Cannes or Zurich?

Cannes is a real beach town. Its fine sand curves around a calm bay, the long Plage du Midi is mostly free, and the Lérins islands and the red-rock Esterel coves are close by when you want clearer water. The sea stays warm enough to swim from June into early October, though the central beaches are packed in high summer.

Zurich swims well for an inland city, but from wooden bathing houses, lawns and decks on a clean lake, or by floating down the Limmat at the Letten river baths. The season is shorter, and you will find no sand. It works as a dip after sightseeing, not as the reason for the trip.

The two are broadly level, but they eat in very different ways. Cannes cooks from the sea and the Provençal hinterland, and you see it best at the Forville market and in the bistros of Le Suquet. Order bouillabaisse, socca, stuffed vegetables and rosé, but avoid the tired seafront menus.

Zurich is at its best in winter comfort food: veal Geschnetzeltes with rösti, and fondue in panelled guild houses. It is strong on chocolate and confectionery, with the Paradeplatz tea rooms as the classic stop. Kreis 4 and 5 add casual international cooking, but there is nothing like Forville's market life.

Zurich has much more to see. The Kunsthaus runs from Swiss painters to Monet, Munch and Giacometti, the National Museum tells the country's story, and the Rietberg covers art from beyond Europe. The two-bank Altstadt adds the Grossmünster, where the Swiss Reformation began, and Chagall's windows in the Fraumünster.

Cannes is pretty rather than rich in sights. You can do the castle museum on Le Suquet, the Belle Époque hotels and the handprints outside the Palais des Festivals in a single morning. For serious art, you take the train to Antibes or Nice.

Zurich has the deeper and more reliable night scene, built on electronic music. Clubs in Kreis 4 and 5 and Zurich West run until morning at weekends, rough-edged Langstrasse mixes bars and late food, and the August Street Parade takes over the lake shore. Rounds are very expensive, though.

Cannes goes out in a different way and mainly in season. From June to September, Croisette beach clubs and the bars behind the old port draw a dressed-up champagne crowd. Outside summer and the festivals, nights rarely go beyond dinner.

Lake and Alps against red rock and sea: the two landscapes could hardly be more different. Cannes's outdoors is coastal and warm. The volcanic Esterel drops into deep blue water about twenty minutes west, eucalyptus and pine paths circle Sainte-Marguerite, and the shore path rounds the wild limestone of Cap d'Antibes. Kayaking and diving around the islands fill the summer days, though in high summer fire risk can close the forest trails.

Zurich reaches further and higher. The snow-capped Glarus Alps rise at the far end of its lake, the Uetliberg ridge is a short train ride from the centre, and Rigi, Pilatus and the Flumserberg slopes are about an hour away, with high-mountain hiking in summer and a day's skiing in winter. From Cannes, the gorges of the pre-Alps and the ski areas lie much further inland.

Both are excellent bases, and the difference is in what you reach. From Cannes the coastal train strings together Antibes, Nice, Villefranche, Monaco and Menton. A car or bus takes you to perched villages like Saint-Paul-de-Vence and Èze, perfume-making Grasse, and Saint-Tropez further west.

From Zurich the outings are Swiss cities and lakes rather than seaside towns: Lucerne's wooden bridges, Bern's arcades, Basel's museums, St Gallen's abbey library and the Rhine Falls. Zurich's advantage is that the train reaches all of them, while Cannes's hill villages are easier by car.

Zurich is the better choice with children. The zoo, with its indoor Madagascar rainforest and elephant park, is a full day, the lake lidos have shallow water and lawns, and the Technorama and the Lucerne transport museum are easy train trips. The whole city is clean, safe and buggy-friendly.

Cannes gives small children gently sloping sand, calm water and carousels on the flat Croisette, plus picnics in the pine woods on the islands. Beyond the beach, though, there is little aimed at children, and the midsummer heat shapes the day.

Zurich makes getting around effortless. Trams, S-Bahn, funiculars, the Uetliberg railway and even the lake boats all run on one ticket, and the airport is a short train ride from the main station. A car would be more hindrance than help.

Cannes's flat centre is easy on foot, apart from the climb up Le Suquet, and coastal trains link it well to Antibes, Nice and Monaco. Once you head inland to Grasse, the villages or the Esterel corniche, you will want a car, with heavy summer traffic and scarce parking.

Both towns have a luxury street at their heart, and what differs is what lies around it. In Cannes the great Paris fashion and jewellery houses face the sea, so browsing the Croisette is part of the evening walk, with Rue d'Antibes one street back for everyday French clothes and shoes. Cannes is at its best for edible and Provençal things: Rue Meynadier and the Forville market are where you pick up olive oil, cheese, soaps and printed fabric to take home.

Zurich has a little more range. Its Bahnhofstrasse has the one thing Cannes cannot match, Swiss watchmaking, from the famous makers on the main street to small dealers in the lanes behind. It also has a design side that Cannes mostly lacks, in the shops under the old railway viaduct in Zurich West and the antique dealers of the Niederdorf. In Cannes, the closest thing to a local craft is perfume, and for that you go up to Grasse.

Neither is cheap, but Cannes is clearly easier on the wallet. Away from the seafront, prices fall back to normal French levels: backstreet lunch menus, Forville picnics, free public beaches and cheap coastal trains all help. Spring and autumn outside festival weeks are far more reasonable.

Zurich is expensive at almost every turn, from simple hotel rooms to a casual lunch and a drink. Supermarket picnics by the lake, free lidos and the visitor card take a little off, but the bill stays high.

Zurich has a real stage culture. The Opernhaus runs a full season of opera and ballet, the Tonhalle Orchestra plays in a restored nineteenth-century hall, and the Schauspielhaus is a leading German-language theatre. The Rote Fabrik and the clubs of Kreis 4 and 5 cover jazz, indie and electronic acts.

Cannes's famous film festival is an industry event, and the public mostly sees it through free beach screenings. The rest of the year brings the regional philharmonic, a respected dance festival, summer concerts in the Le Suquet castle courtyard and the nearby Juan-les-Pins jazz festival. Outside these, there is not much on.

Zurich offers more for a restful stay. The thermal pools in the stone vaults of the old Hürlimann brewery have a rooftop pool, and in the colder months the wooden lake and river bathing houses become saunas with cold-water dips. The Roman-era hot springs of Baden are a short train ride away.

Cannes has polished palace-hotel spas and seawater thalassotherapy, but no public baths. Its calm comes from slow terrace mornings and evening walks by the bay in spring and autumn. August and festival weeks are too loud for unwinding.