Colmar or Venice?

Colmar has no coast at all, so swimming means a municipal pool or a cold lake up in the Vosges valleys.

Venice has a genuine sandy beach on the Lido, a short boat ride from San Marco. The water is shallow and warm in summer, and Pellestrina is quieter if you want more space. It is no seaside resort, but a hot afternoon by the sea is possible there and not in Colmar.

The two are evenly matched at the table but eat very differently. Colmar is about sitting down: long dinners in wood-panelled winstubs over choucroute and baeckeoffe, washed down with Riesling or Gewurztraminer poured within sight of the vineyards that grew it.

Venice is better grazed standing up, with cicchetti and a spritz at a bacaro counter near the Rialto, then lagoon seafood such as black cuttlefish risotto. Both cities have a lot of weak tourist menus on their busiest streets, and both offer little beyond their own regional cooking.

Colmar's old town of painted half-timbered houses and canals is beautifully intact, and Grünewald's altarpiece at the Unterlinden would justify the trip on its own. Still, the whole set fits into a weekend.

Venice is in another league. The city itself is the monument, from the mosaics of San Marco to the palazzi along the Grand Canal, and the art inside its churches, scuole and galleries could fill a week without running out.

Neither town is a place for late nights, but Venice has a little more going on after dark. Its aperitivo hour along the Fondamenta della Misericordia is a real social event, and students keep Campo Santa Margherita busy later on. Colmar's evenings rarely go beyond dinner and a last glass of wine on a terrace, and for clubs people take the train to Strasbourg.

Colmar sits right where the vineyards rise into the Vosges. That gives you waymarked trails, summer pastures, glacial lakes and the high road past the Grand Ballon, plus easy cycling on the plain below and the Black Forest across the Rhine.

Venice's outdoors is the lagoon, with salt marshes, herons and flamingos around Torcello best seen from a kayak. It is a lovely setting but a flat and limited one, and any real hills or mountains need a long trip inland.

Both make superb bases, and the difference is the kind of outing. From Colmar, most days out are short drives or bike rides between wine villages a few kilometres apart, such as Eguisheim with its rings of lanes, walled Riquewihr and Kaysersberg under its ruined castle. Strasbourg's cathedral is about half an hour away by train. Across the borders, Basel in Switzerland and Freiburg in Germany each make an easy city day.

From Venice, fast trains lead to a chain of great art cities, from Padua's Scrovegni Chapel to Verona and Palladio's Vicenza. Boats reach the glass furnaces of Murano and the coloured houses of Burano without going near the mainland.

Colmar is much the easier place with children. The town is flat and compact, there are boat rides through Petite Venise and storks on the roofs, and nearby you find the otter park at Hunawihr, the free-roaming macaques at Kintzheim and Mulhouse's train museum. You will need a car for most of them.

Venice delights children at first sight, with boats for buses and no traffic. In practice, though, carrying a pushchair over bridge after bridge through summer crowds, with few parks to break the day, makes it better for short stays with older children.

Both centres are best on foot, and Venice comes out slightly ahead because the vaporetto reaches the islands and the Lido with no car needed. Its bridges, steps and crowded boats make that convenience tiring, though.

Colmar is the opposite. The flat old town and the station are a few minutes apart, but the villages and mountains it is known for need a hire car or a bicycle.

Venice offers more. It has centuries-old crafts made on site, such as Murano glass, Burano lace, papier-mâché masks and marbled paper, plus the big fashion names along the Mercerie. Look for real workshops, because imitations are everywhere.

Colmar's shopping is modest and regional: wine bought from the grower, Soufflenheim pottery, kougelhopf moulds and printed table linen. The Christmas markets are the highlight of its year.

Colmar is noticeably cheaper overall. Set lunches, regional wine and village tastings are reasonable, and the cost of rooms is the main thing to plan for, especially in December.

Venice is one of the most expensive stays in Italy. Hotels in the historic centre, water transport and entry to churches all add up. Eating cicchetti at the counter and sleeping in Mestre are the main ways to keep costs down.

Venice has a proper year-round stage. La Fenice runs full seasons of opera, ballet and symphony concerts, the Goldoni puts on drama, and Vivaldi is played in the churches where his music belongs.

Colmar has a small Italian-style theatre and lives by its festivals, with classical music in July and jazz in autumn. Outside those weeks, serious opera or orchestral music means a trip to Strasbourg or Basel.

Neither has a bathing culture of its own. Venice has the edge thanks to its palazzo and Lido hotel spas and the Roman-era thermal pools of Abano Terme, about an hour away. The hush of Castello or Giudecca at dawn helps too.

Colmar's restfulness is more rural: canal-side evenings once the day-trippers leave and slow walks through the vines. Its spa options are only hotel spas.