Bari or Mostar?

Bari is a place to swim and Mostar is not. Within the city, Bari has the sandy Pane e Pomodoro beach and the rocky platforms around Torre Quetta. For better water there are the clear coves of Polignano a Mare and Monopoli, each an easy half-day out.

In Mostar, swimming means a cold plunge in the Neretva below the old town or a trip to the pool beneath the Kravica falls. The Adriatic at Neum is more than an hour's drive away, so the sea is an excursion rather than part of daily life.

Food is one of the main reasons to choose Bari. Orecchiette are rolled by hand in the doorways of Bari Vecchia, focaccia and fried panzerotti come from street windows, and locals eat raw sea urchins at the fishermen's pier. Primitivo or Negroamaro goes with all of it. The cooking is rich in seafood and specific to the region, with real depth.

Mostar eats well but from a narrower range: charcoal-grilled ćevapi in somun, burek, stuffed peppers and slow stews. The local Žilavka and Blatina wines and the slow ritual of Bosnian coffee are the highlights, and beyond those the choice soon runs out.

The two are evenly matched. Each has a compact historic core that fills a day or two, but the stories they tell are different. Bari's is Romanesque and Christian: the Basilica di San Nicola with the saint's relics, the cathedral and the Norman-Swabian castle, with the nineteenth-century Murat grid and the Pinacoteca beyond.

Mostar's is Ottoman and marked by recent war. The rebuilt Stari Most, the Kujundžiluk, the Koski Mehmed Pasha minaret and the carpeted Ottoman houses stand near war-scarred façades on the old front line. These give a visit a weight that Bari's lanes do not have.

Bari is far livelier after dark. On summer nights students and young locals fill Piazza Mercantile and Piazza Ferrarese, the bars in the Umbertino streets stay open past midnight, and in July and August the crowd moves to beach clubs down the coast.

In Mostar, an evening usually means a long dinner on a terrace facing the lit bridge. A few cocktail bars and student clubs open on weekends, but the old town goes quiet once the day visitors leave.

Mostar has the more dramatic landscape. Bare limestone mountains surround the city, the Prenj range is properly wild, and the Neretva canyons offer rafting and kayaking. The Buna spring at Blagaj and the Hutovo Blato wetland are both close by.

Bari's countryside is gentle by comparison: olive groves and stone walls on a flat plain. The open karst of the Alta Murgia is about an hour inland, and the Grotte di Castellana and the Valle d'Itria are good for caves and easy cycling. It suits quiet walks, but there are no mountains.

Bari has much the stronger range of outings, and for many visitors they are the reason to stay there. Matera's cave dwellings, the trulli of Alberobello, the white towns of Ostuni and Locorotondo, Castel del Monte, Trani's cathedral by the sea and Baroque Lecce are all major sights, and many of them can be reached by train.

Mostar's trips are smaller in scale: the dervish tekke at Blagaj, the hillside village of Počitelj, the stećci tombstones at Stolac and the bridges at Konjic and Jablanica. Sarajevo makes a long day by train, and most of the other places need a car or a tour.

Neither city has much built for children, but Bari is easier with them. Its sandy city beach, flat traffic-free lanes and a seafront full of local families on the evening stroll make daily life simple. The caves at Castellana and the Fasano safari park make good outings.

In Mostar, children enjoy the bridge divers and the Kravica falls. The steep, slippery cobbles are hard going with a pushchair, though, and the valley heat is tough on small children, so a day or two is usually enough.

You can walk around both centres, but Bari's is flat and Mostar's cobbles are steep and slippery. Bari also has a rail link to the airport and is the hub for regional lines to Polignano, Trani, Matera and Alberobello. Some of these are slow, so a car helps for the inland towns.

In Mostar the city buses serve residents rather than visitors, so Blagaj, Počitelj and Kravica mean a car, taxi or tour. The train to Sarajevo is the main rail connection.

Neither city is a shopping destination. Bari has the wider choice: Italian chains and a few boutiques along Via Sparano, good food to take home such as orecchiette, taralli and olive oil, and Puglian ceramics.

In Mostar, shopping means the Kujundžiluk bazaar. A few coppersmiths there still hammer coffee sets by hand, surrounded by stalls of imported souvenirs. Away from the bazaar there is little beyond ordinary malls.

Bari is cheap for Italy rather than cheap outright. The everyday pleasures cost little: a slab of focaccia barese, a simple trattoria lunch with a glass of Primitivo, and Bari Vecchia and the Basilica di San Nicola, which are free to wander. The budget stretches with the extras that make a Puglia trip, such as a lounger at a beach club down the coast or a hire car for the Valle d'Itria and Castel del Monte.

Mostar costs less across the board, and the gap shows most in small daily spending. A long Bosnian coffee in the shade is something you never need to count, and a full day of eating out hardly dents the budget. The premiums are few and easy to spot: a table on the terraces facing the bridge, and a room inside the old town in midsummer. As in Bari, the outings are the larger expense, because little beyond the city is easy to reach without paying for a driver or a car.

Bari has a real night out at the theatre. The Teatro Petruzzelli is one of Italy's largest opera houses and stages opera, ballet and symphony concerts, and summer adds a jazz festival and open-air concerts in the piazzas and the castle.

Mostar's national theatre and youth theatre perform mostly in local languages. Outside the summer festival events, live music rarely goes beyond a band in a café bar.

Neither city suits a spa trip, and in both the treatments are mostly found in hotels. Bari has a slight edge because the restored country estates outside the city offer proper pampering, and its long lunches and seafront strolls are restful in themselves.

Mostar's Ottoman hammam is a historic building rather than a working bath. Its calm comes from long coffees in the shade and the quiet of the old town early in the morning.