Saint-Malo or Strasbourg?

Saint-Malo has real beaches. The Sillon runs for about 3km from the walls, smaller coves sit under the ramparts, and the Bon-Secours tidal pool lets you swim at any state of the tide. The Channel stays cold, so this is a beach for the sand and short dips rather than long swims.

Strasbourg has no coast at all. Locals swim in old gravel-pit lakes such as the Baggersee, which you can reach by tram and which have lifeguards in high summer. They are pleasant on a hot afternoon but no reason to come.

Strasbourg eats better and with more variety. Alsatian cooking, from choucroute and baeckeoffe to tarte flambée, is served in wood-panelled winstubs with local Riesling. It has more depth than Saint-Malo's menus, and the market halls and fine-dining restaurants add to it.

Saint-Malo's strength is narrower but fresh: galettes with cider, and oysters eaten by the harbour at Cancale. Quality inside the walls is uneven, much as it is around Strasbourg's cathedral, so in both towns the better tables are a little away from the main sights.

Strasbourg has the much fuller list. There is the pink sandstone cathedral with its astronomical clock, half-timbered Petite France and the German-built Neustadt, plus serious museums in the Palais Rohan and beyond. It easily fills two or three days.

Saint-Malo is one striking sight more than a collection: the walk around the ramparts of a rebuilt granite town, the castle keep, and the island forts you reach at low tide. A day covers it, and anyone who loves museums will find little.

Saint-Malo's evening out is usually a pint or a glass of wine after dinner, a few streets from the ramparts, in a pub or an Irish-style bar. How lively it gets depends on who is in town. On summer weekends the sailing crews and young visitors keep a couple of places open late, but there is nowhere to dance unless you take the train to Rennes.

Strasbourg gives you more choice in a night, though it is still a town of bars rather than clubs. You can start in a beer cellar in the student-filled Krutenau and move on to a cocktail bar or a terrace on the quays, among a younger and more local crowd. Even so, few weeknights there go much past midnight, so a late night is rare in either town.

Saint-Malo has the edge if you want the outdoors on the doorstep. The GR34 path runs straight out of town along the cliffs to Pointe du Grouin and Cap Fréhel, and the tides are among Europe's largest. Sailing, kayaking on the Rance and kitesurfing are all close by.

Strasbourg sits on the flat Rhine plain, which is superb for cycling and home to storks and beavers. Its hills are about an hour away, the Vosges to the west and the higher Black Forest across the border, and both are easier to reach with a car.

Both make strong bases, but for different kinds of trip. From Saint-Malo the outings are coastal and medieval: Mont-Saint-Michel, Dinan on the Rance, the boat to Dinard and summer ferries to Jersey. Most are easier by car.

Strasbourg's options are wider in kind. The Alsace wine villages and Colmar lie to the south, and German cities such as Freiburg and Heidelberg are across the Rhine. Trains handle the cities well, while the wine route is better with a car or bike.

Both work well with children, in different ways. Saint-Malo is a bucket-and-spade vacation of wide sand, the sea pool and walks out to the island forts, with the aquarium for rainy days. The fast tides and cold water need care.

Strasbourg has the storks and rowing boats of the Orangerie, the Le Vaisseau science centre and canal boat trips. Its trump card is Europa-Park, about an hour away, which the Breton coast cannot match.

Strasbourg is the easier place without a car. Its compact island centre is largely pedestrianised, trams run to the station, the European quarter and over the Rhine to Kehl, and separated bike lanes cover the city.

Saint-Malo is walkable along the walls and the promenade and has local buses and the Dinard boat. Beyond the town, though, services thin out, so most people drive to Mont-Saint-Michel or Cancale.

Strasbourg has the broader range. There are chain stores and a department store around Place Kléber, independent shops near the cathedral, regional pottery and linens, and its long-established Christmas market in December. Saint-Malo is mostly Breton specialities such as sailor tops, salted butter and caramels, and for fashion you take the train to Rennes.

The two cost much the same, and the real difference is when you pay most. Saint-Malo's rooms are dearest in July and August, so spring and autumn are its cheaper seasons. Strasbourg's hotels get expensive during the Christmas market and the weeks when the European Parliament sits. In both, galettes or tarte flambée keep meals modest, and walking or public transport keeps getting around cheap.

Strasbourg has a real cultural season. There is the Opéra national du Rhin, a full philharmonic programme, the Théâtre National de Strasbourg and the autumn Musica festival of contemporary music.

Saint-Malo relies on its festivals, notably La Route du Rock for indie music and Étonnants Voyageurs for books. Between them there is a modest theatre season and the odd cathedral concert, so plan around those dates or expect quiet evenings.

Both suit a restful stay built around water, of different kinds. Saint-Malo's thalasso centre on the Sillon seafront offers seawater pools and hydrotherapy, and goes well with long low-tide walks outside August.

Strasbourg has the tiled Bains municipaux with its hammam and saunas, and the thermal baths of Baden-Baden are under an hour away. Canal walks and long winstub lunches keep the pace slow, except in December.