Amalfi Coast or Cinque Terre?

Neither coast is built for a long day on the sand, but the Amalfi Coast gives swimmers more. It has a row of grey-pebble coves at Positano, Amalfi, Atrani and Furore. Maiori and Minori have real room to spread out, and the best swimming of all is from a hired boat anchored below the cliffs.

Cinque Terre has one proper beach town, Monterosso, where the umbrellas stand close together at Fegina. In the other villages you lower yourself into the sea from rock shelves and slipways. That makes a lovely cool-off between walks, but it is not a beach day.

The Amalfi Coast cooks from a larger larder. Its kitchen brings together lemons, the catch from the gulf and the mozzarella and tomatoes of inland Campania. It also covers the full range, from plain family cooking in Minori and the Agerola hills to elaborate dinners on grand hotel terraces. Cetara's colatura and the sfogliatella of Conca dei Marini are specialities you will not find anywhere else.

Cinque Terre's food is herb-led and simple, and much of it is eaten standing up: pesto, focaccia and farinata from the bakery counter, and fried fish on the harbour wall. Its best moments are often in the glass, with the terraced white and sweet Sciacchetrà. There is little formal dining, so anyone who wants variety heads to La Spezia.

Both coasts are UNESCO-listed landscapes, and neither has a major museum. The Amalfi Coast has more history to stand in front of: the striped Arab-Norman cathedral and Cloister of Paradise from Amalfi's years as a maritime republic, the villas and gardens of Ravello, and a Roman villa at Minori.

In Cinque Terre the villages themselves are the sight. There are Vernazza's harbour square, Manarola's coloured houses and Corniglia's ridge-top lanes, plus a few striped Ligurian Gothic churches and the Doria tower. Most visitors have seen it all in a day or two.

Neither coast suits a night out. The Amalfi Coast at least has a summer evening scene, with cocktail bars in Positano and café tables in Amalfi's cathedral square until around midnight. Cinque Terre has a few wine bars in Monterosso and Riomaggiore, no clubs, and villages that are asleep well before midnight. For anything more, you go to Naples or Salerno from Amalfi, and to La Spezia from Liguria.

The two are well matched as walking country, but the walking is different. The Amalfi Coast is bigger and wilder. The Lattari mountains drop straight to the sea, the Path of the Gods runs high above Positano, and the Valle delle Ferriere climbs a shaded gorge with waterfalls. Below the cliffs, the Grotta dello Smeraldo and the waters off Punta Campanella draw kayakers and snorkellers.

Cinque Terre is a tighter network of paths that is easier to use. The Sentiero Azzurro links the five villages through vineyards and olive groves, and the Sentiero Rosso follows the wooded ridge above. You can walk one way and take the train back, and the sea below is a protected marine reserve.

The Amalfi Coast has some of the greatest day trips in Europe. Pompeii and Herculaneum, Capri by ferry, the Greek temples of Paestum and the archaeological museum in Naples are all within reach. The roads are slow, though, so the sea is often the quickest way out.

Cinque Terre's day trips are more varied in kind and easier to reach. Portovenere and Lerici are a short boat ride away, Pisa and Lucca are reachable by train, the marble quarries of Carrara are close, and Genoa and Portofino lie up the Riviera. Few of them, though, match the weight of the sites near Amalfi.

Both coasts are steep, stepped and hard going with small children, and neither has anything made for them. The Amalfi Coast is a little more forgiving, because Maiori and Minori are flat and have sandier, gentler beaches. The boat trips and the emerald grotto also tend to go down well.

In Cinque Terre, Monterosso is really the only option for families with young children. Corniglia's hundreds of steps from the station and the packed summer trains show what the rest of the coast asks of a family.

Cinque Terre is far easier to get around. A local train links all five villages through tunnels, with only a few minutes between stops, and the trails and seasonal ferries give you two more ways along the coast. The village centres are car-free, so you never need to drive.

The Amalfi Coast depends on a single narrow cliff road that jams for hours in summer, with crowded buses and very little parking. From spring to autumn the ferries are the relief, and choosing a waterfront base in Amalfi or Positano spares you much of the struggle.

The Amalfi Coast has real crafts to shop for. Positano's lanes sell linen clothing and sandals fitted while you wait, Amalfi makes handmade paper, and Vietri sul Mare is known for hand-painted majolica, from single tiles to whole dinner services.

Cinque Terre has no fashion or design shopping at all. What is worth taking home there is food and drink: jars of pesto and anchovies, and a bottle of Sciacchetrà.

On the Amalfi Coast almost everything costs more: the sea-view rooms in Positano and Ravello, the sunbeds, the private boats, the taxis on the coast road and even a plain lunch by the water. You can soften the cost by basing yourself in Maiori, Minori, Atrani or the Agerola hills and getting around by bus and ferry, or by going in late September or early October.

In Cinque Terre the expense is concentrated in the beds. Rooms in the villages are few, small and much in demand, and the national park charges for use of its paths. Once you are there, though, eating and getting about cost relatively little.

Only the Amalfi Coast gives you a reason to plan your evenings around music, and only in the warm months, when Ravello becomes a small concert town with classical music on many nights. If that is what draws you, stay up in Ravello rather than down by the beach, so the concert is a short walk away and not a ride up the cliff road.

Away from Ravello, and everywhere in winter, the two coasts are much alike: a church concert, a band following a saint's procession, and perhaps a piano bar on the Amalfi side. Cinque Terre offers no more than that at any time of year. Neither coast has a theatre or an opera house, so for a staged performance you have to leave the coast, going to the San Carlo in Naples from Amalfi or to the Carlo Felice in Genoa from the Ligurian villages.

For a restful stay, timing matters on both coasts, and the Amalfi Coast rewards it more. In May, June and September it settles into long lunches, garden walks and afternoons on a balcony above the sea, while Positano and Amalfi in July and August are noisy and crowded. For proper thermal bathing, you can take the ferry to the thermal parks of Ischia, though it uses up a day.

Cinque Terre has no spa culture at all, so its calm comes simply from having no cars. You find it early in the morning, in spring and autumn, and once the day visitors leave, and it disappears on a crowded summer afternoon.