Colmar or Lyon?

Neither has a coast, and neither suits a swimming vacation. Lyon is slightly better placed, because the supervised bathing lake at Miribel-Jonage sits on the edge of the city and the Alpine lakes of Annecy and Bourget make a day out. Colmar has its municipal pools and a few small lakes up in the Vosges valleys, and that is all.

Both cities live on their regional cooking, but Lyon is the stronger place to eat. It has the bouchon tradition, the legacy of the Mères lyonnaises and the great chefs, a large indoor market and Sunday markets on the Saône, with Beaujolais and northern Rhône wines close by. Set lunches make eating well easy.

Colmar's appeal is narrower and more focused: choucroute, baeckeoffe and tarte flambée in panelled winstubs, with Riesling and Gewurztraminer from the slopes outside town and cellar tastings in the villages. Beyond Alsatian cooking the choice thins out quickly, and the prettiest streets have plenty of tired menus.

Lyon offers more to see and needs more time to see it. Its sights cover two thousand years, from the Roman theatres of Lugdunum through the traboules of Vieux Lyon to the Musée des Beaux-Arts and the Institut Lumière, and it takes several full days.

Colmar is compact and very good. Its old town survives as one whole, and the Unterlinden Museum holds the Isenheim Altarpiece, a single masterpiece worth the journey on its own. Two days covers the town comfortably, which makes it a fine short stop rather than a long cultural stay.

This is one of the biggest gaps between them. Lyon's student population keeps its bars busy: wine and cocktail bars between Hôtel de Ville and the Terreaux, pubs in Vieux Lyon, club barges on the Rhône and warehouse clubs towards Gerland, even if weeknights end earlier than you might expect.

Colmar's evenings are a long dinner and a glass of wine on a terrace near Petite Venise, and then quiet. For a real night out, locals take the train to Strasbourg.

The two are broadly level, but the outdoors works differently in each. Around Colmar the countryside is right there: vineyard paths start within half an hour, and the rounded, forested Vosges, with glacial lakes, summer pastures and the Route des Crêtes, are just behind them. Autumn is the best season.

Lyon's outdoor life starts inside the city, with car-free Rhône quays for running and cycling, the Parc de la Tête d'Or and steep stairways up two hills. For serious hiking you drive about an hour to the Chartreuse or Vercors, and the high Alps are further still.

Colmar is the better base for day trips. Eguisheim, Riquewihr, Kaysersberg and Ribeauvillé are only a few kilometres apart, Strasbourg is about half an hour by train, and two other countries are close, with Basel under an hour away and Freiburg around an hour. The catch is that the villages really need a car or a bike.

Lyon also has good options, including Roman Vienne a short train ride south, medieval Pérouges, the Beaujolais and Burgundy's wine towns. The more famous names, such as Annecy and Geneva, are farther away, at the outer edge of a day out.

Both are easy with children, but the fun sits in different places. In Lyon most of it is in the city: the free zoo, pedalos and pony rides in the Parc de la Tête d'Or, dinosaurs at the Musée des Confluences, Guignol puppet shows and the funiculars.

Colmar itself offers boat rides through Petite Venise and storks on the rooftops. Its bigger draws lie outside town and need a car: the Hunawihr stork park, the macaques at Kintzheim, the Mulhouse railway and car museums, and Europa-Park across the Rhine.

Colmar is so small that you can walk everywhere in town, and trains to Strasbourg and Mulhouse are quick. The problem is the countryside you came for. Buses to the wine villages and the Vosges are thin, so most visitors hire a car or a bicycle.

Lyon is easier to manage without a car. The four metro lines, the trams and the buses all run on one ticket, and funiculars climb the hills. A bike-share scheme and riverside cycle paths add another option, and an airport tram runs to Part-Dieu. The steep hills and small metro network do sometimes mean a climb or a change.

Lyon has far more choice: chains along the rue de la République, luxury labels near Place des Jacobins, the large Part-Dieu mall, plus silk from its weaving past and designer workshops on Croix-Rousse.

Colmar is for regional things to take home, such as wine straight from the producer, Soufflenheim pottery, Alsatian table linen and gingerbread. Its Christmas markets are the highlight of the year, but there is little fashion or big-name retail.

Costs are similar, moderate by Western European standards, but the pressure points differ. In Colmar the hard part is a room: the town is small, and the Christmas market weeks push prices up, though staying in a nearby village helps and tastings are often free or cheap.

In Lyon, rooms are reasonable most of the year except during trade fairs and the Fête des Lumières. The best value is the generous bouchon set lunch.

Lyon is far ahead for evenings at the theatre or concert hall. It has a resident opera company and ballet, a national orchestra, the Théâtre des Célestins, and dance as a real specialism, from the Maison de la Danse to the Biennale. In summer, the Nuits de Fourvière festival puts performances in the Roman theatres.

Colmar has a small municipal theatre and a classical festival in July, but outside the festival weeks there is little on, and serious opera means going to Strasbourg or Basel.

Neither city has a bathing tradition. Lyon offers a bit more, with hammams, day spas, a large open-air pool on the Rhône quays, and Aix-les-Bains for thermal baths an hour and a half away. Colmar comes down to hotel spas, but quiet canal-side evenings and slow walks through the vines make it restful in a different way.