Dolomites or French Alps?

For swimming, the French Alps are clearly ahead. Lake Annecy is the main reason. The water is clear and warm in high summer, and you swim from grassy lawns and jetties at Talloires, Sévrier and Menthon-Saint-Bernard. Lac d'Aiguebelette and Lac du Bourget are quieter alternatives, and the shore of Lake Geneva at Évian has pebbly lidos.

In the Dolomites you have to plan for it. Braies and Misurina stay cold, so the bathing is down at Lake Caldaro on the wine route, in valley pools, or an hour's drive away at Riva on Lake Garda.

The two are close, but the cooking is different. The Dolomites sit where Alpine and Italian food meet. You get dumplings, speck and strudel, then a proper espresso, plus Ladin dishes in Gardena and Badia and polenta and trout in Trentino. Autumn Törggelen evenings with new wine and chestnuts are a reason to visit in their own right.

Savoy leans much more on cheese. Fondue, raclette and tartiflette are made with Beaufort and Reblochon bought from Aravis farms, and lake perch and Savoie white wine add some variety. Both regions have unusually good top-end kitchens: Alta Badia in the Dolomites, Annecy's lakeshore and Courchevel in France. Below that level, French resort menus can feel repetitive sooner.

Neither region is a trip for sights alone, and they are evenly matched. The Dolomites' valley towns are medieval and church-centred: Bolzano's arcades and Ötzi the Iceman, the frescoed rooms of Trento's castle, Bressanone's cloister and Novacella Abbey. First World War tunnels on the high passes add history you won't find on the French side.

The French Alps offer more variety. Annecy's canals and island prison are among the prettiest old towns in the Alps, Chambéry was the ducal capital of Savoy, Grenoble has a serious fine-arts museum, and Briançon is ringed by Vauban's star-shaped walls.

The French Alps win clearly here, at least in winter. Val d'Isère, Val Thorens and Méribel go from dancing on the tables at slope-side restaurants to clubs open into the small hours. Chamonix mixes climbers with seasonal workers, and in summer Annecy's lakeside terraces and Grenoble's student bars keep some life going.

Après-ski in the Dolomites, in Selva, Canazei or Cortina, mostly ends by early evening. In summer most villages are asleep by eleven.

Both are among the finest mountain landscapes on earth, and the difference lies in the scenery itself. The Dolomites are pale limestone towers rising out of green pasture, such as the Tre Cime, the Sassolungo and Seceda. The Alpe di Siusi gives walking that is unusually gentle for such scenery. For more height and exposure, the via ferrata cables, many first laid in the First World War, let non-climbers onto the high rock.

The French Alps are higher and covered in more ice. The cable car to the Aiguille du Midi takes you among glaciers and granite below Mont Blanc, and the Vanoise and Écrins parks have ibex and wild passes. Skiers can choose between the Sella Ronda in the Dolomiti Superski area and the huge linked areas of the Tarentaise, where the high glacier skiing is snow-sure.

Day trips are about even, and the destinations show the difference. From Bolzano you can reach Merano, the wine villages of Caldaro and Termeno, Verona by train and Innsbruck over the Brenner, which gives the Dolomites an Italian and Austrian mix.

The French Alps look towards Switzerland and Lyon. Geneva is under an hour from Annecy, ferries cross Lake Geneva to the Lavaux vineyards, and the Mont Blanc tunnel takes you to Aosta. In both regions, a base high in a resort valley means most of the day goes on the road.

Both work well for families, but each is at its best in a different season. The Dolomites are strongest in summer. The Alpe di Siusi and the Armentara meadows have wide, nearly flat paths, many huts have playgrounds and farm animals, and plenty of hotels run children's clubs.

The French Alps are stronger on skis. The ski schools are built around young children, and in car-free resorts such as Avoriaz and Flaine you can walk from the apartment to the nursery slope. In summer, the rack railway to the Mer de Glace and Annecy's shallow lake beaches help too. Neither region has theme parks for rainy days.

The Dolomites are easier without a car. In South Tyrol, valley trains and buses that climb to the resorts and over the passes share one regional pass. The main gaps are Cortina, which has no station, and the slow hairpin roads between valleys.

In the French Alps the journey in takes more work: a flight into Geneva, Lyon or Grenoble, then a transfer, with long Saturday queues up the Tarentaise in winter and snow chains on many approach roads. Trains reach Annecy, Bourg-Saint-Maurice and Chamonix, but buses to the higher villages are patchy, so in summer a car makes much more sense.

Both are about level, with specialist shopping rather than broad choice. The Dolomites are better for crafts and Christmas. Ortisei's woodcarvers, Bolzano's arcaded shops selling loden, and the Advent markets in Bolzano, Merano and Brunico are the highlights.

The French Alps are better for equipment. Chamonix is one of Europe's best places to buy climbing and ski gear, and an Opinel knife or a wheel of Beaufort makes a lasting souvenir. Both have a small luxury strip, Cortina in the Dolomites and Courchevel and Megève in France, and Geneva is close for anything more.

Neither is cheap, and the cost comes from the same things: lift passes, peak weeks and smart resorts such as Cortina, Alta Badia or Courchevel. What differs is how you save. In the Dolomites, half-board hotels, the cheaper Fassa and Fiemme valleys, and June or September stays bring costs down. In the French Alps, the savings come from self-catering apartments in purpose-built resorts, quiet weeks in January, and staying in Grenoble or the Bauges villages. Annecy in high summer is dearer than its size suggests.

Neither region has a busy performance calendar, and both have a year-round programme in their towns. In the Dolomites, Bolzano has an orchestra season, a municipal theatre and a long-established piano competition, and Trento offers something similar. The summer settings are more unusual than anything in France. Trentino's mountain festival puts musicians on meadows and hut terraces, a jazz festival plays in castles and wineries, and Merano holds autumn concerts in its old spa halls.

In the French Alps the year-round programme centres on Grenoble's arts centre and its chamber orchestra. In summer the music moves to the lakes, with the long-running chamber music gatherings at Évian, and to open-air festivals in Chamonix. In the ski season it is mostly bands in après-ski bars, so for opera you go to Lyon or Geneva.

The French Alps have a modest edge, thanks to a long tradition of public spa towns. Aix-les-Bains and Évian have Belle Époque spa buildings and lakeside promenades, Saint-Gervais has thermal baths in a gorge below Mont Blanc, and in small towns such as Brides-les-Bains the cure is the whole point of the stay.

In the Dolomites, outside Merano's thermal baths, wellness means the hotel spa. South Tyrol does it with real care, with outdoor pools in the snow and the hay baths of Völs am Schlern. The quiet nights also make it calmer than a French resort in full ski season.