Saint-Tropez or Zermatt?

Saint-Tropez easily wins on beaches. Pampelonne gives you about 5km of pale sand and clear water, with beach clubs and stretches of public beach. Further south, coves such as Escalet and Cap Taillat reward a walk or a short drive.

Zermatt has nothing to compare. The mountain tarns are for photographs, the meltwater is too cold for a swim even in August, and swimming means a hotel pool.

Saint-Tropez gives you more to eat. Expect grilled fish, bouillabaisse and aïoli with Côtes de Provence rosé, the produce market on the Place des Lices and the cream-filled tarte tropézienne. The top end is polished, though simple, good-value meals are hard to find.

Zermatt's best meals are on the mountain, at chalets around Findeln and Furi where the walk or the ski run is part of the lunch. In the village you eat Valais food such as raclette, fondue and air-dried beef with local Petite Arvine or Cornalin. The choice is narrower and many places close between seasons.

Neither place is a culture destination, but Saint-Tropez has more to see. The Musée de l'Annonciade holds the pointillist and Fauvist paintings from the years Signac spent painting the harbour. Add the citadel's maritime museum and the lanes of La Ponche and you have a full day.

Zermatt's heritage is all about mountaineering. The Matterhorn Museum tells the story of the 1865 first ascent, the climbers' cemetery is beside the church, and old larch barns stand in the Hinterdorf. Together they fill a morning.

For going out, Saint-Tropez comes out well ahead in summer. Afternoon parties at Pampelonne lead to champagne on the harbour and then to well-known clubs that stay open until dawn. The style is moneyed, with dress codes and table service.

Zermatt's version is winter après-ski, with ski boots and loud music in the slope-side bars, then a few late bars on the main street. It is cheerful rather than glamorous. In summer, hikers with early starts go to bed after dinner.

Saint-Tropez has good nature for a resort town. The Sentier du Littoral runs past pine-backed coves to Cap Camarat, the Maures forests have cork oaks, the gulf is good for sailing, and the national park islands of Port-Cros and Porquerolles are within reach.

Zermatt is one of the great Alpine settings. The Matterhorn rises straight above the village, the Gorner Glacier and dozens of four-thousand-metre peaks surround it, and the ski area links into Italy. In summer the same lifts lead to the Five Lakes walk, the Europaweg bridge and marmot country.

Saint-Tropez has more variety close by. Ramatuelle and Gassin are hilltop villages, and Port Grimaud's canals are a short boat ride across the bay. Further away there are wine estates open for tastings, Porquerolles and the Roman remains at Fréjus. The catch is the summer traffic on every road out.

From Zermatt, every outing starts with the long train ride down the valley. Sion, with its two castle hills, is the most rewarding. Brig and the vineyards of Visperterminen are pleasant, but most visitors spend their spare days up in the mountains instead.

Zermatt is a little easier with children. With no cars, the walks between hotel, ski school and lifts are short and safe. Sunnegga has gentle nursery slopes, and in summer there are marmots and cog railways. Its weak points are rainy days and the thin air at the highest viewpoints.

Saint-Tropez has the better beaches for small children, at gently shelving Pampelonne and Gigaro. Beyond that the town is built around adults, and summer jams and hot afternoons wear families down. Many families stay across the gulf instead.

You can walk across both towns in minutes, but the difference is what happens beyond them. Saint-Tropez has no railway, slow buses and one road along the gulf that jams for hours in July and August. Its main beaches are several kilometres out, so the passenger boat from Sainte-Maxime is often the best way in.

In Zermatt you leave the car at Täsch and do everything else on foot, by electric taxi, or by cog railway, funicular and gondola from the centre. The connections onto the Swiss rail network are smooth.

Saint-Tropez has much more to browse for a town its size. The big fashion houses open summer shops behind the port, small workshops hand-stitch leather Tropézienne sandals, and the Place des Lices market sells linen, baskets and vintage finds.

Zermatt's shopping is one main street of Swiss watches, jewellery and cowbell souvenirs. It is worth a visit mainly for its well-stocked mountaineering and ski outfitters.

Both are among the most expensive places to stay in Europe, and neither suits a tight budget. The difference is where the money goes. In Saint-Tropez it is summer rooms, beach loungers and taxis, because public transport is so thin. In Zermatt the lift passes and cog railways add a cost on top of already steep rooms and meals.

The ways to save are similar: stay outside the town. That means across the gulf or inland for Saint-Tropez and down the valley in Täsch for Zermatt, and in both places a market or supermarket picnic helps.

Neither has a theatre or concert hall worth planning a trip around, so what you get depends on when you go. Saint-Tropez has open-air classical and jazz concerts on the citadel in summer and the Bravade in May, a musket-firing procession that goes back centuries.

Zermatt has two festivals: Zermatt Unplugged's acoustic sets in spring and a chamber music festival in the village church in late summer. Outside those weeks, both places offer little more than a band in a bar.

Zermatt is the better place to switch off. It has an unusually large number of excellent hotel spas, some with day access for non-residents, and the car-free streets keep evenings free of traffic noise. The mood is still active rather than slow.

Saint-Tropez's spas are mostly for hotel guests, and high summer is crowded and loud. In May, June and September it slows to long lunches and pétanque under the plane trees and becomes a calm place to rest.