerite. The sea adds sailing and diving, though fire risk can close forest trails in high summer.

Both are excellent bases. Cannes has a slight edge, but the real difference is in kind. From Cannes everything follows the coast: Antibes, Nice, Villefranche, Monaco and Menton on one train line, with the perched villages of Saint-Paul-de-Vence and Èze and the perfume town of Grasse inland.

From Lugano you can cross a border. Milan with The Last Supper and Brera is just over an hour away by train, and Como is half an hour. In the other direction lie the castles of Bellinzona and the Borromean Islands on Lake Maggiore.

For small children, Cannes has the gentler ground. Its sandy beaches shelve slowly into calm water, and the level seafront promenade is easy going with a buggy, with merry-go-rounds and playgrounds dotted along it. A ferry crossing to the Lérins islands makes a shady picnic day, though in midsummer the heat and crowds call for early starts.

Lugano is hard work with a pushchair, because the town climbs steeply from the shore, but it has more to ride. Lake boats run to the villages, funiculars climb the two summits and a rack railway goes up Monte Generoso. Add the slides at the lidos, the playgrounds of Parco Ciani and, at Melide, a long-loved park where Switzerland's famous buildings stand in miniature.

Lugano is easier to get around, especially beyond the centre. A funicular links the station to the old town, and boats, rack railways and Swiss trains reach the villages, the summits, Bellinzona and Milan. Hotel stays usually include free regional transport.

Central Cannes is flat and you can walk across it in twenty minutes, and the coastal train is excellent. But Grasse, the perched villages and the Esterel corniche are much easier by car, and summer traffic and scarce parking make that a chore.

Cannes offers more for shoppers. The great Paris fashion and jewellery houses face the sea along the Croisette, and Rue d'Antibes, one street back, runs for over a kilometre of mid-range French fashion and chocolatiers. Rue Meynadier adds olive oil, soaps and Provençal fabrics.

Lugano's arcaded Via Nassa is mostly Swiss watches, jewellery and Italian labels, with delicatessens in the lanes nearby and an outlet village towards Mendrisio. Serious shoppers go on to Milan.

Neither is cheap, but Cannes is easier on the budget. Away from the waterfront, prices drop to ordinary French levels. Backstreet lunch menus, picnics from Forville, the free public beaches and cheap coastal trains all help, as does staying in a neighbouring town.

Lugano has Swiss prices for everything from hotels to boat trips and mountain railways. Set lunches, grotti and free regional transport soften the bill a little, and some visitors cross into Italy to eat.

The two are close, but their live programmes have different centres. Cannes is defined by its film festival. Few visitors can get in, but the public can join the free screenings on the beach. Beyond that there are the dance festival, summer concerts in the Le Suquet castle courtyard, and the Juan-les-Pins jazz festival just along the coast.

In Lugano most things happen at the LAC, home to the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana, where much of the drama is in Italian. In summer Estival Jazz fills Piazza della Riforma with free concerts.

Cannes offers a seafront kind of calm. You start the morning slowly with coffee on a terrace, walk along the bay in the evening and book the polished spas of the Croisette palace hotels, with seawater thalassotherapy further along the coast. It works best in spring and autumn. In August and during festival weeks, the noise and crowds get in the way.

In Lugano the calm is greener and slower. Afternoons are spent on a lido or a bench under the trees of Parco Ciani, and grotto lunches run on into the evening. Beyond the lakeside hotel spas, the large indoor complex of pools and saunas near Rivera, north of town, is the closest thing to a bathing day, since neither place has thermal springs.