Colmar or La Spezia?

Colmar sits in the Alsace plain, a long way from any coast. In summer, swimming means a municipal pool or a small lake up in the Vosges valleys.

La Spezia's own waterfront is a working port, but the gulf has plenty of swimming. San Terenzo and Lerici have sheltered sand and pebble, Portovenere and Palmaria have clear rocky coves, and the sandy beach at Monterosso is a short train ride away. Many beaches are small and pebbly, and paid bathing clubs cover much of the shore, so treat it as a day out rather than a beach resort.

Both towns eat well, in very different ways. Colmar's cooking is hearty Alsatian food served in wood-panelled winstubs: choucroute, baeckeoffe, tarte flambée and munster cheese, with Riesling and Gewurztraminer from the slopes outside town. A few ambitious restaurants add a fine-dining option, though the most photographed streets have plenty of tired menus.

La Spezia's food is lighter and more casual: farinata from wood ovens, rope-grown mussels from the gulf, trofie with pesto and crisp Cinque Terre whites. You will eat well and fairly cheaply, but there is little fine dining, and in both towns the choice beyond local cooking is narrow.

Colmar has much more to see. The old town works as a single whole, from Maison Pfister and the Koïfhus to the canals of Petite Venise. The Unterlinden Museum's Isenheim Altarpiece alone justifies the journey, and Schongauer's Madonna in the Dominican church adds another masterpiece.

La Spezia's centre is a grid of arcaded streets laid out around the naval base. The Museo Amedeo Lia and the stele statues in Castello San Giorgio fill a day well, but the region's real heritage is in Portovenere and the coastal villages.

Neither town is a place for a big night out, but La Spezia has more going on in the early evening. Aperitivo crowds fill Via del Prione and Piazza Verdi, and in summer people move on to the waterfront bars at Lerici. Colmar's evenings usually end with a glass of wine after dinner by the canals. For anything later, take the train to Strasbourg.

La Spezia has the more dramatic scenery. Terraced cliffs drop into the sea along the Cinque Terre, there are ridge paths above the busy Sentiero Azzurro, and Palmaria has a loop walk past forts and sea caves. You can also kayak and dive in the gulf, and the marble peaks of the Apuan Alps are an hour inland.

Colmar's outdoors is gentler: marked paths through the vines between villages, then the rounded, forested Vosges and the Route des Crêtes. The plain is good for cycling, and there is modest skiing in winter, but you will want a car for most of it.

Both make excellent bases. Colmar's trips cross three countries: the wine villages of Eguisheim, Riquewihr and Kaysersberg close by, Strasbourg half an hour by train, and Basel and Freiburg about an hour away. The villages are much easier by car or bike.

From La Spezia almost everything works without a car. The Cinque Terre villages are minutes away on the coastal train, boats run to Portovenere, and Pisa and Lucca are about an hour by rail.

Colmar is easier with children. The town is flat and small, with boat rides through Petite Venise, storks on the rooftops and a children's Christmas market. Nearby are the stork and otter park at Hunawihr, the macaques at Kintzheim, and Europa-Park across the Rhine.

La Spezia is safe and relaxed, and its shallow beaches and boat trips go down well with children. Beyond that there is no zoo or theme park, and crowded trains and steep village lanes suit older children far better than toddlers.

You can walk everywhere in the centre of both towns, but La Spezia connects better with what lies beyond. Coastal trains, buses round the gulf and seasonal ferries reach almost every sight, and a car only causes trouble on the narrow village roads. The catch is the packed trains in summer.

Colmar's trains go quickly to Strasbourg and Mulhouse, but buses to the wine villages and the Vosges are infrequent, so most visitors hire a car or a bicycle.

Neither town is a shopping destination. Colmar is the place for regional crafts: Soufflenheim pottery, kougelhopf moulds, printed table linen and wine bought straight from the producer, with the Christmas markets as the high point of the year. In La Spezia, Via del Prione is everyday chain-store shopping, and the things worth taking home are pesto, olive oil, Sciacchetrà and Carrara marble.

Both are mid-priced by Western European standards, and the costs fall in different places. In Colmar, rooms are the problem, especially in the Christmas market weeks, while village wine tastings are often cheap or free. La Spezia is the cheaper place to sleep compared with the Cinque Terre villages, but trail passes, boat trips and bathing clubs add up. Both are easier on the budget outside their peak seasons.

Live performance is thin in both towns and mostly comes in festival weeks. Colmar has its classical festival in July, a jazz festival in autumn and touring visits from the Opéra national du Rhin. La Spezia's summer brings a long-established jazz festival and open-air concerts in castle courtyards around the gulf. For serious opera, go to Strasbourg or Basel from Colmar, and to Genoa or Pisa from La Spezia.

Anyone looking for a spa will find little in either place, so the difference is in how each town lets you slow down. Colmar has hotel spas in town and in the wine villages. Its real calm comes once the day-trippers leave, with quiet evenings by the canals and unhurried walks through the vines.

La Spezia also has the small thermal baths at Equi Terme, about an hour inland in the Lunigiana valley. Beyond that, the restful side of a stay is a long lunch in Lerici or Tellaro, or a quiet day on Palmaria, and both are at their best outside summer, away from the crowds on the Cinque Terre paths.