Chamonix or Venice?

Chamonix has no sea and very little bathing. The town pool is there year-round and adds an outdoor basin in summer. Down the valley, Lac de Passy has a grassy shore and a sandy strip facing Mont Blanc, and it is warm enough to swim only in July and August. Lake Annecy is clearer and warmer, but it is over an hour away by car.

Venice is the better choice for a swim, though nobody would call it a beach destination. The Lido is a short vaporetto ride from San Marco, with kilometres of fine sand and shallow Adriatic water at around 25°C in high summer. The water is greenish but gentle enough for children, and Pellestrina is quieter. In both places a swim is a break from the real reason for the trip: the peaks in one and the paintings and palazzi in the other.

Venice eats better and with more character. You graze on cicchetti in the bacari around the Rialto, and the lagoon cooking includes cuttlefish risotto in its ink and soft-shell crab. The skill is avoiding the picture-menu places around San Marco.

Chamonix's food is heavy and cheese-based: fondue, raclette and tartiflette made with Reblochon and Beaufort, ideally eaten on a refuge terrace facing a glacier. The town's cheese shops and bakeries are best for picnics. Beyond that, resort menus repeat themselves, and many places close between seasons.

This is where the two differ most. In Venice the whole city is the sight: the Basilica and the Doge's Palace, the palazzi along the Grand Canal, and masterpieces hanging in ordinary parish churches. You could spend a week and still not run out.

Chamonix's heritage is the story of mountaineering, from the first ascent of Mont Blanc to the 1924 Winter Olympics, told in the Musée Alpin and the climbers' cemetery. It is interesting but quickly done. People come here to look at the mountains.

Neither has much of a night scene, but Chamonix stays out later. In winter, après-ski runs into a lane of crowded pubs in the old town, and a couple of small clubs open on busy nights. The crowd is young and mostly English-speaking, and summers are much calmer.

In Venice the evening peaks at aperitivo time, with spritzes along the Fondamenta della Misericordia. After that, a few student bars stay open on Campo Santa Margherita, and by midnight the canals are silent.

Chamonix is one of the great mountain bases in the world. The Mont Blanc massif rises nearly 4km above the valley, the Mer de Glace is a train ride away, and the Tour du Mont Blanc starts from town. Skiing, climbing, trail running and paragliding fill the year.

Venice's outdoors is gentle and flat. You can watch herons and flamingos in the salt marshes near Torcello, row Venetian-style or cycle the Lido. The nearest real hills are an hour away, and the Dolomites are a long day there and back.

Venice has the richer surroundings, and fast trains make them easy to reach. Padua's Scrovegni Chapel, Verona's arena and Palladio's Vicenza are each a short ride away, and Murano, Burano and Torcello are just a boat trip across the lagoon.

Chamonix's appeal is three countries close together. You can reach Courmayeur and Roman Aosta through the tunnel, take the train to Martigny in Switzerland, or drive to Annecy and Geneva. After those, mostly other resorts are within reach, and the mountain roads are slow.

Chamonix works better with children, as long as they like fresh air. In winter there are ski schools and sledging. In summer there are easy walks to lakes, treetop courses and the marmots and ibex of the Merlet park. The highest cable cars are too much for small children, though, and wet days are hard to fill.

Venice thrills children at first, with boats instead of buses and Murano glass-blowing. Then the stepped bridges, summer crowds and lack of playgrounds start to wear everyone down. It suits a short visit with older children best.

Both are easy without a car, but in different ways. Chamonix has a small, flat centre, and free buses and the Mont Blanc Express run the length of the valley with a guest card. In winter, though, the ski buses are packed.

Venice is a city you cross on foot, through twisting alleys and over hundreds of stepped bridges. Vaporetti handle the longer hops to the Lido and the islands, and they are slow and crowded. Wheeled luggage is a real burden here, and much less of one in Chamonix.

Venice offers more, and much of it is made in the city: Murano glass, Burano lace, papier-mâché masks, marbled paper and furlane slippers, with designer names along the Mercerie. The trick is telling real workshops from the imported copies on the main routes.

Chamonix is for mountain gear. Its long-established climbing and ski shops are worth saving a big purchase for. Apart from that, it is cheese, génépi and souvenirs, and for anything more you need Geneva or Annecy.

Both are expensive, so the question is where the money goes. In Chamonix, the lift passes, big cable cars, guides and paragliding add up on top of peak-season chalet prices. Free valley transport, self-catering and trails that start from the valley floor help.

In Venice, the cost is mostly the room, along with water transport and entry fees to sights. Standing at a bacaro counter, staying in Mestre or coming in late autumn keeps it bearable.

Venice wins easily. La Fenice runs a full season of opera, ballet and symphonic concerts, the Biennale stages contemporary theatre and dance, and there are Vivaldi concerts in churches most evenings, some of them very good.

Chamonix has a summer jazz festival with sets high in the mountains, and mountain film nights. For anything more formal, you have to go to Geneva.

Chamonix is the better place to recover. Its large day spa has hot outdoor pools looking up at the glaciers, many chalets have their own saunas, and Saint-Gervais has thermal springs in a gorge down the valley. The town itself is busy and starts early.

Venice has hotel spas in palazzi and on Giudecca, and its real thermal towns are an hour away near Padua. Its calm comes from silence instead. With no traffic, Castello and Cannaregio are very quiet in the early morning.