Chamonix or Luxembourg?

Neither place is for a beach vacation, and both offer lakes as a hot-day extra. Chamonix has the small mountain lake at Passy, with Mont Blanc behind it, and Lake Annecy a little over an hour away. Luxembourg relies on the Upper Sûre reservoir and the gravel-pit lakes at Remerschen. The Alpine water feels colder and the setting is grander, while Luxembourg's lakes are easier to reach by public transport.

Luxembourg gives you more to eat. French cooking leads at the top end, Portuguese and Italian neighbourhood places fill in the middle, and the city has a surprising number of fine-dining kitchens. The Moselle Rieslings and crémant poured everywhere are the local pleasure.

Chamonix eats like a mountain resort: fondue, raclette and tartiflette made with Alpine cheeses, ideally on a refuge terrace facing the glaciers. It is satisfying after a day outdoors, but menus repeat and many places close between seasons.

Chamonix's sights tell a single story, the birth of alpinism: the first ascent of Mont Blanc in 1786, the first Winter Olympics in 1924, the Musée Alpin in a former Belle Époque palace hotel and the climbers' graves in the old cemetery. It makes a good half-day, and after that the mountains are what you came to look at.

In Luxembourg the town itself is the monument, an old centre on a sandstone plateau above two gorges, wrapped in the remains of a fortress listed by UNESCO. The casemate tunnels and the Corniche above the Grund fill a morning, and the Grand Ducal Palace, the cathedral, the national museum and MUDAM across the Red Bridge fill a second day, so a sightseer gets two full days here against Chamonix's afternoon.

Neither has a big night out, but the evenings feel different. Chamonix's is a ski-town scene: après-ski from late afternoon, then a crowded lane of old-town bars full of guides, seasonal workers and young English-speaking visitors, at its liveliest in winter.

Luxembourg spreads its going out between the bars and small clubs of the Rives de Clausen, riverside pubs in the Grund and later venues in Hollerich, with a professional crowd that is busiest midweek and thins out at weekends.

This is where Chamonix is in another league. Lifts carry you from a valley at about 1,000m to high glacier terrain, and from town you can start the Tour du Mont Blanc, ski the Vallée Blanche or climb with guides on some of the most famous rock and ice in Europe.

Luxembourg's outdoors is gentler and still worth time: wooded gorges through the city centre, the mossy rock passages of the Müllerthal, Ardennes river loops and cycle paths along the Moselle vineyards. It suits walkers and cyclists rather than climbers or skiers.

Luxembourg has more choice, and it is easier to reach. Roman Trier and cathedral city Metz are each under an hour by train, Nancy is a little further, and within the country Vianden castle, Echternach, Clervaux and the Moselle wine villages are all reachable without a car.

Chamonix's outings cross borders too, to Courmayeur and Roman Aosta through the tunnel, to Annecy and Geneva, or over to Martigny on the Mont Blanc Express. Mountain roads make these longer days, and beyond them the places in reach are mostly other resorts.

Chamonix gives active families more to do. The red train to the Mer de Glace, ski schools and sledging, the summer luge, treetop courses and the marmots and ibex at Merlet keep children busy, though the highest lifts are unsuitable for toddlers and wet days are hard to fill.

Luxembourg is calm, safe and easy with a buggy thanks to its lifts and funicular, and the casemate tunnels feel like an adventure. Beyond the natural history museum and the small park at Bettembourg, there is little made for children, so it works best as a short stay.

Luxembourg is the easier place to get around. Trams, buses and trains are free for everyone across the country, so the station, Kirchberg and towns like Vianden and Clervaux are all reachable without a ticket. Lifts and a funicular help with the city's different levels.

Chamonix's flat centre is easy to walk, and the guest card makes valley buses and the train free. In winter, though, crowded ski buses and thin evening services make it slower going.

Luxembourg has the wider range, with luxury and premium fashion on the Grand-Rue, chains on Avenue de la Gare, malls on the edge of town and Villeroy & Boch porcelain as the local speciality. Chamonix is all about technical gear: generations-old climbing and ski shops that serious mountaineers plan purchases around, plus cheese, génépi and rock crystals, and little else.

Both are expensive, for different reasons. In Chamonix the cost comes from peak-season chalets, lift passes and paid extras like guides and paragliding, but free valley transport, self-catering and trails from the valley floor help, and the shoulder seasons are cheaper.

Luxembourg's hotels and restaurants are priced for business travel, with weekend rates and lunch menus as the main relief. Free public transport and free museums keep the rest of the trip affordable.

Luxembourg is far ahead. The Philharmonie on Kirchberg has a resident orchestra and touring soloists, the Grand Théâtre hosts visiting opera, dance and drama, and the Rotondes and the old abbey at Neimënster add concerts through the year. In Chamonix, live performance mostly means the summer jazz festival, with some sets played high in the mountains, plus the odd church concert. Opera or a symphony means a trip to Geneva.

Both offer good spa days, in different settings. Chamonix's large thermal-style day spa has hot outdoor pools facing the glaciers, which is ideal after skiing, and Saint-Gervais has springs in a wooded gorge. The town itself is busy and starts early.

Luxembourg's spa is half an hour away at Mondorf-les-Bains, a nineteenth-century thermal park, and the city's quiet evenings and river walks make it more restful between visits.