Lausanne or Nice?

Lausanne's swimming is lake bathing: a short summer season on grass, concrete steps and shingle at Vidy and Bellerive, with the historic lido as the classic afternoon. It goes nicely with a stay, but nobody should plan one around it.

Nice is a real beach city. It has about 7km of pebble shore right below the Promenade des Anglais and clear sea water from June into October. If you want sand, Villefranche, Beaulieu and Juan-les-Pins are close by.

Lausanne eats in the Vaudois way: perch fillets from the lake, papet vaudois, and fondue in winter. Its best feature is Lavaux Chasselas tasted straight from the growers, and at the top end there are some very celebrated tables. Below that level the choice is ordinary and there is little street food.

Nice comes out ahead because its everyday food has more character. Socca from wood ovens, pissaladière and pan bagnat make cheap, distinctive meals, and the Cours Saleya market adds to the pleasure. The trap to avoid is the set-menu terraces on the promenade.

Lausanne has a single great monument, the Gothic cathedral with its night watchman, set above a small, steep old town. Its museums carry more weight, with the Olympic Museum at Ouchy, the cluster at Plateforme 10 and the odd and memorable Art Brut collection.

Nice gives you more to see. It layers an Italianate old town under Castle Hill with Belle Époque villas and a Russian cathedral. Its art is the real draw: Matisse among Roman ruins in Cimiez, Chagall's biblical cycle and MAMAC. Together these fill a richer two or three days.

Neither city is a party destination, and the two are much the same in scale. What differs is the setting. Lausanne's nights gather in the Flon, a former warehouse valley with clubs and late bars, and they are driven by students and busy mainly at weekends.

Nice goes out in bars rather than clubs. Wine and cocktail bars spill into the lanes of Vieux Nice, and in summer the beach clubs keep people out late. Anyone after glossier clubbing heads along the coast to Monaco or Cannes.

Both cities are strong for the outdoors, but the scenery differs. Lausanne's is lake and vines: the Lavaux terraces between Lutry and Saint-Saphorin, sailing on Lake Geneva, and the Vaud Alps and the Jura within an hour for hiking and skiing.

Nice puts the Alps beside the sea. You get coastal paths round Cap Ferrat, cycling on the corniches and diving offshore, with the Mercantour's ibex and high lakes, and ski slopes at Isola 2000, further inland.

Both are excellent bases with no car needed. Lausanne's trains reach Swiss old towns and castles: Chillon on its rock, Gruyères, Bern, Fribourg and Murten, with Geneva under an hour and boats to Évian.

From Nice the trips are shorter hops along a coast where each town feels different. Monaco, Èze and Menton lie to the east, and Antibes, Cannes and the Lérins islands to the west. Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Grasse and the Italian towns of Sanremo and Ventimiglia are also close.

Lausanne has the edge with children. The hands-on Olympic Museum, the aquarium-vivarium, and Sauvabelin's animal park, pedal boats and wooden tower make a full programme, and the lake steamers are an outing in themselves. The steep streets are the main hardship, and eating out as a family is costly.

Nice has the flat promenade and the splash jets and playgrounds of the Promenade du Paillon. However, its stony beaches, the lack of a big attraction for children and the hot, crowded summer make it slightly harder going.

Both are easy without a car, but in different ways. Lausanne is compact but vertical. The m2 metro does the climbing from Ouchy to the upper town, and the Swiss trains are punctual for anything further afield.

Nice is flat. Its sights lie within a half-hour walk of each other, and a tram runs straight from the airport to the centre and the port. The coastal trains are simple to use but can be packed in summer.

Lausanne is good for a few specific purchases: a Swiss watch on Rue de Bourg, chocolate, or a bottle of Lavaux wine. Beyond that the range is narrow.

Nice offers more variety. It has a proper high street on Avenue Jean Médecin, luxury houses around rue Paradis, and Provençal olive oil, soaps and fabrics in the old town. The Monday flea market on the Cours Saleya adds browsing that Lausanne cannot match.

Lausanne is among the most expensive places you could choose. Hotels, meals, wine and taxis are all priced at Swiss levels, and even with free lakeside promenades and supermarket picnics the total stays high.

Nice is costly in summer, but far more forgiving. Trams and coastal trains are cheap, many city museums cost little to enter, and socca or a market lunch makes for a cheap meal. Spring and late autumn bring hotel prices down further.

Lausanne is the stronger stage city, and it is led by dance. It is home to the Béjart Ballet, hosts the Prix de Lausanne, and has the Théâtre de Vidy's contemporary work, a full opera season and a respected chamber orchestra. In July the Montreux Jazz Festival is a short ride along the lake.

Nice has its red-and-gold opera house, French-language drama and its own long-running July jazz festival. Outside those events the offer thins out to old town bars.

Lausanne is somewhat better for unwinding. Grand lakeside hotel spas and private retreats are close at hand, and real thermal water is a short train ride away at Yverdon-les-Bains and Lavey-les-Bains, Switzerland's hottest springs. The quiet vineyard lanes of Lavaux add calm on the edges of the city.

Nice relies on hotel treatment rooms and thalassotherapy along the coast, and on the Riviera rhythm of an early swim and a long lunch. That rhythm is restful out of season but much less so in the crowded heat of high summer.