Portofino or Strasbourg?

Portofino has real sea swimming, if not much beach. Ladders and rock platforms on the way to the lighthouse lead into deep, clear water. The sheltered sand at Paraggi is mostly taken by paid beach clubs, and the pebble cove at San Fruttuoso is reached by boat or path. The spots are small and fill up in summer, but the water is a main reason to stay.

Strasbourg is a long way from any coast. People swim in lifeguarded gravel-pit lakes such as the Baggersee, which the tram reaches, with grassy banks and fresh water. They are welcome on a hot afternoon, but they are not a reason to go.

Eating is one of the real pleasures of Strasbourg. The winstub tradition serves choucroute, baeckeoffe and tarte flambée with a pichet of Alsace Riesling. Around it are a covered market, local beer, foie gras and fine dining in the city and nearby villages. Away from the tourist menus around the cathedral, the food is rich, regional and generous.

Portofino's Ligurian cooking, with trofie and pesto, fritto misto and Recco focaccia, is lighter and better suited to summer. In the village, though, it comes from a few harbour terraces where you pay for the view of the yachts. Keen eaters go to Camogli, Santa Margherita or the trattorie in the hills.

Strasbourg is the place for sightseeing. The cathedral with its astronomical clock and medieval glass, the timber-framed Grande Ile, Petite France and the German-built Neustadt together form a UNESCO-listed ensemble. The Palais Rohan, the Alsatian Museum and the modern art museum by the river add real depth, enough for two or three days.

In Portofino the main sight is the painted harbour itself. Add the church of San Giorgio, Castello Brown and the abbey of San Fruttuoso in its cove with no road, and you have a day of atmosphere rather than a list of sights, with no museum of any size.

Neither is a party destination, but Strasbourg at least has a student scene. There are bars and beer cellars in the Krutenau and around Place Saint-Étienne, riverside terraces in summer and a few clubs, even though most of the city is quiet by midnight on weeknights.

Portofino's evening is an aperitivo and a dressed-up dinner facing the yachts, and after that the village goes to sleep, especially outside July and August. For anything later you take the coast road to Santa Margherita or Rapallo.

Portofino has wild landscape right outside the door. The headland is a regional park and a marine reserve. Trails climb through holm oak and pine to the Semaforo Nuovo viewpoint and drop to San Fruttuoso, with some exposed sections fitted with chains. Offshore there is diving among red coral and down to the bronze Christ of the Abyss.

Strasbourg's own outdoors is flat and gentle: the Orangerie, riverside forests with storks and beavers, and long cycle routes along the Rhine. The hills of the Vosges and the Black Forest are about an hour away and much easier to reach with a car.

Both are strong bases, and the difference is the kind of outing. From Portofino the trips follow the coast and often go by boat. Camogli, Santa Margherita and Rapallo are close, Genoa is under an hour away, and summer ferries reach the Cinque Terre and Portovenere. Outside the ferry season you rely on the trains and need to plan more.

Strasbourg's excursions spread across two countries by train. In Alsace there is Colmar and the wine-route villages such as Riquewihr and Eguisheim. Across the Rhine are Baden-Baden, Freiburg and Heidelberg, and Basel and Nancy are also in reach. The wine villages are easiest by car or bike.

Strasbourg is far easier with children. The centre is flat and largely car-free, with trams to get about. The Orangerie has nesting storks, playgrounds and rowing boats, there are boat trips around the Grande Ile, and Le Vaisseau is a science centre built for children. Europa-Park is about an hour away.

Portofino is safe, and children enjoy the boats and swimming off the rocks. But there are no playgrounds or attractions aimed at them, the steep steps are no good for a pushchair, and most of the sand at Paraggi is paid. Families usually stay in Santa Margherita or Rapallo and take a day out to Genoa's aquarium.

Strasbourg is one of the simplest cities to get around. The island centre is easy to walk, trams run to the station, the European quarter and across the Rhine to Kehl, and separated cycle lanes cover the city, so you never need a car in town.

Portofino takes minutes to cross on foot but is awkward to reach. A single narrow road runs about 5km from Santa Margherita, parking is scarce, and the buses are crowded in summer. The ferries that make it easier only run from spring to autumn.

For practical shopping Strasbourg is the better of the two. Chain stores and a department store line the streets around Place Kléber and the Rue des Grandes Arcades, and the lanes near the cathedral have independent bookshops and delicatessens. Regional goods include Soufflenheim pottery, Alsace wine and gingerbread, and the Christmas market makes December the busiest month.

Portofino is the opposite: a few lanes of big-name fashion and jewellery boutiques and resort clothes for the yacht crowd, plus some lace and pesto, all seen in under an hour. Luxury is the one kind of shopping it offers that Strasbourg barely has.

In Portofino the bill is driven by the setting. There are only a handful of hotels, mostly luxury ones on the slope above the harbour, and a summer night there costs as much as a top address in a European capital. The surcharge for the view carries on through the day, in a drink on the piazzetta, a lounger at Paraggi, an hour with a hired boat or a space for the car. What costs nothing is the landscape: the headland paths and a swim off the rocks.

Strasbourg is a mid-priced French city, well below Paris and nowhere near Portofino's level. Most of what you spend goes on the room, and how much depends on when you go. Rates climb steeply in December for the Christmas market and in the weeks when the European Parliament sits, so the same stay can cost much less in another week. Eating, drinking and getting about take a modest share of the budget.

Strasbourg has a full arts season. The Opéra national du Rhin plays on Place Broglie, alongside the Philharmonic and the Théâtre National de Strasbourg, and each autumn the Musica festival brings contemporary music, with a well-regarded jazz festival as well. Plan around the calendar and your evenings are well filled.

Portofino has almost nothing beyond the occasional summer concert in the piazzetta or at the castle. For opera or theatre you go into Genoa, to the Teatro Carlo Felice.

Strasbourg has more to offer if you want to bathe. In town there are the tiled pools, hammam and saunas of the Bains municipaux, and the Friedrichsbad and Caracalla thermal baths at Baden-Baden are under an hour away. Quiet canal walks and long winstub lunches add to the slow pace, except in December when the market crowds arrive.

In Portofino, rest means the quiet of early mornings, evenings and the months either side of summer, and spa treatments are found only in the luxury hotels on the hillside. In the middle of the day in high summer, the tour boats fill the harbour and the calm is gone.