Chamonix or Frankfurt?

Neither of these is a place for a beach, but Chamonix has slightly better summer swimming. Lac de Passy has a sandy strip with Mont Blanc in front of it, and Lake Annecy's clear water is a day out by car.

Frankfurt has to make do with outdoor pools and gravel-pit lakes such as the Langener Waldsee in the southern forest. These are pleasant enough in July and August, but they are where locals cool off rather than anything to travel for.

Frankfurt gives you more variety and more character at the table. You eat Grüne Soße and Handkäs at shared tables in the Sachsenhausen apple-wine taverns and shop in the Kleinmarkthalle. Turkish, Italian and Asian kitchens and the cheap global food of the Bahnhofsviertel widen the choice.

Chamonix's strength is narrower. It does Savoyard cheese dishes made with Reblochon and Beaufort, and the terrace lunches at mountain refuges facing the glaciers are memorable. In town, though, the menus repeat themselves, and many places close outside the winter and summer seasons.

Frankfurt has far more to see. The Museumsufer holds the Städel's old masters, the Schirn's exhibitions and the Senckenberg's natural history collections. Around the Römer, the Paulskirche, the cathedral and Goethe's birthplace, together with Germany's only real skyline, fill two or three days.

Chamonix's heritage is the story of alpinism, told in the Musée Alpin and the Espace Tairraz and through the statues of the pioneers who first climbed Mont Blanc. It is interesting, but you will have seen it in a morning.

Frankfurt offers more kinds of night out. It has a small, serious techno and house club scene with roots in Offenbach, cocktail bars in the rough-edged station district, rowdy pubs in Alt-Sachsenhausen and easy-going bars along Berger Straße. It comes alive mainly at weekends.

Chamonix's evenings are livelier than you might expect from a mountain town, but they come down to one thing: winter après-ski, then a single lane of bars full of guides, seasonal workers and young English-speaking visitors. Summer nights are quiet, and the shoulder seasons quieter still.

This is where Chamonix leaves Frankfurt far behind. The Mont Blanc massif rises almost 4km above the valley floor, and cable cars carry you into glacier country in minutes. Winter brings steep skiing and the Vallée Blanche, and summer brings mountaineering, via ferrata and paragliding.

Frankfurt's green spaces are pleasant but gentle. The Stadtwald and the cycle paths along the Main are on the doorstep, and the beech forests of the Taunus and the vineyard paths of the Rheingau are a short ride away. They are good for a walk or a ride, not for anything high or wild.

Chamonix's day trips cross borders. Through the Mont Blanc Tunnel you reach Courmayeur and the Roman walls and theatre of Aosta, the Mont Blanc Express climbs over into Switzerland to Martigny, and Annecy's canals and Geneva's lakefront are a little over an hour by car. Once you have done those, mountain roads stretch the journeys and most of what is left is other resorts.

Frankfurt gives you far more to choose from, because it sits at the hub of Germany's high-speed rail network. Heidelberg's castle, Cologne Cathedral, the castle-lined Rhine Gorge and Marburg's hillside old town are all about an hour away, and Würzburg's baroque Residenz is not much further. Mainz with its Gutenberg Museum and Darmstadt's Art Nouveau colony are closer still, and a week would not use up the list.

Both work well with children, but the days look very different. In Chamonix you spend them outdoors: nursery slopes and sledging in winter, and in summer the summer luge, treetop courses, the marmots at the Merlet park and the little red train to the Mer de Glace. Rainy days are the weak spot, and the highest lifts are not for toddlers.

Frankfurt is the indoor and pushchair-friendly option. The Senckenberg's dinosaur hall, the central zoo, the Palmengarten's glasshouses and the boat trips past the skyline are all easy to reach by tram.

Both centres are small enough to walk, but Frankfurt's transport goes further. Its integrated U-Bahn, S-Bahn and tram network covers the whole region on one ticket system, and trains link the airport to the centre in about a quarter of an hour.

Chamonix gets by with valley buses and the Mont Blanc Express, both free with the guest card. In winter the ski buses are crowded, the evening services thin out, and most visitors arrive by shuttle from Geneva.

Frankfurt is the place for general shopping. The Zeil has the department stores and malls, Goethestraße the luxury houses, and Berger Straße and Schweizer Straße the independent boutiques and delis.

Chamonix's pedestrian streets are given over to climbing, ski and outdoor shops, some run by the same families for generations, and serious mountaineers save their big purchases for them. Beyond Savoyard cheese, génépi and rock crystals, there is little else to buy.

Neither is cheap, but Frankfurt is easier on the budget. Hotel prices jump during the trade fairs and drop at weekends and in summer. The taverns, Turkish grills and the Museumsufer pass keep everyday costs moderate.

Chamonix costs resort prices at every turn: rooms in the peak weeks, lift passes, cable cars, guides and paragliding flights. You can soften this with free valley transport, self-catering, picnics and trails that need no lift.

Frankfurt has a full cultural calendar and Chamonix barely has one. Frankfurt's opera company is known for adventurous productions, and the Alte Oper hosts the radio symphony orchestra. Add serious drama at the Schauspiel, contemporary dance at Mousonturm and jazz cellars, and there is something on most nights from autumn to early summer.

Chamonix has its summer jazz festival, with some sets played up in the mountains, and the odd church concert. For anything more, you have to go to Geneva.

The two are evenly matched for relaxing, but in different settings. In Chamonix you unwind after effort, in hot outdoor pools and saunas looking up at the glaciers, with the old thermal springs of Saint-Gervais down the valley.

Frankfurt has no bathing tradition of its own, but it is surrounded by historic spa towns. The Art Nouveau Kaiser-Friedrich-Therme in Wiesbaden and the thermal baths of Bad Homburg are both an easy trip out.