Cannes or Monaco?

Cannes has the real beach. A long curve of fine sand runs below the Croisette, with private concessions broken up by public stretches, and the wide, mostly free Plage du Midi lies west of the old port. The rocky Lérins islands and the red-rock Esterel coves add more choice a short trip away.

Monaco has one city beach, the short, groomed Larvotto behind its breakwaters. Beyond that it offers rocky platforms and paid beach clubs. The water is clear and calm, but anyone who wants several beach days ends up on the train to Menton or Nice.

Both cook from the same Riviera larder of olive oil, vegetables and fish, so the difference is one of style. Cannes eats more simply: the Forville market, and the bistros of Le Suquet and Rue Meynadier serving bouillabaisse, socca and stuffed vegetables. The tables along the seafront are often tired, though.

Monaco leans towards starred and grand-hotel dining rooms and polished Italian cooking, with barbagiuan from the Condamine market as its own small speciality. Between the two extremes there is little casual eating.

Monaco gives a sightseer much more to do. The Rock holds the Prince's Palace and its guard ceremony, the cathedral where Grace Kelly is buried and the Oceanographic Museum of 1910. Monte-Carlo adds the Casino and the villas of the national museum, which show contemporary art and design.

Cannes fills a morning: the climb through Le Suquet to the castle museum and Notre-Dame d'Espérance, the Belle Époque palace hotels along the Croisette and a look at the red-carpet steps of the Palais des Festivals. Serious art lovers based in Cannes will spend most of their time elsewhere on the coast.

Both are places for dressing up and drinking champagne rather than for dive bars, and both go quiet outside summer. Monaco keeps a slightly steadier scene around the Casino square, the hotel bars and the clubs at Larvotto and the port, and on Grand Prix weekend the whole harbour becomes one long party.

Cannes depends more on the calendar. In summer and during festival weeks the beach clubs on the Croisette and the bars behind the old port fill up. Off-season it is an aperitif-and-dinner town.

The scenery is equally good, but the landscapes differ. From Cannes you reach the volcanic red rock of the Esterel, with trails to Pic de l'Ours, the pine paths of Sainte-Marguerite and the limestone shore of Cap d'Antibes.

Monaco sits under steep limestone mountains instead, with the view from Tête de Chien, the old mule path up to Èze and the coastal paths around Cap d'Ail and Cap Martin.

Both make excellent bases, and the difference lies in which stretch of the Riviera is closest. From Cannes the coastal train reaches Antibes and its Picasso museum in about fifteen minutes, Grasse and Mougins lie just inland, a short ferry crosses to the working monastery on the Lérins islands, and Saint-Tropez is about an hour and a half west along the coast.

Monaco is better placed for the far end of the coast near Italy. Villefranche and the perched village of Èze are close by on the Nice side, Menton and its lemon gardens are just to the east, and across the border you can reach Ventimiglia's market, Sanremo and Dolceacqua.

Families do about equally well in either, for different reasons. Cannes works for beach-based days, with gently sloping sand, calm water, and a flat Croisette with carousels for pushchairs and scooters.

Monaco has more to visit: the aquarium with its sharks, the small animal garden, the guard ceremony and the yachts. Its restaurants are formal and some of its streets are steep, though.

Monaco is easier to move around. It is only about 3km end to end, and free lifts, escalators, buses and the little solar ferry across the harbour take the strain out of its steep levels. A car is no use there.

The centre of Cannes is small and mostly flat, with the station right in the middle and trains along the coast. Grasse, the perched villages and the Esterel corniche push you towards a car, though, and that means summer traffic and scarce parking.

Each has a cluster of fashion houses and jewellers, along the Croisette in Cannes and in Monaco's Carré d'Or. Cannes goes much further. Rue d'Antibes runs for over a kilometre with mid-range French fashion and chocolatiers, Rue Meynadier sells olive oil and Provençal fabrics, and Forville holds a flea market on Mondays.

Monaco's offer stops at luxury, a small mall and souvenir shops on the Rock. Anyone who wants variety or more ordinary prices goes to Nice.

Neither is cheap, but Cannes leaves you room to save. Away from the waterfront, backstreet lunch menus, picnics from the Forville market and the public beaches bring costs back towards ordinary French levels. Spring and autumn stays outside event weeks help too.

Monaco offers almost no such way out, because rooms, meals and even café coffee are priced for the very wealthy. Its lifts and walks are free, and the usual tactic is to sleep in Beausoleil, Menton or Nice and come in for the day.

Monaco has by far the stronger stage. There is opera in the gilded Salle Garnier, and Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo and the philharmonic both have international reputations. They perform through a winter-to-spring season that includes the Printemps des Arts.

The film festival in Cannes is mostly closed to the public apart from the free screenings on the beach. Otherwise the town offers touring shows at the Palais, the regional orchestra, a dance festival and summer concerts in the castle courtyard on Le Suquet.

Neither has public baths or thermal springs, so in both places wellness means seawater treatments and hotel spas. Monaco does it on a larger scale, with the big thalassotherapy centre and its heated seawater pools beside the Casino, and quiet spots such as the Japanese Garden.

Cannes relies on the spas of its palace hotels and its slow pace, with calm seafront mornings in spring and autumn. August and festival weeks are too noisy to unwind.