Ankara or Kas?

These two are as far apart as they can be. Ankara is an inland capital. Its lakes are for rowing, not swimming, so in summer you swim in a hotel or municipal pool, and the sea is a separate trip.

Kas is built around the water. You swim from wooden decks and rock platforms straight into deep, clear sea, with two small pebble beaches near the harbour. For sand, Kaputas cove is a short ride west, and the long dune-backed strand at Patara is under an hour away.

Ankara eats better, though not because it offers more choice. Its strength is honest everyday cooking: esnaf lokantası canteens serving stews and vegetables from steam trays, kebab and pide houses around Ulus, long unhurried breakfasts, and Ankara tava, the city's own baked lamb and rice. The restored houses of Hamamönü suit tea and a simple meal, and Kızılay and Tunalı Hilmi add cafés and meyhanes. You end up eating the same few dishes, but they are well made and cheap.

Kas cooks in the coastal style, and grilled fish is the one thing it does that inland Ankara cannot. Evenings bring cold mezes and rakı at harbour tables, mornings bring village breakfasts with local honey and gözleme, and some kitchens make careful use of herbs from the Lycian hills. The catch is that a few streets of restaurants all do much the same thing at prices that follow the yachts, so a long stay soon feels repetitive.

Ankara is well ahead. The Museum of Anatolian Civilizations runs from Çatalhöyük to the Phrygians, and Anıtkabir shows the Republic's architecture at its most deliberate. Around them are the citadel, the Temple of Augustus and the Roman baths, which together fill two or three good days.

In Kas, the remains of Antiphellos are part of the walk around town: a small theatre facing the sea, rock tombs in the cliff and the Lion Tomb at the top of the shopping lane. They take a morning. The great Lycian sites are outside town.

Neither town is a big party destination, but Ankara has much more going on after dark. Its students fill the multi-storey bars off Kızılay, which play rock, serve beer and keep the meyhanes busy, and the bars of Tunalı Hilmi and Çankaya draw an older crowd. Term-time weekdays can be surprisingly lively.

In Kas, an evening is a late dinner followed by a cocktail on a terrace above the sea. A few bars stay busy past midnight in high summer. The town has no clubs and goes quiet early in the cooler months.

Kas has some of the most dramatic scenery on the Turkish coast, where limestone mountains drop straight into very clear sea. It is a diving centre with walls, caves and wrecks, and the Lycian Way passes the town. You can also kayak over the ruins at Kekova, paraglide off the mountain or wade up Saklikent gorge.

Ankara's steppe is open and austere. The Atatürk Forest Farm and the lakes give you space to walk and cycle, and Soğuksu National Park has pine forest about an hour north. For serious hiking you would have to go much further.

Both towns make good bases, for different reasons. High-speed trains bring Konya and Eskişehir within easy reach of Ankara, and Gordion, with King Midas's great mound, and the timber town of Beypazarı are an easy drive away. Hattusa makes a long day out.

Kas has more on its doorstep, and much of it is reached by water. You can take the ferry to Kastellorizo in Greece or a boat to the sunken city at Kekova, and Myra and the church of Saint Nicholas are at Demre. Patara, Xanthos and Letoon are about an hour west, so most of ancient Lycia is a day trip from Kas.

Neither is built around children, and the two are close, but Ankara is slightly easier. Gençlik Parkı and the lakes give children room to run, there are dinosaurs at the MTA Natural History Museum, and the Rahmi M. Koç Museum has trains and boats children can climb into. The malls are a fallback when the weather is bad.

Kas is calm and safe for evening walks by the harbour. In town, though, you swim from ladders into deep water, so families with small children usually go to the shelving sand at Patara or Kaputas. Older children who snorkel or try diving get the most out of a stay there.

Ankara is a little easier to get around. Its metro lines and the Ankaray light rail meet at Kızılay, and the metro links that hub with Ulus, so the citadel, the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations and the old quarter are a short ride from the centre. For Kavaklıdere, Tunalı Hilmi and Çankaya up the hill, you take a city bus on the same rechargeable card or a cheap taxi. Away from those routes the city is built for cars, with broad boulevards, underpasses and steep climbs.

Kas works the other way round. The harbour, old quarter and swimming decks are close enough to walk between, though the lanes climb steeply. Beyond the town you rely on coastal minibuses to Kalkan, Patara and Demre and on boats to Kekova, and most visitors rent a car for the winding road to the inland ruins.

Ankara has more shops, though most of them are practical: big malls with chains, plus boutiques and bookshops around Tunalı Hilmi. The interesting part is below the citadel in Samanpazarı, with coppersmiths, spice stalls, dried fruit and angora wool goods.

Kas has a couple of lanes in the old quarter shaded by bougainvillea, with silver jewellery, linen clothes, ceramics and kilims. It makes a pleasant evening browse, but it won't take long.

Ankara is clearly the cheaper of the two. It is a government and business city with none of the pricing aimed at tourists, so hotels, canteen meals, metro rides and taxis all stay well below Western European levels. The main extra costs are alcohol and the museum entry fees.

Kas is one of the more upmarket small resorts on the coast. In summer, boutique hotels, harbourside dinners, dives and boat trips cost about what they would in southern Europe. Pensions in the back streets, pide bakeries and the minibuses help keep costs down, and the whole town is cheaper in spring and autumn.

Ankara is the country's home for state performance. The State Opera and Ballet perform at the historic house near Ulus, and the Presidential and Bilkent Symphony Orchestras give regular concerts. Tickets are easy to get and inexpensive. The State Theatres perform only in Turkish, and the Kızılay bars lean towards Turkish rock and folk.

Kas has no theatre or concert hall. On summer evenings there are acoustic sets in bars, and there is the occasional concert in the ancient theatre by the sea. Those are pleasant if you happen to be there, but they are not worth planning a trip around.

Ankara has a real bathing tradition, though it is aimed at locals. There are working neighbourhood hammams in Ulus and Hamamönü, and thermal springs at Kızılcahamam and Haymana, each about an hour out of the city.

Kas has no historic baths or springs. It helps you relax through its pace instead: long breakfasts, afternoons on a sun deck above the sea, hotel hammams and massage rooms on the peninsula, and yoga retreats in the hills in spring and autumn.