Marseille or Nice?

Both cities offer a good summer of swimming, but the shores are very different. Marseille's Prado beaches mix shingle and imported sand with lawns behind them, and the real prize is the Calanques, turquoise inlets that take a walk or a boat trip and most of half a day.

Nice has a single long pebble shore right below the Promenade des Anglais, a few steps from town, with beach clubs renting mattresses to soften the stones. For sand you take a short train ride to Villefranche, Beaulieu or Juan-les-Pins. Nice's water is also a touch warmer, and the mistral can chill Marseille's from one day to the next.

The two are evenly matched at the table, but they eat differently. Marseille's cooking draws on the whole Mediterranean: bouillabaisse as a serious sit-down meal in the Corniche harbours, and Noailles with its North African bakeries, Comorian and Armenian grocers and spice shops.

Nice has a cuisine of its own with Ligurian roots: socca hot from the wood oven, pissaladière, stuffed vegetables and the much-argued salade niçoise, with the Cours Saleya market as its centre. Choose Marseille for range and Nice for a tight local tradition. In both, skip the set-menu terraces on the main tourist front.

There is little between them in depth, but they offer different things. Marseille is about history and landmarks. It is France's oldest city, with the hilltop basilica of Notre-Dame de la Garde, the forts and the MuCEM at the harbour mouth, the crypts of Saint-Victor and Le Corbusier's Cité Radieuse, all scattered through a working city.

Nice is the stronger choice for art. The Matisse and Chagall museums in Cimiez and MAMAC's Nouveau Réalistes are the main draw, set against an Italianate old town and the Belle Époque villas of the winter resort era.

Marseille has the livelier nights. Around Cours Julien and La Plaine, graffiti-covered bars and small music venues stay full until late, and there are electronic nights in old warehouses and summer parties on rooftops and by the sea.

Nice's evenings mostly happen in the lanes of Vieux Nice, with pubs and wine bars, plus the beach clubs in summer. Clubs are thin on the ground, and the glossier parties are in Monaco and Cannes. In Marseille, some central streets feel edgy late at night, so a taxi home is sensible.

Both are excellent for the outdoors, but in different landscapes. Marseille has the Calanques national park inside its city limits: white limestone ridges, the coastal walk to En-Vau and Sugiton, sport climbing on the cliffs and diving around Riou, with Sainte-Victoire and the Sainte-Baume an hour inland.

Nice faces the mountains as well as the sea. It has the Cap Ferrat coastal paths and corniche cycling routes, the Mercantour's high lakes and ibex, and in winter skiing at Isola 2000 or Auron. In both, summer heat pushes walking to the early hours, and Marseille's massifs can close on high fire-risk days.

Both are first-rate bases, and the choice comes down to which region you want. From Marseille it is classic inland Provence: Aix, Arles, Avignon and Cassis are all close by rail or bus, and the Luberon villages and Les Baux are best done by car.

From Nice you get the Riviera chain of Monaco, Èze, Menton, Antibes, Cannes and the Lérins islands, plus Saint-Paul-de-Vence and even Sanremo across the Italian border. Almost all of it is under an hour by train or bus, with no car needed.

Nice is clearly the easier place with children. The flat promenade and the Promenade du Paillon, with its playgrounds and splash jets, make everyday outings simple, and Parc Phoenix and Monaco's Oceanographic Museum fill half-days. The pebbles are the main drawback.

Marseille works best if you stay near the southern beaches, where the Prado's gentle water and Parc Borély's lake and lawns are good for children. Boat trips to the Château d'If also go down well. The centre's traffic, narrow pavements and hills make a buggy hard work, and the city has no aquarium or big attraction aimed at children.

Nice is much easier to get around. The old town, port, Place Massena and promenade are a flat walk apart, the tram runs straight from the airport, and the coastal trains reach Monaco, Antibes and Cannes. A car only matters for the mountains.

Marseille's core is walkable but hilly, and the two metro lines and trams cover the centre well enough. The beaches and Calanques trailheads depend on buses that crawl in traffic, though the summer ferries to Pointe Rouge and L'Estaque help. For the Provence villages, a car is close to essential.

Nice has more for anyone who wants to shop for clothes. Avenue Jean Médecin has the high-street chains and Galeries Lafayette, the streets around avenue de Verdun have the luxury houses, and the Monday antiques market on the Cours Saleya is good for browsing.

Marseille is better for local crafts than for fashion: green cubes of olive-oil soap, santon figures from Le Panier workshops and the cramped fabric and tea shops of Noailles. Its designer offer runs out quickly, though even Nice sends serious luxury shoppers on to Monaco.

Marseille is the cheaper stay. Central hotels are reasonable outside summer, and everyday food from Noailles and the pizza ovens costs little, although rooms by the port and beaches climb in July and August.

Nice is expensive by southern European standards. Seafront hotels, beach loungers and promenade terraces push costs up from June to September. Cheap trams and coastal trains, socca and market picnics help, and spring or late autumn eases the bill.

Marseille offers more on an ordinary evening. Beyond the art deco Opéra there is serious drama at La Criée, a mix of theatre, dance and concerts at the Friche la Belle de Mai, and a real tradition in French hip-hop and world music, with the Festival de Marseille and Fiesta des Suds as highlights.

Nice's calendar rests on a few big moments: the Opéra's season, the long-running Nice Jazz Festival in July and the February Carnival. Between them, live music mostly means small bars in the old town.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, and neither is somewhere to plan a spa trip around. Nice comes closer to rest, with thalassotherapy centres along the coast and a gentle rhythm of early swims and evening walks on the promenade, at its calmest out of season.

Marseille is louder and more intense. Its few hammams mainly serve locals, and its slow moments come from a long harbour lunch on the Corniche. Many visitors looking for quiet stay in Cassis and come into the city for the day.