Antalya or Batumi?

Antalya has more kinds of beach and a longer swimming season. Konyaaltı, with its pebbles and clear, quickly deepening water, is right beside the city, and Lara adds sand. Kemer's pine-fringed coves and Belek's long sandy shores are both within an hour.

Batumi's beach is pebbly too, and it runs right past the hotels, but the water in front of the centre can turn murky after rain. The cleaner swimming is half an hour south at Gonio, Kvariati and Sarpi. The Black Sea also stays warm for a shorter part of the year than the Mediterranean at Antalya.

Both cities reward you for leaving the tourist strip, but the cooking is quite different. Antalya means Turkish grills: piyaz in tahini dressing beside şiş köfte, slow-cooked tandır lamb, fish from the Gulf and long breakfasts, with markets full of citrus and pomegranates from the plain.

Batumi serves Georgian cooking built around Adjarian khachapuri, khinkali and walnut sauces, and it has the more memorable drinks, from Georgian wine by the jug to chacha. Its port fish market, where you choose your catch and have it fried next door, is the most distinctive single meal either city offers.

Antalya has far more history to see. Kaleiçi's restored Ottoman houses, Hadrian's Gate and the Yivli Minare make a fine walk, and the Antalya Museum's marble statues from Perge form a serious collection.

Batumi's appeal is mostly modern show: the Alphabet Tower, the moving Ali and Nino sculpture and the skyline lit up at night, plus the houses from the oil-boom years in the old town. Its museums take an hour or two, and the fortress at Gonio is the one serious piece of history nearby.

Both towns come alive in summer and go quiet in winter, so the difference is one of style. In Antalya the evening centres on courtyard and terrace bars in Kaleiçi and around the harbour, with beach clubs on Konyaaltı and Lara and resort discos further out. These areas are often a taxi ride apart.

Batumi packs its nights onto one seafront, where open-air clubs play until dawn and casinos are a big part of the scene. It is louder and more compact, while Antalya's old-town bars are the better choice for a drink in historic surroundings.

Antalya's setting is more dramatic and offers more to do. The Taurus mountains fall straight into the sea, a cable car climbs Tahtalı Dağı to about 2,365m, and the Lycian Way runs through pine forest past Olympos. In the city itself, the Düden falls pour off a cliff into the sea, and there is rafting in Köprülü Canyon.

Batumi is greener and wetter. The Botanical Garden on the Green Cape and the rainforest trails and river pools of Mtirala are lovely. There is less to do outdoors, though, and heavy rain often cuts into the days you have.

This is one of the widest gaps between the two cities. From Antalya you can reach Perge, the Roman theatre at Aspendos, Termessos on its mountain peak and the temple of Apollo at Side. On a longer day you can see Myra and take a boat over the sunken city at Kekova, though a car or a tour makes most of these easier.

Batumi's day trips are modest by comparison: Gonio, the ruins of Petra, a change of beach at Kobuleti and the wine villages around Keda. Kutaisi and the mountain regions need an overnight stay.

Antalya is the easier choice for families. The resorts at Lara, Belek and Kemer are built around pools, slides and kids' clubs, Belek has a theme and water park, and Lara's shallow sandy water suits toddlers. The main drawbacks are the midsummer heat and Kaleiçi's steep lanes.

Batumi's strength is its flat, car-free boulevard, with playgrounds, bike hire and fountains, plus the dolphinarium and the Argo cable car. Its coarse pebbles are hard on small feet, though, and the traffic off the promenade calls for care.

Batumi is the simpler place to get around. Everything a visitor uses, from the old town to the port and the promenade, is within a flat walk, and app-based taxis and buses reach the botanical garden and Gonio.

Antalya has trams linking the airport, the old town and Konyaaltı. But the resorts stretch for tens of kilometres along the coast, and the ancient sites and mountain trails usually mean hiring a car or booking a tour.

Neither city is worth visiting for shopping, but Antalya has more to browse: carpets, ceramics, leather and spices in Kaleiçi, large malls, and the weekly neighbourhood markets for dried fruit and olives. In Batumi, the best things to take home are Georgian wine, chacha and churchkhela from the central market.

Batumi is the cheaper of the two for most of the year. Buses, taxis and the botanical garden cost little, and only seafront rooms in July and August get noticeably more expensive.

Antalya can be good value if you eat in local köfte houses and take an all-inclusive package with children. But Kaleiçi's restaurants, beach clubs, boat trips and rooms by the sea are priced for foreigners, and they add up quickly.

Antalya has the bigger event. Its summer opera and ballet festival, staged in the Roman theatre at Aspendos, is worth planning a trip around, and a state opera and ballet company performs through the winter.

In Batumi, the drama theatre and the music centre play mostly to local audiences. Still, if you can catch a Georgian folk ensemble performing the country's polyphonic singing, it is a real treat.

Antalya is much the better place to unwind. Kaleiçi's old hammams offer the full scrub and foam massage on warm marble, and the big resorts of Lara, Belek and Kemer have extensive spas.

Batumi has the spa floors of seafront hotels and not much more. Rest there comes from a quiet shoulder-season stroll along the empty promenade rather than from any treatment.