Colmar or Nice?

This is the starkest difference between the two cities. Colmar sits deep inland on the Alsace plain, and swimming there means a municipal pool or a small lake up in the Vosges.

Nice lives on its seafront. A long pebble beach runs below the Promenade des Anglais, beach clubs rent loungers that make the stones comfortable, and the sandy bays of Villefranche, Beaulieu and Juan-les-Pins are an easy ride away.

Both cities eat well, and both are rooted in a strong regional cuisine rather than broad international choice. In Colmar the cooking is hearty Franco-German winstub food, choucroute, baeckeoffe, tarte flambée and munster cheese, with Alsace wine poured at every table.

Nice is lighter and Mediterranean, with a Ligurian slant: socca from wood ovens, pissaladière, stuffed vegetables and the morning market on the Cours Saleya. In both towns the menus on the most photographed streets are the ones to skip.

The two are evenly matched, but the strengths differ. Colmar offers one remarkably intact late-medieval townscape around Petite Venise and the Maison Pfister, plus one masterpiece of the first rank, Grünewald's Isenheim Altarpiece in the Unterlinden Museum.

Nice spreads its interest across more layers: the Italianate old town under Castle Hill, Belle Époque villas and the Russian Orthodox Cathedral, and modern art at the Matisse and Chagall museums and MAMAC. Allow two days for Colmar and closer to three for Nice.

Nice gives you a real evening out where Colmar mostly offers a long dinner. Colmar's few wine bars and brasseries near Petite Venise close early, and anyone wanting more takes the train to Strasbourg.

In Vieux Nice the lanes fill with pubs and cocktail bars, the port has more grown-up spots, and summer beach clubs keep people out late. The clubs are ordinary, though, and the glamorous nights happen in Monaco and Cannes.

Both are good walking country, but Nice has the wider and wilder range. Around Colmar the landscape is gentle. Marked paths run through the vines between wine villages, the Route des Crêtes climbs past the Hohneck and the Grand Ballon to rounded, forested summits and glacial lakes, and the flat plain makes easy cycling. Autumn, with the harvest and the turning vines, is the finest season, and winter brings modest skiing in the Vosges.

Behind Nice the Alps come right down to the sea, so you get mountains and coast in the same trip. There are coastal paths on Cap Ferrat, classic road rides on the corniches, limestone gorges, and the larch forests and ibex of the Mercantour about two hours inland, with proper skiing at Isola 2000 and Auron. On the water you can dive, kayak and sail, which inland Alsace cannot offer.

Both are first-class bases, and the difference is in how you travel. From Colmar the prizes are the wine villages, Riquewihr, Eguisheim and Kaysersberg, which are best reached by car or bike, plus quick trains to Strasbourg and short trips over the borders to Basel and Freiburg.

From Nice, the coastal railway and buses take you without a car to Monaco, Menton, Èze, Antibes, Cannes and Saint-Paul-de-Vence, and Italy is just along the line.

Colmar has a slight edge with children, provided you have a car. The town is small, flat and gentle, with boat rides through Petite Venise and storks on the roofs. The real draws are nearby: the stork and otter park at Hunawihr, the macaques at Kintzheim and Europa-Park across the Rhine.

Nice offers the beach, the splash fountains on the Promenade du Paillon and Parc Phoenix. Pebbles, summer heat and the old town's steps make it a little harder work, and there is no big theme park nearby.

Colmar's walkable old town gives way to countryside where you need a car. From Nice, almost the whole coast can be reached by tram, train and bus. Colmar's station is a short walk from Petite Venise, and regional trains to Strasbourg and Mulhouse are quick. Beyond the rail line, though, buses to the Vosges valleys are sparse.

In Nice the tram crosses the city from the airport to the port, buses climb to the museums of Cimiez and to Mont Boron, and frequent trains run along the Riviera. The catch is summer, when the trains are packed and the coast roads crawl.

Nice offers a fuller choice. It has a chain-store high street on Avenue Jean Médecin, luxury labels around rue Paradis, and the Monday flea market on the Cours Saleya.

Colmar's shopping is narrower and more regional: wine bought straight from producers, Soufflenheim pottery, kougelhopf moulds and Alsatian table linen, with the Christmas markets as the high point of the year. For fashion, Colmar has little to offer.

Colmar is the cheaper of the two, though neither is a bargain. It has modest provincial prices, free or cheap cellar tastings, and the option of staying in a nearby village. Its weak point is the Christmas market weeks, when rooms in town get expensive.

Nice costs more, especially for rooms near the sea in summer and loungers at private beach clubs. Its cheap trams and coastal trains, inexpensive museums and socca at the market help balance the bill.

Nice has a proper season where Colmar mostly has festivals. Colmar's small Italian-style theatre, its July classical festival and its autumn jazz festival are pleasant, but for serious opera or orchestral concerts you go to Strasbourg or Basel.

Nice has its own red-and-gold opera house with a resident philharmonic orchestra, the Théâtre National, the long-running Nice Jazz Festival in July and the Carnival in February.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, so the difference lies in setting. Colmar offers hotel spas and the quiet of canals and vineyard walks once the day-trippers leave.

Nice adds thalassotherapy centres along the coast towards Monaco and Antibes, early swims and evening walks on the promenade. It is calmest outside the summer crowds.