Cardiff or Paris?

Neither is a beach destination, but Cardiff at least has sand within reach. Barry Island's bay and funfair are about half an hour away by train, Penarth has its pebbles and pier, and Porthcawl and the Gower are an hour or more by car. The sea stays cool, so expect to paddle rather than swim.

Paris is inland. Its summer river beaches and the swimming spots on the Bassin de la Villette are for cooling off, not a seaside. The Normandy coast at Deauville is about two hours away by train, so sea swimming means a separate trip.

Food is one of the widest gaps between the two. Cardiff's best eating starts at the Victorian market, with Welsh cakes off the griddle and laverbread with cockles. From there it moves out to the neighbourhood bistros of Pontcanna and Canton and the Middle Eastern and South Asian kitchens along City Road, with good local ale in the pubs.

In Paris, eating is the backbone of the day. Every quarter has its bakery and cheese shop, and the Marché d'Aligre and the covered Enfants Rouges fill the mornings. Zinc-counter bistros sit alongside natural wine bars and small, inventive neo-bistros in the east of the city, while pho in the Asian quarter to the south-east and couscous in Belleville widen the range further. Many people plan a whole trip around eating in Paris, which few would do in Cardiff.

Both cities hold strong Impressionist paintings, which says something for Cardiff's National Museum, but the scale is very different. Cardiff has a castle with lavish Victorian Gothic rooms, the white stone civic centre, St Fagans and Llandaff Cathedral. That is a full two or three days, and little of it is older than the Victorian era.

In Paris, the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay, the Sainte-Chapelle, the Marais townhouses and the Haussmann boulevards could each carry a trip on their own. The price is crowds: at the big sights you need to book ahead, which you rarely do in Cardiff.

Cardiff's nights are loud and concentrated in a few streets. Big groups fill St Mary Street on Saturdays, rugby days turn the whole centre into one crowd, and Womanby Street's small alternative bars are the more interesting option. Midweek is quiet, and a couple of nights covers it.

Paris goes on later and in more directions. Evenings move from wine bars and drinks on the canal banks in Oberkampf and Belleville to cocktails in South Pigalle, then house and techno clubs until dawn. The style is chic rather than rowdy, with pickier doors and dearer drinks.

Cardiff has the real landscape. Bute Park leads straight onto the Taff Trail, the coast path runs past the Penarth cliffs, and the open moorland of the Bannau Brycheiniog and Pen y Fan is about an hour's drive away. Pack for rain, and for wind on the tops.

Paris has formal gardens, the cliffs and lake of the Buttes-Chaumont and the large woods of Boulogne and Vincennes. The forest of Fontainebleau, with its sandstone boulders, is forty minutes out by train. There are no mountains or open upland anywhere in the region, so expect gentle walking and cycling rather than a day on the heights.

Both make good bases, but Paris has the longer list. Cardiff's trips are about castles and industry: Caerphilly by train, Castell Coch in the woods, Tintern Abbey with Chepstow and the Big Pit mine at Blaenavon. Bath and Bristol are across the Severn.

From Paris, Versailles, Chartres and Giverny are each about an hour away or less. Fast trains put Reims and its Champagne houses, Rouen and Tours, the gateway to the Loire, within easy reach. On a long stay you could spend as many days on outings as in the city.

Cardiff is the easier place to manage with children, as it is flat, compact and mostly free. There is Techniquest at the Bay, the farm animals at St Fagans and rowing boats on the lake at Roath Park. What it lacks is a big draw: there is no zoo, aquarium or theme park.

Paris has the big draws: Disneyland and Parc Astérix, the Cité des Sciences, the zoo at Vincennes, and carousels and toy boats in the Luxembourg gardens. Daily life is harder, with metro stairs, small hotel rooms and long queues, but there is far more to fill the days.

Cardiff's centre is small enough to cross on foot in minutes. The Bay is half an hour's walk or a short shuttle train away, and local trains run to Penarth and Caerphilly. There is no metro, and you need a car for the national park.

Paris has one of the great walking centres, plus a dense metro and the RER out to Versailles and the airports, so nowhere is hard to reach. Expect stairs and long corridors, packed rush hours and pickpockets on the tourist lines.

Cardiff's shopping is mostly high-street chains, with one real asset: its glass-roofed Victorian and Edwardian arcades, full of record shops, vintage clothing and books. It fills an afternoon.

In Paris, shopping can be the whole trip, from the couture houses of Avenue Montaigne and the dome of Galeries Lafayette to the Marais designers, the Saint-Ouen flea market and the bouquinistes along the Seine. Even the chocolate, cheese and mustard shops give you more to take home than Cardiff's lovespoons and woollen blankets.

Cardiff is the cheaper stay. Hotels are moderate on ordinary dates, the national museums, St Fagans included, are free, and the train rides to castles are short and inexpensive. The catch is a rugby international or a stadium concert, when room prices jump.

Paris costs more at almost every turn, from small, expensive hotel rooms to drinks on a terrace and full-price museum tickets. Bakeries, markets, lunchtime set menus and picnics by the river all help, and so does staying in the outer arrondissements.

Cardiff has a solid stage of its own. Welsh National Opera is at the Wales Millennium Centre, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales is based in the city, and the small venues around Womanby Street put on young bands most nights. That grassroots scene is its strength.

Paris has two opera houses, with ballet at the Palais Garnier, as well as the Philharmonie and candlelit concerts in the Sainte-Chapelle, plus jazz cellars and cabaret in Pigalle. Much of the theatre is in French, but the music alone goes well beyond what Cardiff offers.

Neither city is a wellness destination. In Cardiff, the options are hotel spas, day spas and the pools of the Bay hotels, so rest mostly means slow mornings in Pontcanna cafés and walks along the Taff.

Paris has a little more, mainly the tiled steam rooms of the hammam at the Grande Mosquée and a few handsome historic pools. Its noise and pace work against a real rest, though.