Ankara or Marmaris?

There is no real contest here. Ankara sits inland on the plateau, and its lakes, Eymir and Mogan, are for rowing, not swimming. Reaching the sea means a separate trip to the coast.

Marmaris is built around swimming. A long strip of sand and shingle runs along a calm, enclosed bay, Icmeler and Turunc have quieter beaches, and boat trips go to clearer coves and the fine sand of Sedir Island. Expect crowds on the main strip in high summer.

Ankara eats better, though neither city is worth the trip for food alone. Its esnaf lokantası canteens, kebab and pide houses, long breakfasts and its own Ankara tava are food cooked for locals. Tunalı Hilmi and Çankaya add meyhanes and a few smarter restaurants.

In Marmaris the seafront is given over to resort menus, and you have to look behind it for good Turkish cooking. Its advantage is the sea: meze and grilled fish by the harbour, which Ankara does poorly. It also has a weekly market and the local pine honey.

Culture is where Ankara leads most clearly. The Museum of Anatolian Civilizations traces the region from Çatalhöyük through the Hittites, and Anıtkabir shows the Republic at its most monumental. The citadel, the Temple of Augustus and the Roman baths make up two or three full days.

Marmaris has a small castle with a modest museum, and an hour's wander through its whitewashed old quarter. Visitors who come for history spend their time on excursions to Rhodes, Kaunos or Knidos.

Marmaris goes out harder, but in only one style and only in summer. Bar Street behind the harbour is a lane of clubs and foam parties that runs until near dawn for a young, mostly British crowd, and the marina has calmer cocktail bars. From November to April most of it closes.

In Ankara a night out means student beer bars, rock bars and meyhanes in the buildings off Kızılay, or the more polished bars of Tunalı Hilmi, with evenings often built around rakı at dinner. There are few clubs, but the scene runs all year and is liveliest in term time.

Marmaris has the setting that Ankara lacks. Pine-covered hills ring its bay, and the Bozburun and Datca peninsulas are a lightly built run of headlands and islands. The marina is the base for gulet cruises, diving, sea kayaking and walks on the Carian Trail.

Ankara's open steppe is austere. Green space in and around the city means the Atatürk Forest Farm, the lakes and Soğuksu National Park an hour to the north, with the salt flats of Tuz Gölü further off. For serious hiking you have to travel much further.

Both are good bases, and Marmaris has the edge. Its best trip is the ferry to Rhodes, about an hour to a walled medieval town, and it can also reach Dalyan's river and Lycian rock tombs, the boatbuilding villages of the peninsula and Knidos. The roads are winding, so a tour or a hire car helps.

Ankara's strength is fast rail. Konya's Mevlana Museum and Eskişehir's Odunpazarı quarter are easy days out by train, Gordion and Beypazarı are close by road, and Hattusa makes a long day.

With children, Marmaris is the easier choice, as long as the plan is beach and pool. Shallow water at the edges of the bay, hotel children's clubs, a large water park and boat trips with swimming stops fill the days. Stay in Icmeler or Armutalan, away from the noise of Bar Street.

Ankara welcomes families warmly. Children love the dinosaur skeletons at the MTA Natural History Museum and the trains and boats they can climb into at the Rahmi M. Koç Museum. Its hilly, traffic-heavy streets and grown-up sights suit older children better, though.

Both are about as easy to get around, in very different ways. Ankara has metro lines and the Ankaray light rail along its spine from Ulus to Çankaya, but the city is built for cars, so taxis fill the gaps and walking is only pleasant within a district.

Marmaris has a flat seafront promenade, dolmus minibuses running constantly and water taxis across the bay. Things get harder outside the bay, where mountain roads to Datca and Dalyan make a hire car or a tour the practical choice.

Ankara has a little more to offer. It is mostly large malls and the mid-range boutiques and bookshops of Tunalı Hilmi, but the copper, carpets, spices and angora wool sold around Samanpazarı below the citadel have more character.

Shopping in Marmaris means the covered bazaar, with haggling, leather, carpets and plenty of copy designer goods, plus the weekly market. The things worth taking home are local: pine honey, natural sponges, olive oil soap and peshtemal towels.

Ankara is the cheaper of the two because it is a government city, not a resort. Canteen meals, metro rides, taxis and comfortable hotels all cost well below Western European levels, and the main extras are alcohol and museum entry.

Marmaris is good value for a European beach resort, especially on an all-inclusive package or in spring and autumn. Costs climb on the seafront, on Bar Street and on organised trips.

Ankara wins easily as home to the State Opera and Ballet, the Presidential Symphony Orchestra, the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra and the State Theatres, and tickets are usually easy to get. Plays are in Turkish, and the bars of Kızılay add Turkish rock and folk.

Marmaris has hotel shows, Turkish nights with belly dancing, cover bands and the odd summer concert in its amphitheatre, but nothing to plan an evening around.

In town both mostly offer the hammam, but different kinds. Ankara's few old neighbourhood bathhouses in Ulus and Hamamönü serve mainly locals, and the thermal hotels of Kızılcahamam and Haymana are about an hour away.

The hammams of Marmaris are modern places run for visitors, and the big resorts have full spas. Its real advantage is calm: Turunc, Selimiye and Bozburun are slow places to do very little, and the mud baths near Dalyan make a half-day of soaking.