French Alps or Tuscany?

The French Alps have no sea, only lakes. Lake Annecy has clear water and grassy public beaches at Sévrier and Talloires, and the shore of Lake Geneva has pebbly lidos. It makes a pleasant swim during a summer stay, but the season is short and the beaches are small.

Tuscany has a proper coast. There are sandy bays on Elba, pine-backed strands in the Maremma, and long rows of beach clubs along Versilia. You can swim there from June to late September.

Savoyard cooking centres on melted cheese: fondue, raclette and tartiflette, with Beaufort and Reblochon bought at the farm and lake perch from Annecy. The top restaurants in Megève and Courchevel are superb, but ordinary resort menus soon start to repeat themselves.

Tuscany offers more to explore through the week. You can eat lampredotto from the street carts of Florence, Florentine steak and ribollita, then drive to wine country and taste Chianti Classico, Brunello and Vino Nobile at the cellars where they are made.

These two are far apart. In the Alps, sightseeing fills a free afternoon between walks or ski days: the canals of Annecy's old town, the ducal château in Chambéry, Grenoble's fine-arts museum, and the Vauban walls at Briançon.

In Tuscany, sightseeing can fill the whole trip. Florence packs the Uffizi, David and the frescoed churches into one walkable centre. Siena's Campo, Pisa's cathedral square, San Gimignano's towers and Piero della Francesca's frescoes in Arezzo are all a short journey away.

The Alps are livelier, but only in winter. Après-ski starts in the afternoon at the slope-side restaurants, then moves to the bars and late clubs of Val Thorens, Val d'Isère and Méribel. In summer, things calm down to Annecy's lakeside terraces and student bars in Grenoble.

Tuscany's late nights come in the opposite season, at the beach clubs and dance halls of Versilia from June to August. For the rest of the year, an evening in Tuscany means a long dinner and a drink in the piazza, or a crowd on the steps of Santo Spirito in Florence.

The Alps are in a class of their own. Mont Blanc rises above Chamonix, the Écrins and Vanoise have ibex and wild high passes, and the Tarentaise holds some of the largest ski areas in the world. Summer adds paragliding over Lake Annecy and via ferrata.

Tuscany's countryside is gentler and mostly farmed. It has cypress lanes in the Val d'Orcia and white gravel roads that are ideal for slow cycling. Its wilder corners are the Apuan Alps, the Casentino forests and the Maremma coast.

From Annecy or Lake Geneva there are good outings: Geneva itself, ferries across to Lausanne and Lavaux, and Lyon by train. Chamonix gives quick access to Aosta in Italy. Deep in the Tarentaise valleys, though, most of a day trip is spent on the road.

Tuscany has more outings than any one trip can use. Siena, Lucca, Pisa, Volterra and the Montalcino and Pienza loop are all easy to reach. Bologna, Orvieto and the Cinque Terre lie just beyond the regional border.

The Alps do slightly better for children, mainly because of how the resorts are built. Avoriaz, Flaine and Les Arcs are car-free resorts with ski schools set up for children. In summer, families can ride the rack railway to the Mer de Glace or take easy lift-served walks. The cold, the altitude and the transfer days do tire small children.

In Tuscany, families usually split the stay between an agriturismo with a pool and animals and a lifeguarded beach. Children enjoy the Pinocchio park at Collodi and cycling on Lucca's walls. The heat of July and August and the Florence galleries test their patience.

Tuscany is easier without a car, at least along its main railway line. Florence is best on foot, and regular trains connect it to Pisa, Lucca, Arezzo and Viareggio. Chianti, the Val d'Orcia and the Maremma still need a car.

In the Alps, the lifts make it easy to move around once you arrive. Getting there is the hard part. It usually means a transfer from Geneva or Lyon, long Saturday queues up the Tarentaise in winter, snow chains on the approach roads and patchy buses to the higher villages.

Shopping in the Alps is narrower and more practical. Chamonix is one of the best places in Europe to buy climbing and ski gear, Courchevel and Megève have luxury boutiques, and Opinel knives and Beaufort cheese make good things to take home.

Tuscany has far more craft shopping. In Florence you will find leather workshops around Santa Croce, goldsmiths on the Ponte Vecchio and paper binders in Oltrarno. Other towns have their own crafts, such as alabaster in Volterra and ceramics in Montelupo.

Neither region is cheap, but the Alps cost more. A winter week adds up fast once you pay for lift passes, equipment hire, ski school and mountain lunches, and Courchevel and Val d'Isère are among the costliest places to stay in Europe. Grenoble, Chambéry and summer stays cost less.

Tuscany's big costs are central Florence, Chianti villas and car hire. Trattoria meals and wine bought at the cellar help keep the total down, and Lucca, Arezzo and the Maremma are cheaper bases.

Tuscany has much more to see on stage. Florence has the Maggio Musicale with its own opera house and orchestra, Lucca holds Puccini recitals all year, and his operas are performed outdoors by the lake at Torre del Lago every summer.

In the Alps, the main year-round programme is at Grenoble's arts centre. Évian's chamber music gatherings and the summer festivals in the resorts are the high points. For opera, you need an evening in Lyon or Geneva.

Both regions have been spa country since Roman times. The Alpine version is the formal cure: the Belle Époque spa town of Aix-les-Bains, the lakeside promenades at Évian, and the thermal baths of Saint-Gervais in a gorge below Mont Blanc.

Tuscany relaxes more easily, partly because its hot springs are outdoors and in the landscape. Visitors bathe in the open at the Saturnia cascades, Bagno Vignoni's steaming medieval pool and the white pools of Bagni San Filippo. A quiet farmhouse in the Val d'Orcia is just as restful.