Antalya or Limassol?

The two are close here, and the difference is in the kind of beach. Antalya has two very different city beaches: long, pebbly Konyaaltı with clear, deep water under the mountains, and sandy Lara to the east. Within an hour you add the pine-backed coves around Kemer and Phaselis, and in August the sea is a touch warmer.

Limassol's city beaches are grey sand and fine shingle with calm, shallow water. They are easy to use rather than beautiful, so the better swimming means a short drive to Governor's Beach, Kourion or Pissouri. Both get busy in high summer.

These are evenly matched, but they eat in very different ways. In Antalya the reward is in plain köfte houses serving şiş köfte with tahini piyaz, in slow-cooked tandır lamb and in long Turkish breakfasts, with Gulf fish on the coast. Limassol revolves around the meze, a long parade of halloumi, sausage, kleftiko and souvla in family tavernas. Its real advantage is wine, from the vineyard villages on the way up to Troodos. In both cities, avoid the tourist strips: Kaleiçi in one, the seafront in the other.

Antalya gives a sightseer clearly more to do. Kaleiçi is a proper walled old town, with Ottoman houses, Hadrian's Gate and the Yivli Minare. The Antalya Museum, with its marble statues from Perge, is worth an unhurried morning on its own.

Limassol's own heritage fits into a day. There is the small castle with its medieval museum, a few streets of the old mixed quarter and the hillside ruins of Amathus at the city's edge. For anything more substantial you have to drive out of town.

Neither city is a reason to go out, and they are about level, but the evenings feel different. Antalya's summer nights fill Kaleiçi's courtyard bars and the harbour, with beach clubs and large open-air venues along Konyaaltı and Lara. The venues are far apart, so you take taxis between them, and in winter little is left beyond a few bars for locals and students.

Limassol is more compact and more about drinks than dancing. The old-town lanes around Saripolou Square stay busy into the early hours, and the marina has smarter lounge bars. Its large resident community also keeps things going outside high season.

Antalya's setting is the more dramatic, with the Taurus falling straight into the sea and far more to do in it. You can raft Köprülü Canyon, walk the Lycian Way past Olympos, take the cable car to over 2,300m on Tahtalı Dağı, or see the Düden falls drop straight into the sea in the city itself.

Limassol's outdoors centres on Troodos, where black pine trails around Mount Olympos and the Caledonia waterfall offer cool walking about an hour inland. Closer to the city, winter flamingos on the Akrotiri salt lake and the cliff paths at Cape Aspro make pleasant, gentler outings.

Both are excellent bases, but for different kinds of outing. Antalya's are mostly ancient cities, and among the finest anywhere: Aspendos's intact theatre, Perge's colonnaded street, Termessos high on its peak, and Kekova's sunken city by boat.

From Limassol the list is more varied. It runs from Kourion and the Paphos mosaics to painted Byzantine churches in the Troodos valleys, the lace village of Lefkara, and Nicosia, where you can cross the Green Line on foot. From either base, a car makes most of these much easier.

Antalya is the more complete family destination. The resorts of Lara, Belek and Kemer are built around children, with water slides and kids' clubs, and there is a big theme and water park as well as a city aquarium with a walk-through tunnel for the hottest hours. The weak points are the midsummer heat and Kaleiçi's steep lanes with a pushchair.

Limassol works well for a simpler beach vacation, with gentle, shallow water and a flat promenade for scooters. Once you leave the sea there is little made for children beyond a waterpark and a small zoo.

Antalya is easier without a car. Its tram links the airport, bus station, old town and Konyaaltı, and buses and plentiful taxis fill the gaps. You still need wheels or a tour for the ancient sites.

Limassol is a long ribbon of coast rather than a centre. The old town, port and marina are walkable and the promenade is good for cycling, but coast buses are the only real public transport, and there is no railway on the island. Most visitors hire a car, which means driving on the left.

Neither city is worth a trip for shopping alone, and they are about level, but you come home with different things. Antalya is a bargaining town. In Kaleiçi the lanes are hung with rugs, painted ceramics, leather jackets and boxes of lokum, many shops stock much the same goods, and the price is something you argue over. The neighbourhood street markets, where locals do their weekly shopping, are a better bet for spices, olives and dried fruit than the outlet stops on coach tours.

Limassol has no bazaar to haggle in. The things worth taking home come from the kitchen and from craft workshops: halloumi and dark carob syrup from the covered market, a bottle from the hill wineries, and hand-stitched lace and silver filigree from the village of Lefkara. The old town has a few small workshops selling local design, and the marina has a handful of upmarket boutiques, the kind of polish Antalya mostly lacks. Both cities have large malls of familiar chains on the outskirts.

Antalya leaves more room in the budget, but how far your money goes depends on where you spend it. The costs that catch visitors out are the ones aimed at them: Kaleiçi's restaurants, the beach clubs, boat trips along the cliffs and summer rooms close to the sea. In spring and autumn room rates fall and the crowds thin.

In Limassol the dividing line is the coast. Most of your money goes on beachfront hotels and the area around the marina, while a meze in a family taverna away from the sea, the buses and entry to the archaeological sites stay modest. Rooms cost far less once peak summer is over, and that fits well with its dry, sunny winters.

Antalya has a little more to offer. A state opera and ballet company and a state theatre perform through winter. The summer opera and ballet festival on the Roman stage at Aspendos is a memorable night.

Limassol's arts are smaller and mostly in Greek, at the restored Rialto and Pattihio theatres. Its high points are ancient plays at Kourion at sunset and the pre-Lenten carnival parades.

Antalya is the better place for pampering, because it has a living bathing tradition. Old hammams in Kaleiçi offer the full scrub and foam massage on warm marble, and the large resorts add extensive spas of their own.

Limassol has no bathing culture of its own, so wellness means hotel spas along the coast. Its strength is retreat: the cool pine air and quiet hill villages of Troodos are only about an hour away.