Colmar or Monaco?

Here the two could hardly be further apart. Colmar sits deep inland on the Alsace plain, so swimming means a municipal pool or a small lake up in the Vosges, and nobody plans a trip around it.

Monaco is on the Mediterranean, with clear summer water at the sheltered Larvotto beach, rocky platforms and private clubs, and coves at Cap d'Ail just over the border. Its own beach is small, though, and anyone who wants long stretches of sand takes the train to Nice or Menton.

Colmar has the stronger table and the more defined identity. Its wood-panelled winstubs serve choucroute, baeckeoffe, tarte flambée and munster cheese, the covered market by the canal is full of charcuterie and gingerbread, and the wine comes from the surrounding hills. Away from Alsatian cooking the choice is narrow, though.

Monaco eats at the top end: starred dining rooms in grand hotels, polished Italian restaurants and harbour terraces serving Riviera and Ligurian food. Barbagiuan and socca at the Condamine market are the local touch, but casual, cheap meals are hard to find and many visitors eat in Nice or Menton instead.

Colmar offers more to see in depth. Its old town survives almost whole, with the Maison Pfister, the Koïfhus and the canals of Petite Venise, and the Unterlinden Museum holds Grünewald's Isenheim Altarpiece, a painting many people travel specifically to see. Schongauer's Madonna in the Dominican church adds a second masterpiece.

Monaco's sights are fewer and more about setting: the Prince's Palace and its guard ceremony on the Rock, Grace Kelly's tomb in the cathedral, the Belle Époque Oceanographic Museum and the Casino across the harbour. Both take a day or two, but Colmar leaves you with more.

Neither place is a party town, but Monaco has a real night out and Colmar does not. In Colmar the evening is a long dinner followed by a glass in a wine bar near Petite Venise, the streets are quiet early and there are hardly any clubs, so a proper night out means taking the train to Strasbourg.

Monaco dresses up for the hotel bars around the Casino square and the glossy clubs on the Larvotto seafront and the port, and the scene is at its liveliest in summer and on Grand Prix weekend. What it lacks is anything casual, such as pubs or dive bars, and younger visitors often head to Nice.

Both have fine scenery close by, but of very different kinds. From Colmar you walk through vineyards between wine villages and drive up to the Route des Crêtes, with rounded, forested Vosges summits, glacial lakes, summer pastures and views to the Black Forest. It is good cycling country, at its best in autumn.

Monaco is entirely built up, but limestone mountains rise straight from the sea behind it, with the mule path up to Èze, the view from the Tête de Chien and coastal paths around Cap Martin. You also have clear water for snorkelling, diving and paddleboarding, which Colmar cannot offer.

Both are excellent bases, and the main difference is how you travel. From Colmar, Strasbourg is a short train ride away and Basel and Freiburg are about an hour, but Eguisheim, Riquewihr, Kaysersberg and Haut-Koenigsbourg along the wine route really need a car or a bike.

From Monaco almost everything works by train or bus: Villefranche, Nice, Menton, Èze, and further along Antibes, Cannes and Grasse, plus Sanremo and Dolceacqua across the Italian border. Colmar gives you wine villages and three countries' cities, Monaco a coastline of resorts and hill towns.

Colmar has its gentle pleasures in town and its big attractions a drive away. Children can take the flat-bottomed boats through Petite Venise, ride the little train and look for storks on the rooftops. The bigger days out need a car: the stork and otter park at Hunawihr, the macaques of the Montagne des Singes, the Mulhouse museums and Europa-Park.

In Monaco the highlights are on your doorstep: the Oceanographic Museum's aquarium, the palace guard ceremony and calm water at Larvotto, with public lifts to help on the hills. Beyond those it is built for adults, so families often move along the coast to the beaches there.

Monaco is easier to get around, despite its slopes. The principality is only about 3km end to end, free public lifts and escalators handle the climbs, buses and a little harbour ferry fill the gaps, and the station puts the whole Riviera within reach without a car.

Colmar's compact old town is just as walkable, and trains run quickly to Strasbourg and Mulhouse. The trouble starts beyond the town, since buses to the wine villages and the Vosges are thin and most visitors end up hiring a car or a bicycle.

Monaco offers more shopping, though only at one end of the market. The Carré d'Or around the Casino gardens packs fashion houses, jewellers and watchmakers into a short stroll, but there are few chains, independents or markets beyond it.

Colmar is about regional goods to take home: wine bought straight from producers, Soufflenheim pottery, kougelhopf moulds and printed Alsatian linen. The Christmas markets are its high point, and fashion barely features.

Colmar is much the cheaper of the two. It costs what you would expect of a French provincial town, with reasonable set lunches and wine, and only rooms in summer and the Christmas weeks push the budget up.

Monaco is among the most expensive places in the world to visit, from hotels to a simple coffee. The free lifts and the walks around the Rock cost nothing, but many people sleep in Nice, Menton or Beausoleil and come in for the day.

For a small place, Monaco has a serious stage. The Monte-Carlo Opera performs in the gilded Salle Garnier, and the Philharmonic and Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo are known internationally, with most of the season running from winter to spring.

Colmar has a small municipal theatre with touring visits from the Opéra national du Rhin, and its calendar is built around a classical festival in July and an autumn jazz festival. Outside those weeks, serious opera or orchestral concerts mean a trip to Strasbourg or Basel.

Monaco is the better choice for pampering. A large seawater thalassotherapy centre beside the Casino carries on its old sea-bathing tradition, the grand hotels have big spas, and the Japanese Garden makes for a quiet morning.

Colmar has only hotel spas. What it offers instead is a slow pace, with canal-side evenings once the day-trippers leave and unhurried walks through the vines, which is restful in its own way.