Colmar or Saint-Malo?

This is the widest gap between the two. Colmar sits in the Alsace plain with no coast at all, so swimming means a municipal pool or a small lake up in the Vosges valleys.

Saint-Malo has sand from the foot of its walls: the 3km Sillon beach towards Paramé, coves below the ramparts and the tidal seawater pool at Bon-Secours. The Channel stays cool even in late summer, so this is a place for the sand, short dips and low-tide walks rather than long swims, and Dinard across the estuary has more sheltered beaches.

Colmar is the stronger place to eat. Alsace cooking is rich and varied, from choucroute and baeckeoffe in wood-panelled winstubs to tarte flambée and munster cheese. Riesling, Gewurztraminer and Pinot Gris from the slopes around town go with every meal, and cellar tastings are a short drive away.

Saint-Malo's food is simpler: galettes with dry cider, kouign-amann, and oysters eaten by the harbour wall at Cancale. The seafood can be excellent, but the crêperies inside the walls are uneven, and the better meals are in Saint-Servan or along the coast towards Cancale. Outside their regional cooking, both towns offer little choice.

Colmar has much more to see. Its old town of painted half-timbered houses, canals and carved façades came through the wars largely intact. The Unterlinden Museum's Isenheim Altarpiece is reason enough to make the trip, and Schongauer's Madonna in the Dominican church and the Bartholdi museum add to it.

Saint-Malo's walled town is handsome granite, but much of it was rebuilt after 1944. Its history of corsairs and shipowners shows in the walk around the ramparts, the castle keep and the low-tide crossing to Chateaubriand's grave on the Grand Bé, not in museums. One good day covers it.

Neither town is made for a big night out, but Saint-Malo has a little more going on. In July and August the pubs and Irish-style bars inside the walls fill with sailors and young visitors, and a few stay open late at weekends.

In Colmar the evening is a long dinner and a glass of wine by the canals of Petite Venise, and the streets go quiet early. For clubs, you take the train to Strasbourg from Colmar or to Rennes from Saint-Malo.

Both are strong for the outdoors, but the settings are opposite. From Colmar you walk through the vineyards between wine villages and climb into the Vosges, with forest, glacial lakes, the Route des Crêtes past the Grand Ballon and some modest skiing in winter. The flat plain below is good cycling country.

Saint-Malo's outdoors is the sea: the GR34 along the cliffs to Pointe du Grouin and Cap Fréhel, some of Europe's biggest tides, kayaking on the Rance, sailing and kitesurfing. Inland it is flat farmland, so anyone who wants hills belongs in Alsace.

Colmar is the better base, mainly because so much is so close. Eguisheim, Riquewihr and Kaysersberg are a few kilometres apart along the wine route, Strasbourg is half an hour away by train, and Basel and Freiburg put two more countries within about an hour.

Saint-Malo has fewer outings, but strong ones: Mont-Saint-Michel about an hour's drive away, medieval Dinan, Dinard by boat, Rennes by train and, in summer, ferries to Jersey. In both places a car opens up most of the list.

Both are safe, easy towns for children, and the difference is where the fun is. In Colmar it starts with boat rides through Petite Venise and storks on the roofs. Then you drive out to the stork park at Hunawihr, the macaques at Kintzheim, the Mulhouse train museum or Europa-Park across the Rhine.

Saint-Malo keeps children busy without a car: sandcastles, the sea pool, walks out to the forts and the Grand Aquarium on wet days. You have to watch the fast tides and the cold water, and there are no theme parks nearby.

Getting around works much the same way in both. The centres are compact and easy on foot. Colmar has quick regional trains to Strasbourg, Mulhouse and Basel, while Saint-Malo has direct high-speed trains to Rennes and Paris, local buses across town and a passenger boat to Dinard.

Both are harder beyond town. The Alsace wine villages are best reached by car or by bicycle on the vineyard roads. Mont-Saint-Michel and the Breton coast are mostly reached by car or on a tour, and parking near the walls is hard in summer.

Neither is a shopping destination, and both are best for regional things to take home. In Colmar that means wine bought from the producer, Soufflenheim pottery, kougelhopf moulds and printed table linen, and the Christmas markets are the high point of the year.

Saint-Malo sells striped sailor tops, salted butter and caramels, cider and faience, and has produce markets in the walled town and Saint-Servan. For fashion you go to Strasbourg from Colmar and to Rennes from Saint-Malo.

Colmar is slightly easier on the wallet. Set lunches and regional wine are reasonable and village tastings cost little. Rooms in the old town are dear in summer and during the Christmas market weeks, when staying in a nearby village helps.

Saint-Malo is priced like a seaside resort, and rooms inside the walls and along the beach in July and August cost the most. Galettes and cider keep meals cheap, though seafood platters do not, and prices ease in spring and autumn.

Colmar's stage life is classical in temper. The small Italian-style municipal theatre has a season of plays, opera and concerts, the Opéra national du Rhin brings productions on tour, and the year peaks with the international classical music festival in early July and a jazz festival in autumn.

Saint-Malo's festivals draw a different crowd: indie bands at La Route du Rock, writers and readers at Étonnants Voyageurs, comics fans at Quai des Bulles. Between those dates, an occasional organ or chamber concert under the stained glass of Saint-Vincent is about all there is.

Saint-Malo is clearly the place to unwind. It is one of France's classic thalassotherapy towns, with a large seawater centre on the Sillon beach. Outside August, a long walk on the empty sand at low tide followed by an afternoon in the heated pools makes a genuinely restful break.

Colmar has no bathing tradition and only hotel spas. Its calm is of another kind: quiet canals once the day visitors have gone, long lunches and slow walks through the vines.