Chamonix or Saint-Tropez?

Saint-Tropez is the place to swim, and it is not close. Pampelonne gives you about 5km of pale sand on the Ramatuelle side, with beach clubs, public stretches and clear water warm enough from June to September. Escalet, Cap Taillat and Gigaro are wilder coves for quieter days. Small beaches like Les Graniers below the citadel are fine for a quick dip in town.

Chamonix sits high in a valley, far from any sea. A swim means the grassy shore of Lac de Passy in July and August, a day trip to Lake Annecy, or the outdoor pool in summer. It works as an afternoon off between hikes, never as a beach vacation.

Saint-Tropez eats a little better, and the food tastes of the Mediterranean: grilled fish, bouillabaisse, aïoli and Côtes de Provence rosé from the vineyards around the town. The Place des Lices market and the cream-filled tarte tropézienne are local institutions. The cooking is best at the expensive end, and quayside tables often charge for the view.

Chamonix serves Alpine comfort food: fondue, raclette and tartiflette made with Reblochon and Beaufort, eaten on terraces facing the glaciers or in refuges along the trails. Its cheese shops and bakeries are made for picnic lunches. Menus repeat themselves, though, and both towns close down a good deal out of season.

Neither town is a museum destination, but Saint-Tropez has more to see. The Musée de l'Annonciade holds a fine collection of pointillist and Fauvist painting from the years when Signac painted the harbour. Add the citadel's maritime museum and the ochre lanes of La Ponche, and you have a full, pleasant day.

Chamonix's heritage is a single story, the birth of alpinism. You get it in the Musée Alpin, the statues of the first Mont Blanc climbers, the guides' quarter and the climbers' cemetery. It takes about half a day, and it means most to visitors who have come for the peaks anyway.

Saint-Tropez has the bigger night out, though only in high summer. Afternoon parties at the Pampelonne beach clubs move on to champagne on the harbour and a few famous clubs open until dawn, with dress codes and table service. By October the harbour has gone quiet.

Chamonix goes out in a different way: après-ski in the late afternoon, then a lane of pubs in the old town where guides, seasonal workers and visitors drink side by side, mostly young and English-speaking. It is louder and more casual than glamorous. Summer evenings are mostly quiet drinks on terraces.

Chamonix is one of the great mountain landscapes anywhere. From a valley floor at about 1,000m, cable cars rise to 3,842m on the Aiguille du Midi, the rack railway runs up to the Mer de Glace, and Lac Blanc and the Grand Balcon trails start from town. There is steep skiing and the Vallée Blanche in winter, and climbing, via ferrata and paragliding in summer.

Saint-Tropez offers a softer kind of outdoors. The Sentier du Littoral passes pine-backed coves on its way to the capes of Camarat and Taillat. You can hike the cork-oak forests of the Maures, sail the gulf, snorkel off rocky points, or visit the protected islands of Port-Cros and Porquerolles. Summer heat and fire risk can close trails.

The two are about level on outings, but the trips are of a different kind. From Chamonix you cross borders. The Mont Blanc Tunnel takes you to Courmayeur and the Roman town of Aosta, the Mont Blanc Express runs to Martigny in Switzerland, and Geneva and Annecy are each a little over an hour away.

Saint-Tropez's outings stay closer to home and move at a slower pace. You can visit hilltop Ramatuelle and Gassin, Grimaud's ruined castle, wine tastings at the estates, Porquerolles for a full day, or take the boat across to Port Grimaud. Mountain roads slow down the Alpine trips, and summer traffic jams slow down the coastal ones.

Chamonix gives children far more to do. There are ski schools with gentle nursery slopes, sledging, a summer luge, treetop courses, easy walks to lakes and the Merlet park, where marmots and ibex roam in front of Mont Blanc. The highest cable cars are not for small children, though, and wet days are hard to fill.

In Saint-Tropez, family life comes down to the gently shelving sand at Pampelonne and Gigaro. The harbour and the beach clubs are aimed at adults, hot afternoons and traffic wear children out, and many families stay across the gulf in Sainte-Maxime instead.

Chamonix is much easier to get around. Its flat centre is walkable, the main cable car stations are in town, and valley buses and the Mont Blanc Express are free with the guest card, from Les Houches all the way to Vallorcine. You will not miss a car, although winter ski buses get packed.

Saint-Tropez is just as easy on foot inside town, and that is where the ease ends. There is no railway, buses are slow, the beaches are several kilometres out, and the single road along the gulf jams for hours in summer. The passenger boats from Sainte-Maxime are often the best way in.

For shopping, Saint-Tropez is far ahead for a town of its size. The big fashion houses open summer shops behind the port and around the Place de la Garonne. The leather Tropézienne sandal is still made by hand in the old town, and the Place des Lices market sells linen, baskets and pottery.

In Chamonix, shopping means mountain gear. Its family-run climbing and ski shops are worth saving a big equipment purchase for, but beyond them there is cheese, génépi, crystals and souvenirs.

Both are costly, and Saint-Tropez is the harder on the wallet. In July and August it charges yachting-crowd prices for rooms, loungers and even a coffee on the port, and the poor transport adds taxis or parking on top. Budget visitors usually sleep inland or across the gulf.

Chamonix is expensive too, especially lift passes, guides and the peak school weeks, but it is easier to cut costs. The valley transport is free, apartments make self-catering simple, and many trails start on foot from the valley floor without paying for a lift.

Neither offers much, and Saint-Tropez is only slightly ahead. It has summer concerts in gardens and on the citadel, live sets at the beach clubs, and the Bravade each May, a centuries-old musket procession in costume.

Chamonix's best moment is a summer jazz festival with some sets played high in the mountains, plus mountain film evenings the rest of the year. For opera or theatre, Chamonix sends you to Geneva and Saint-Tropez to Toulon or Nice.

Chamonix is the better place to relax, as long as you have earned it first. Its large day spa, built on the Italian thermal model, has hot outdoor pools looking up at the glaciers. Saint-Gervais, about 25 minutes away, has warm springs in a wooded gorge. Many chalets also have their own saunas.

Saint-Tropez has no bathing tradition. Its spas belong to luxury hotels and mostly serve their own guests. Its kind of rest is slower: in May, June and September, long lunches, morning walks to the citadel and pétanque under the plane trees make it a calm place, once the summer noise has gone.