French Riviera or Lake Garda?

The Riviera is the better place for a beach vacation. It has sandy beaches at Cannes, Juan-les-Pins and Pampelonne, clear coves among the red rocks of the Esterel and sheltered bays at Villefranche, as well as the long pebble fronts of Nice. It is also salt water, warm enough for swimming well into autumn, though private concessions take much of the best sand.

Garda offers lake bathing in a different style: lawns, loungers and wooden jetties above pebble shores, with the best spots around Sirmione's rock shelves, Punta San Vigilio and the lidos of Lazise and Desenzano. In high summer the water is genuinely warm, but there is no sand to speak of and the season is shorter.

The Riviera eats better. Nice has a cuisine of its own, from socca baked in wood ovens to pissaladière and daube with ravioli, and the coast from Menton to Cannes is dense with ambitious restaurants. Provence rosé and Bellet wines go with it.

Garda's cooking is plainer lakeside fare of perch, whitefish, risotto and polenta. Its real strength is the glass: Lugana, Bardolino, Chiaretto and the Valpolicella hills next door. In both places the waterfront menus are the weak point, and the best meals are found inland, in Nice's back streets or a Garda agriturismo.

On culture the Riviera is far ahead. Matisse and Chagall museums in Nice, Picasso in Antibes's Grimaldi castle, the Matisse chapel at Vence and the Fondation Maeght make a modern-art circuit you could plan a whole trip around. Monaco's palace and Oceanographic Museum and Nice's baroque old town add to it.

Garda's sights fill half-days rather than a trip. The best are Sirmione's moated castle and Roman villa ruins and d'Annunzio's eccentric Vittoriale at Gardone, with castle towns such as Malcesine around the shore.

The Riviera has much more to do after dark. In summer Saint-Tropez and Monaco run glamorous beach clubs and table-service clubs, and Juan-les-Pins has a late strip. Nice's old town and port keep pubs and wine bars going all year, helped by its students.

At Garda the evening usually means an aperitivo by the harbour, dinner and a walk along the promenade. Desenzano, with its lakefront bars and nearby clubs on summer weekends, is the only real exception.

Both are places where mountains meet water, and Garda has a slight edge, mainly because of how much active sport fits around its northern end. Monte Baldo's cable car from Malcesine, Arco's climbing walls and via ferrate, mountain-bike trails and Torbole's reliable wind for windsurfing put a lot within a short distance.

The Riviera's outdoors is more about the coast: walks around Cap Ferrat and Cap d'Antibes, kayaking and diving along the Esterel, and the high Mercantour about one and a half hours inland. Summer heat and fire closures limit it more than Garda.

Garda's day trips reach much further. The southern shore sits on the Milan to Venice railway, so Verona's arena, Venice, Padua's frescoes and Vicenza's Palladian villas are all easy outings, and Mantua and Bergamo are close by too.

The Riviera has plenty of short trips, such as Monaco, Menton, Eze and the Lérins islands, plus Italian border towns like Dolceacqua. Most of them, though, are variations on a pretty village, and there is no great heritage city of Verona or Venice's rank within easy reach.

Garda is much better set up for children. Gardaland, the aquarium beside it, Parco Natura Viva and water parks are all close to the south-east shore, and the large camping villages there come with pools and children's entertainment. Older children can bike or try windsurfing in the north.

The Riviera works for families mainly through its gently shelving sand at Juan-les-Pins and Cannes and Monaco's aquarium. Expensive family rooms, summer crowds and hill villages full of steps make it harder going.

The Riviera is easier without a car. One coastal railway links Cannes, Antibes, Nice, Monaco and Menton, and Nice has a tram to the airport. Only the hill villages and Saint-Tropez get awkward.

At Garda the railway touches only Peschiera and Desenzano. Ferries link the towns pleasantly but slowly, and the narrow shore roads clog in summer, so staying in one town and using the boats works better than touring the whole lake.

The Riviera is a real shopping destination. There are luxury boutiques along the Croisette, around the Monte-Carlo casino and behind Saint-Tropez's port, department stores on Nice's Avenue Jean-Médecin, and distinctive crafts: perfume from Grasse, bubbled glass from Biot and pottery from Vallauris.

Garda's shopping is mostly weekly markets and things to eat and drink, such as olive oil, Lugana wine and Limone lemon products, plus outdoor gear in Riva and Arco. For anything more, people head to Verona or Milan.

Garda is the cheaper choice, though it is not cheap in summer. Its campsites, agriturismi and villages back from the water keep costs reasonable even when lakefront hotels in Sirmione or Limone charge high-season rates.

The Riviera in summer is among the most expensive places in Europe, especially Saint-Tropez, Monaco and Cannes. Nice is the sensible base, and the cheap regional trains and free coastal paths help balance the bill.

The Riviera has something to see in winter as well as summer, and the lake doesn't. Monaco has its own opera, orchestra and ballet company that perform through the cooler months, and Nice has a second opera house. That means an evening at a performance can be part of a visit out of season. In summer the coast turns to jazz, with one of Europe's oldest jazz festivals in the pines at Juan-les-Pins and another on Nice's main square.

Garda's programme starts and ends with summer, and it offers little on its own shores beyond open-air shows at the Vittoriale and band concerts in the town squares. Its big night out is the opera in Verona's Roman arena, outside the region. It is an easy trip from the southern towns, but you still have to leave the lake to get there.

Garda is better for a restful stay, thanks to Sirmione's warm sulphur springs, which have fed thermal pools over the lake for more than a century, and the open-air pools in a historic villa park near Lazise. Quiet hotels along the western shore at Gardone and Salò add to it.

The Riviera offers thalassotherapy and grand-hotel spas on Cap Ferrat and Cap d'Antibes rather than public baths. In high summer you need to go inland to find real calm.