Alanya or Kusadasi?

Alanya has the better beaches for a pure swimming vacation. Cleopatra and Keykubat beaches are long curves of fine sand right beside the town, and the warm, clear water shelves gently. Boat trips around the headland add swims in small turquoise coves.

Kusadasi's town beaches, Ladies Beach and Long Beach, are more crowded and built up in summer, and the Aegean is a few degrees cooler. Its best swimming is half an hour away in the pine-backed pebble and sand bays of the Dilek Peninsula, and Pamucak offers a quieter stretch of sand.

Neither town is a reason to travel for food, but Kusadasi eats a little better. Its Aegean cooking of meze, olive-oil vegetables, wild greens and grilled fish with rakı is easier to find in the meyhanes of Kaleiçi and in the lokantas where locals have lunch.

In Alanya you have to look harder past the picture menus on the harbour, but you'll find pide and kebab houses in the back streets and gözleme at village stalls in the hills. Both towns have a weekly market that is worth a morning.

Alanya has far more history within the town itself. The 13th-century Seljuk castle climbs the peninsula with Ottoman houses and a Byzantine church inside its walls, and the Red Tower and the rock-cut Tersane shipyard stand at the water's edge. Together they make a full day or two.

Kusadasi's sights take an hour or two: the little fortress on Pigeon Island, the Ottoman caravanserai and a few lanes in Kaleiçi. History lovers who stay here are really coming for the ruins inland.

Both are package-resort party towns in summer, and both go quiet out of season. Alanya runs a little bigger and later, with its harbour bar street, open-air clubs and the party boat cruises around the peninsula, which have no real equivalent in Kusadasi.

Kusadasi's Bar Street and the clubs near Long Beach offer much the same mix on a smaller scale. A long dinner on the harbour or in Kaleiçi is a gentler alternative to dancing.

Alanya has the more dramatic setting, because the Taurus Mountains rise straight behind the beaches. Within a short drive you can reach the Dim River valley and its cave, the waterfalls of Sapadere Canyon and the high summer pastures, and you can go paragliding from the slopes above town.

Kusadasi's landscapes are gentler but varied. The Dilek Peninsula has a forest ridge, a canyon walk and wild horses, with the Büyük Menderes delta wetland behind it, and the granite Latmos mountains above Lake Bafa offer rocky walks past old hermitages.

This is where Kusadasi is clearly stronger. Ephesus, with the Library of Celsus and its marble streets, is twenty minutes away, and Selçuk, the House of the Virgin Mary and Şirince are all close by. Priene, Miletus and Didyma make a full day out to the south, and in summer you can take a ferry to Samos.

From Alanya, the major outings involve more time on the road. Side is over an hour west, while Aspendos, Perge and Antalya's Kaleiçi are about two hours away, so most visitors go on organised tours.

Both towns work well for a beach vacation with children, and Alanya has the edge. Its main beaches are calmer and warmer, and alongside the water parks it has a dolphin and sea-life park. The cable car up to the castle and the pirate-style boats are easy treats.

Kusadasi has sandy beaches with gentle entry and two big water parks, but beyond those there is little made for children. Ephesus is a hard outing for small children in summer, and the centre is hilly, with busy roads.

The two are much alike. In each, the centre is walkable and dolmuş minibuses serve hotels strung out along the coast road, so where you stay matters. The difference lies in what the public transport reaches. In Kusadasi the dolmuş runs to Selçuk, so you can get to Ephesus without a car.

In Alanya, the seafront promenade is flat and the cable car takes you up to the castle. However, its canyons, mountains and Roman sites need a tour or a hire car, as do Priene, Miletus and Didyma from Kusadasi.

Neither town is a shopping destination, but Kusadasi has a little more to offer. Its covered bazaar near the cruise port sells carpets, leather and jewellery, though the sales pitch is persistent, and its weekly market is good for olive oil and dried figs.

Alanya's harbour streets sell similar resort-bazaar goods, and again the weekly market is the most rewarding stop. Neither town has much in the way of boutiques or design shops.

Costs are similar, and in both towns all-inclusive packages, local lokantas and market produce keep spending down, while harbour-front restaurants and imported drinks are priced for tourists. Where they differ is in the extras. In Kusadasi, entry fees at Ephesus and the other sites mount up over several outings. In Alanya, the extra cost tends to come from boat trips and tours, and peak summer weeks push hotel rates up.

Both towns are thin on stage life, with Turkish-night dinner shows and hotel entertainment making up most of it. Alanya has one thing worth planning around: its long-running early-autumn jazz festival, with concerts in historic settings such as the old shipyard. Kusadasi offers occasional open-air concerts in summer and cover bands in bars.

Alanya makes more of the hammam. Nearly every large hotel has a Turkish bath, standalone bathhouses in town offer the full steam, scrub and foam sequence, and the humid air of Damlataş cave has long drawn people with breathing complaints.

Kusadasi has a historic bathhouse in Kaleiçi, but most of its hammams are hotel versions. Its best way to unwind is to head for the quiet coves to the south in May, June or September.