Alanya or Fethiye?

Both are true beach destinations, but they work differently. In Alanya the sand is right outside the door: Cleopatra and Keykubat beaches run either side of the castle headland, fine and pale, and the sea there is a degree or two warmer in high summer.

Fethiye's own shore at Calis is coarse and ordinary, so the best swimming means a minibus ride to the sheltered turquoise lagoon at Oludeniz, or a boat to Butterfly Valley, Kabak and the island coves. You get more variety in Fethiye, and more convenience in Alanya.

Neither is a trip for serious eaters, and in both you need to step away from the resort menus. Alanya's best eating is in back-street pide and kebab houses, grilled fish and the big weekly market, and the small sweet local bananas turn up everywhere.

Fethiye has a ritual of its own in the fish market, where you buy at the stalls and a ring of restaurants cooks your choice with meze. Rakı by the harbour rounds off the evening, as long as you eat in town rather than up in Hisaronu.

Alanya has more to see without leaving town. The castle is a whole walled hillside of Ottoman houses, a Byzantine church and cisterns, and at the water's edge the Red Tower and the rock-cut Tersane shipyard add medieval history.

Fethiye's sights are fewer but striking: the Lycian rock tombs in the cliff above town, sarcophagi standing in ordinary streets, and the ghost village of Kayakoy over the ridge. Much of the town was rebuilt after the 1957 earthquake, so its interest is concentrated in a handful of places.

Alanya is the bigger night out. Its harbour bar street, open-air clubs and party boat cruises keep going until the small hours all summer, aimed at a young international crowd.

Fethiye splits its evenings between the relaxed lanes and rooftop terraces of the Paspatur quarter and the loud package strip at Hisaronu, which is fun but smaller in scale. In both towns most of it closes once summer ends.

Both have mountains behind the coast, but Fethiye makes far more of them. Babadag rises almost 1,970m above Oludeniz for one of the best-known tandem paragliding flights anywhere, the Lycian Way sets off along the cliffs past Faralya and Kabak, and Saklikent Gorge is under an hour inland.

In Alanya the outdoors is more a matter of driving or joining a jeep safari: the Dim River valley and its cave, Sapadere Canyon and the high Taurus pastures, with sea caves around the headland by boat. The scenery is fine, but there is less you can simply walk out into.

Fethiye sits in the heartland of ancient Lycia. Tlos, Pinara, Xanthos, Letoon and Patara are all within about an hour, Dalyan's river tombs lie to the west, and in season a ferry crosses to the medieval Old Town of Rhodes, passport in hand. Kas and Kalkan make easy coastal days as well.

Alanya's best excursions carry big names, such as Side, Aspendos, Perge and Antalya's Kaleiçi and museum, but most mean a couple of hours each way and usually an organised tour.

Alanya is the easier family base. Its two main beaches are in town and shelve gently, family resort hotels are plentiful, and water parks, a dolphin and sea-life park and the castle cable car keep children happy.

Fethiye has one superb asset in the shallow, sheltered Oludeniz lagoon. Beyond boat trips and a small water park, though, there is little made for children, and its ruins mean a lot of walking in the heat.

In both, the centres are walkable and dolmuş minibuses handle the coast, while the inland sights need a hire car or a tour. Where they differ is in shape. Alanya strings its resort districts for many kilometres along the coast road, so a central hotel matters, and a cable car spares you the climb to the castle.

Fethiye's resorts sit in separate clusters up the hill and around the bay, linked by minibus, with water taxis across to Calis. Dalaman airport is about 45 minutes away, while Alanya has a small airport nearby and the larger Antalya airport two hours off.

Both are for bazaar shopping, not fashion. Alanya's harbour streets sell leather, gold, textiles and copy brands, with bargaining expected and a few modern malls besides. Fethiye's Paspatur lanes are the more pleasant browse, with carpets, ceramics and lamps, and its canal-side market is the place for peshtemal towels and honey.

Both are good value by Mediterranean standards, and the same rule holds in each: the town is cheap and the resort strip is not. Alanya is especially strong as an all-inclusive package. In Fethiye it pays to stay in town and eat at the lokantas, since paragliding, cruises and diving are the extras that add up.

Neither is somewhere to plan a trip around performances. Alanya at least has a long-running early-autumn jazz festival, with concerts in places such as the old shipyard. Fethiye's live music is mostly a saz player in a meyhane or a cover band in Hisaronu.

The hammam is at the centre of both. Alanya's are mostly hotel spas and bathhouses built for visitors, and the humid air of the Damlataş cave has long drawn people with breathing complaints.

Fethiye has a historic Ottoman bath in the Paspatur quarter. Down the coast above Kabak and Faralya it also has small yoga retreats, which suit a slower, quieter stay.