Monaco or Montpellier?

Neither is a beach resort in itself, and they disappoint in different ways. Monaco has the sea right at its feet, but only one short city beach. Larvotto is groomed and sheltered by breakwaters, with clear, warm water, and the rest of the swimming happens off rocks, at private clubs or in the coves at Cap d'Ail.

Montpellier is about 11km inland, but once you get there the sand goes on and on. It runs from Palavas and Carnon past La Grande-Motte to the wild dunes of l'Espiguette, with shallow, gently shelving water. Choose Monaco for snorkelling-clear water and Montpellier for long walks on open sand.

Montpellier eats better day to day. It cooks from the Languedoc around it, with Pic Saint-Loup wines, oysters from the Thau lagoon and Sète's octopus tielle. You can browse the Halles Castellane or eat at the counters in the Halles Laissac, and plenty of cheap student places fill the gaps.

Monaco has more grand and starred dining rooms than a place its size would lead you to expect, along with harbour terraces where the view does much of the work. Barbagiuan from the Condamine market is the local taste to look for, but casual eating is scarce and dinner tends to be a dressed-up affair.

Monaco's sights crowd onto one headland and around one square. On the Rock are the palace with its changing of the guard, Grace Kelly's grave in the cathedral and the Belle Époque Oceanographic Museum on its cliff, and across the harbour stands the Casino. The setting impresses more than the collections, and a day or two covers it.

Montpellier has a little more depth and rewards slower looking. The Musée Fabre holds a serious run of European painting, and the car-free Écusson hides courtyards behind its stone mansions. Add the Peyrou terrace with its aqueduct, the oldest botanical garden in France and Bofill's neoclassical Antigone district, and you have two or three full days.

Montpellier is the easier and livelier night out. Small bars, pubs and wine bars fill the squares of the Écusson on weeknights as well as weekends, and the mood is young and casual. The later crowd takes taxis out to clubs towards Lattes, and the centre quietens outside term time.

In Monaco an evening means dressing up for the Casino square, the hotel bars and a few glossy lounges by the port. It comes alive in summer and on Grand Prix weekend and is otherwise calm. There are no dive bars or underground scene to fall back on.

Both are well set for the outdoors, but the landscapes could hardly be more different. Monaco's is vertical and maritime. Limestone cliffs rise straight behind the town, old mule paths climb to Èze, and the clear water suits diving and snorkelling.

Montpellier spreads out flat to the south and rises to the north. It has lagoons full of flamingos and herons, the Camargue an hour away, the climb up Pic Saint-Loup, and canoeing in the Hérault gorges. On the windy coast you can kitesurf and windsurf.

Both make excellent bases, and the choice comes down to which region you want to explore. From Monaco the trains and buses reach almost everywhere without a car: Villefranche, Nice, Menton, Èze, Antibes and Grasse, and over the border to Sanremo and Dolceacqua.

Montpellier opens up Roman and medieval southern France: the arena at Nîmes, the Pont du Gard, Arles, Avignon's papal palace and the walls of Carcassonne. Closer in are Sète and Aigues-Mortes, though the smaller villages are much easier with a car.

Both work for a few days with children, then start to run thin. Monaco is safe and spotless, and the lifts ease the climbs. The aquarium's sharks, the palace guard and the yachts go down well with children, but the restaurants are formal.

Montpellier offers a zoo in a large wooded park, an aquarium and planetarium side by side at Odysseum, trams that are easy with a pushchair, and gently shelving beaches. Plan for the summer heat in the stone streets.

Both are easy to get around without a car, and they work in different ways. Monaco is a walk with a lot of climbing. The principality is only about 3km end to end, but it rises steeply from the sea. The free public lifts, escalators and stairways ease some of the strain once you learn where they are, and a small solar ferry crosses the harbour. The station is dug into the hillside, and from it the trains run along the whole Riviera.

Montpellier is a walkable centre with a tram network beyond it. The car-free Écusson is compact, though it sits on a low hill with some slopes and uneven paving underfoot. For anything further out, the trams link the station, Antigone, Port Marianne and Odysseum. Reaching the beach means a tram and then a bus, which is slow in summer, and for the hills and gorges a car makes things much simpler.

There isn't much in it overall, but the two sell very different things. Monaco is purely luxury. The Carré d'Or around the Casino gardens packs fashion houses, jewellers and watchmakers into a quarter-hour stroll, and beyond it the choice is souvenirs and a small mall.

Montpellier has no luxury street. What it does have is everyday shopping: boutiques and bookshops in the Écusson lanes, the Polygone mall beside the Comédie, and its best buys, local wine, olive oil and honey from the markets.

This is the widest gap between the two. Monaco is among the most expensive places in the world to visit. Rooms, meals and even a coffee are priced for the very wealthy, and cheap fallbacks barely exist. The free lifts and walks around the Rock and harbour are the only bargains, and many visitors sleep in Beausoleil or Nice instead.

Montpellier is an ordinary mid-range Western European city. Student bars, market halls and lunch menus keep daily costs down, and the expense mainly builds at sit-down dinners and in coastal rooms in high summer.

Both take their stages seriously, and the difference is in emphasis and season. Monaco's strengths are opera in the gilded Salle Garnier, the Philharmonic and Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, with the main season running from winter into spring.

Montpellier peaks in summer. Montpellier Danse is a major contemporary dance festival, and the Radio France festival brings many free concerts. Through the year there are subsidised theatres and small student-fed music venues, something Monaco largely lacks.

Monaco is the more restful choice. Its large thalassotherapy centre by the Casino carries on an old sea-bathing tradition with heated seawater pools and treatments. The grand hotels have sizeable spas, and the orderly streets and Japanese Garden are calm except during Grand Prix week.

Montpellier has only hotel and day spas in town. For real thermal water you go to Balaruc-les-Bains on the Thau lagoon, about half an hour away. Its relaxation comes more from long lunches and shaded squares, set against a busy student centre.