French Alps or Lake Garda?

Lake Garda gives you the better swimming. The water warms a degree or two more in high summer, the season runs longer, and on the south and east shores the long lidos and rock shelves around Sirmione, Lazise and the Valtenesi make lake bathing the centre of the stay.

In the French Alps the best swimming is on Lake Annecy, which is clear and lovely, with grassy beaches at Sévrier and Talloires. The beaches are small and crowded on weekends, though, and the season is short, so swimming fits around a mountain trip rather than shaping it. Neither has sand, and both mean lawns and jetties.

The food in the two is roughly as good, but very different. Savoyard cooking is heavy mountain fare of fondue, raclette and tartiflette made with Reblochon and Beaufort, and at the top end the kitchens of Megève, Courchevel and the Annecy shore are among the most decorated in France. The cheese dishes do get repetitive over a week.

Garda is lighter and more about the vineyard: lake fish with risotto, its own olive oil, and Bardolino, Lugana and nearby Amarone wines. Its best meals are found in hill agriturismi rather than on the harbour fronts. Both lakes serve perch and whitefish.

The two are much alike in culture. Both have pleasant towns to fill half-days, but neither is a reason to go. The Alps' sights are spread out: Annecy's canal-lined old town, the ducal château at Chambéry, Grenoble's strong fine-arts museum and Briançon's Vauban walls, so seeing them means driving between valleys.

Garda's sights sit around a single shore you can travel by ferry. Sirmione has its moated castle and Roman villa ruins, and Gardone has d'Annunzio's odd Vittoriale estate with a warship set into the hill.

The French Alps go out much harder, at least from December to April, when Val Thorens, Méribel and Val d'Isère move from dancing on tables at slope-side restaurants to clubs open late. In summer the scene shrinks to Annecy's terraces and Grenoble's student bars.

Garda's evenings are an aperitivo by the harbour, a long dinner and a walk along the promenade. Desenzano, with its bars and weekend clubs, is the only real exception, and outside summer there is almost nothing.

The French Alps are on another scale. You can ride from Chamonix to the Aiguille du Midi at 3,842m and stand among glaciers and granite spires, walk the Tour du Mont Blanc, or look for ibex and chamois in the Vanoise and Écrins. Summer adds cycling over the Galibier, rafting on the Isère and paragliding above Lake Annecy.

Garda packs its drama into the narrow northern end. The rotating cable car climbs Monte Baldo above Malcesine, and Arco's limestone walls draw climbers all year. Its real edge is wind. Alpine lakes have sailing too, but the dependable afternoon breeze at Torbole makes the north shore one of Europe's surest places for windsurfing and kitesurfing.

Lake Garda makes the stronger base for outings, because the southern shore sits on the Milan to Venice railway. Verona is under an hour away, Venice about an hour and a half, and Padua, Vicenza and Mantua are easy too, a run of great Italian cities that the Alps cannot match.

The French Alps do well from Annecy or Lake Geneva, with Geneva, lake ferries to Lausanne and Lyon by train, and Chamonix reaches Aosta in Italy through the tunnel. From the deep Tarentaise resorts, though, most of the day goes on the road.

Lake Garda is easier with children. Gardaland, the water parks and the safari park are all close to the south-east shore, the camping villages come with pools and entertainment, and the shallow lake shores and ferry rides are simple fun.

The French Alps work well for families who want activity rather than amusements. Ski schools with snow gardens, car-free resorts such as Avoriaz and Flaine, and the rack railway to the Mer de Glace are real assets, but cold mornings and long transfer days wear small children out.

Both are about equally awkward to get around, in different ways. In the Alps the lifts link whole valleys once you arrive, but reaching a resort means a transfer from Geneva, Lyon or Grenoble, with Saturday queues and snow chains in winter, and a car in summer.

On Garda the boats do the work: ferries and hydrofoils join the compact lake towns, slowly but pleasantly. Trains stop only on the southern shore, and the narrow shore roads clog in summer.

The French Alps have more worth buying. Chamonix is one of Europe's best places for climbing and ski gear, Courchevel and Megève have luxury boutiques, and Opinel knives and wheels of Beaufort make good things to take home. Geneva is close for anything else.

Garda's shopping comes down to weekly markets in Desenzano and Lazise, olive oil, wine and Limone's lemon products, plus outdoor shops in Riva and Arco. For more than that you go to Verona or Milan.

Lake Garda costs less overall. Its lakefront hotels in Sirmione and Limone are expensive in high season, but campsites, hill agriturismi and Valtenesi villages bring the cost down, and spring and autumn are cheaper still.

A winter week in the big Alpine resorts is a heavy expense once the lift pass, equipment hire, ski school and chalet are added up, and Courchevel and Megève rank among Europe's costliest places to stay. Summer, self-catering or a base in Grenoble or the Bauges brings ordinary French prices.

Neither is a place to go for the arts. In the French Alps, Grenoble has the main year-round programme, with a large arts centre for theatre, dance and concerts and its own chamber orchestra. Annecy and Chambéry have smaller civic stages. Summer adds the chamber music gatherings at Évian, open-air festivals in Chamonix and concerts in mountain churches. In the ski resorts, though, an evening's entertainment means a band in an après-ski bar.

Lake Garda comes out slightly ahead because of Verona. On a summer evening, the opera in its Roman arena is under an hour from the southern shore, and the open-air amphitheatre at the Vittoriale in Gardone puts on concerts of its own. Unlike Grenoble, though, the lake has almost nothing on outside summer.

Both have old spa traditions and are about equal for a restful stay. The Savoie has more to choose from: Belle Époque Aix-les-Bains, Évian's promenades, Saint-Gervais in its gorge below Mont Blanc and quieter cure towns such as Brides-les-Bains, plus hotel spas looking out on the snow.

Garda's spa life centres on Sirmione's sulphurous springs and the open-air thermal pools in a villa park near Lazise. Its warmer weather and the gentle Riviera at Gardone and Salò make slowing down easy outside August.