Monaco or Marseille?

These two are close for swimming, but the experience is quite different. Marseille has more shore to choose from: the broad shingle and sand of the Prado with lawns behind, small rocky coves along the Corniche, and the turquoise Calanques inlets, which take half a day to reach on foot or by boat. The mistral and closures after rain can spoil a city beach day.

Monaco really has one public beach, the short, groomed Larvotto behind its breakwaters, plus private clubs and rocky platforms. The water is calm, clear and a little warmer, and for longer stretches of sand you take the train to Menton or Nice.

Marseille is the more rewarding place to eat. Its port mix shows in Noailles, with North African bakeries and Armenian and Comorian grocers. Fishermen sell their catch on the Vieux-Port each morning, and a proper bouillabaisse is worth a long lunch, though you should avoid the tired set menus on the quays.

Monaco's dining is concentrated at the top end, in starred and grand hotel rooms cooking Riviera and Ligurian food, where you dress for dinner. Barbagiuan from the Condamine market is the local snack worth trying, but casual meals are scarce enough that many visitors eat in Nice instead.

Marseille offers far more to see, spread across a working city some 2,600 years old. The highlights include the MuCEM and Fort Saint-Jean, the Vieille Charité in Le Panier, the crypts of Saint-Victor, the Château d'If and Le Corbusier's Cité Radieuse, all under the gaze of Notre-Dame de la Garde.

Monaco's sights are fewer and much more compact. There is the Prince's Palace and its guard change, Grace Kelly's grave in the cathedral, the Oceanographic Museum on its cliff, and the Casino with its Belle Époque setting. You can see it all in a day or two, and the setting is the main attraction.

Marseille gives you more of a night out, and a much more casual one. Graffiti-covered bars and pavement tables around Cours Julien and La Plaine stay full of students until late, and warehouse electronic nights add a clubbing side. Some central streets feel edgy late at night, so a taxi home makes sense.

Monaco's evenings are about dressing up for hotel bars around the Casino square and a few glossy clubs on the Larvotto seafront. It comes alive in summer and on Grand Prix weekend, but otherwise goes to bed early, with no dive bars to find.

Marseille has the stronger outdoors offer, because it has a national park within its own boundaries. The white limestone of the Calanques gives you one of the Mediterranean's great coastal walks, serious sport climbing and diving around the Riou islands. Sainte-Victoire and the Sainte-Baume forest are within an hour. In summer, fire risk can close the massifs.

Monaco itself is all buildings, but steep mountains rise right behind it. There are old mule paths up to Èze, the view from Tête de Chien and pine-lined paths around Cap d'Ail and Cap Martin, with clear water for snorkelling just below.

Both make excellent bases, but for different regions. From Marseille you explore Provence: Aix in half an hour, Cassis closer still, then Arles, Avignon and the Pont du Gard. You'll want a car for the Luberon and Les Baux.

Monaco looks along the Riviera and into Italy instead, with Nice, Villefranche, Menton and Èze close by, and Antibes, Grasse, Sanremo and Dolceacqua further out. Nearly all of it is reachable by train or bus, so you can manage without a car.

Monaco is the easier place with children. It is safe, spotless and small, with public lifts that make buggies manageable. The aquarium's sharks and turtles, Larvotto's sheltered water and the palace guards fill a couple of days, though the formal restaurants make longer stays harder.

Marseille can work if you base yourself in the south, near the Prado lawns, Parc Borély and the boats to Frioul and the Château d'If. It has no aquarium or zoo, though, and the traffic, narrow pavements and dirty central streets make the city centre tiring for families.

Getting around is much simpler in Monaco. The whole place is about 3km long and walkable, free lifts and escalators deal with the steep levels, and the station puts the Riviera trains right under the hill.

Marseille has a walkable core, two metro lines, trams and the little Vieux-Port ferries. Once you leave the centre, though, it sprawls over hills and bays. Buses to the beaches and the Calanques trailheads crawl through traffic, and driving in the city is stressful.

Neither city is a great shopping destination, and what each sells could hardly be more different. Monaco is luxury and very little else. The fashion houses and jewellers of the Carré d'Or are clustered around the Casino gardens, but there are no chains, craft quarters or markets for goods.

Marseille is better for local things: green cubes of Marseille soap, painted santons from the Le Panier workshops, and the crowded fabric and spice streets of Noailles. Its designer offer is thin, though.

Marseille is far cheaper. It is a mid-priced French city, with cheap street and market food, inexpensive transport, free walking in the Calanques and museums that charge little.

Monaco is among the most expensive places in the world, with hotels, meals and drinks priced for the wealthy and few cheap options to fall back on. The usual way to save is to sleep in Nice, Menton or Beausoleil and come in for the day.

Monaco has the more distinguished stage for a town its size. It has opera in the gilded Salle Garnier, an internationally known philharmonic orchestra, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo and the Printemps des Arts. Most of this runs from winter to spring, and there is little spoken theatre.

Marseille's arts are broader and more popular in style. There is drama at La Criée, mixed programmes at the Friche la Belle de Mai and a home-grown hip-hop and Mediterranean music scene, with the Fiesta des Suds in autumn.

Monaco is the better place to unwind. It has heated seawater pools and treatments at the thalassotherapy centre beside the Casino and several large hotel spas, and the Japanese Garden is quiet.

Marseille has only a few neighbourhood hammams and some hotel spas, in a city that is noisy and dense. Its restful moments are long harbour lunches on the Corniche, and anyone who really wants rest usually stays in Cassis.