Lausanne or Montpellier?

Lausanne's swimming is in Lake Geneva. People swim from the grass and piers at Vidy and Pully or spend the afternoon at the old Bellerive lido. It is pleasant from late June to early September, but there is no sand and the season is short.

Montpellier has a real coastline. It is not on your doorstep, since it takes a tram and a bus to reach Palavas or Carnon, but from there flat, gently shelving sand runs east to the dunes of l'Espiguette. This is open sea with long beaches, though the nearer stretches fill up in high summer.

Montpellier is the better place to eat day to day. The Languedoc vineyards start at the city's edge, oysters and mussels come in from the Thau lagoon, and students keep plenty of cheap, casual places busy. The Saturday market under the Arceaux aqueduct and the counters at the Halles Laissac make eating well easy at any budget.

Lausanne's best qualities are at the ends of the range. At the top it has some of Switzerland's most celebrated tables, and village caveaux pour Lavaux Chasselas straight from the growers. Perch fillets, papet vaudois and winter fondue are worth seeking out. The middle is ordinary, though, and cheap meals are hard to find.

The two are close here, but their strengths differ. Lausanne's sightseeing is led by its museums: the Olympic Museum at Ouchy, the art, photography and design collections at Plateforme 10, and the odd and memorable Collection de l'Art Brut. The Gothic cathedral, where a night watchman still calls the hours, crowns a small, steep old town.

In Montpellier the streets themselves are the sight. The car-free Écusson is full of stone mansions with hidden courtyards, and the Peyrou terrace looks out along its aqueduct. Bofill's Antigone adds a twentieth-century contrast. The Musée Fabre gives it one major painting collection to match Lausanne's museums.

Montpellier goes out more often and more easily. The terraces around Place Jean-Jaurès and the squares of the Écusson fill on weeknights too, with a young, loud, casual crowd. The catch is that the clubs are out towards Lattes and the coast, so a late night usually ends with a taxi.

Lausanne's evenings centre on the Flon, a valley of old warehouses with clubs and late bars that comes alive on Fridays and Saturdays. Away from the weekend it is quiet, and drinks cost a good deal more.

Lausanne has the more dramatic landscape and the wider choice of things to do outdoors. Mountains rise straight from the far shore of the lake, the Lavaux vineyard path between Lutry and Saint-Saphorin starts just east of town, and within an hour you can be skiing, hiking or standing on the glacier at Glacier 3000. The Jura adds a second range for cycling and cross-country skiing.

Montpellier's outdoors is gentler and warmer. You get flamingos on the coastal lagoons, the Camargue marshes, the climb up Pic Saint-Loup and canoeing in the Hérault gorges, and the windy coast suits kitesurfing. Summer is too hot in the garrigue for long walks, and most of these places need a car.

Both are excellent bases, but for different trips. From Lausanne the outings are Swiss: lakeside Montreux and the Château de Chillon, Gruyères and its cheese dairies, and the old towns of Bern, Fribourg and Geneva. Nearly all of them are a short, reliable train ride away.

From Montpellier you reach Roman and medieval southern France: the arena at Nîmes, the Pont du Gard, Arles, Avignon's papal palace and the walls of Carcassonne. The big names are easy by train, but smaller places like Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert and Uzès are much easier with a car.

Lausanne has more for children within the city itself, while Montpellier relies more on the sea. In Lausanne the Olympic Museum is hands-on, the aquarium-vivarium on the northern edge shows river and lake life, and the Sauvabelin woods have an animal park, pedal boats and a wooden lookout tower. A paddle steamer across the lake is an outing in itself. The steep streets are hard work with a pushchair, though, and family meals out are expensive.

Montpellier is easier on foot, with a largely pedestrian centre and trams that take a pushchair without fuss. The Lunaret zoo is set in wooded parkland, and Odysseum has an aquarium and a planetarium side by side for hot afternoons. Beyond those the list is short, so a longer stay turns to the coast towns, with their promenades and small summer fairgrounds.

Both centres are small enough to see on foot. What differs is how much effort that takes. Lausanne's sights are stacked up a steep hillside joined by stairs, bridges and lifts, and the m2 metro makes the climb manageable, carrying you from the lake at Ouchy to the cathedral quarter in a few stops. Buses fill the gaps, and lake boats link the shore towns.

Montpellier is flatter and spreads wider. The car-free Écusson sits on only a low hill, trams run out to Antigone, Port Marianne and Odysseum, and bike-share helps on the level streets. The weak spots are the slow tram-and-bus trip to the beach in summer and the need for a car to reach the gorges and the Camargue.

Neither is a shopping destination, and you buy different things in each. In Lausanne it is Swiss watches, jewellery and chocolate along Rue de Bourg, and a bottle of Lavaux wine.

In Montpellier the small boutiques, bookshops and delicatessens are in the stone lanes of the Écusson, and the large Polygone mall sits next to the Comédie. The best buys are edible: local wine, olive oil and honey from the covered markets.

The gap is very wide. Lausanne is expensive in the Swiss way: hotels, restaurant meals, wine and taxis all cost far more than in most of Europe. Budget visitors live on supermarket picnics and the free lakeside promenades.

Montpellier is a mid-range city that a budget can manage. Cheap student places, lunch menus and the market halls keep daily spending moderate, and the costs mainly build up at sit-down dinners and in hotel rooms in July and August.

The two stages carry similar weight, and both lean towards dance, but their calendars run differently. Lausanne is home to the Béjart Ballet and the Prix de Lausanne for young dancers. The lakeside Théâtre de Vidy stages contemporary work that tours Europe, and the opera and chamber orchestra fill the season. In July the Montreux Jazz Festival is a short train ride along the lake.

Montpellier saves its biggest moments for summer, with the Montpellier Danse festival, Radio France concerts, many of them free, and open-air theatre at the Domaine d'O. For the rest of the year, the horseshoe-shaped Opéra Comédie on the main square and the Opéra Berlioz in the Corum share opera, ballet and concerts by the national orchestra.

Lausanne is the better choice for a restful stay. The grand lakeside hotels have extensive spas, and the region is known for private clinics and retreats. The thermal water at Yverdon-les-Bains is under half an hour by train, and Lavey-les-Bains, which has Switzerland's hottest springs, is under an hour. Slow walks through the Lavaux vines complete it.

Montpellier offers day spas and the established spa town of Balaruc-les-Bains on the Thau lagoon. Its calm comes more from long lunches and shaded squares than from any facilities, and the centre is rarely quiet.