Bari or Sarajevo?

Bari has real beach life. Pane e Pomodoro gives it sand on the edge of the centre, and the best swimming is half an hour south, in the cliff-backed cove at Polignano a Mare and the rocky inlets around Monopoli. A summer stay can easily include several half-days by the sea.

Sarajevo is an inland mountain city, and the Adriatic is too far for a day out. Swimming means cold rivers, Jablanica lake or a pool, so anyone who wants the sea should add a few days on the Croatian or Montenegrin coast.

Bari has the richer table. You can eat focaccia barese, panzerotti and sgagliozze from old-town windows, raw sea urchins by the fishermen's pier, and sit-down meals of tiella and orecchiette washed down with Primitivo. Much of the appeal is seafood and local produce.

Sarajevo's cooking is just as distinctive but narrower: ćevapi grills along Baščaršija, burek sold by weight, slow lamb dishes and an unhurried coffee ritual. Neither city has much fine dining, but Bari offers more variety across a week.

Bari's sightseeing is gentler and centres on one great church, the Basilica di San Nicola, whose relics of St Nicholas draw Orthodox pilgrims from far away. The cathedral, the Norman-Swabian castle and the whitewashed lanes of Bari Vecchia are close by. It has plenty of character, but you can see it all in a day or two.

Sarajevo has the stronger sights and the heavier history. Within a few streets you pass the Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque, the Orthodox and Catholic cathedrals and the Old Synagogue, then reach the Latin Bridge, where the assassination of 1914 set off the First World War. The story of the siege is told at the Tunnel of Hope and the War Childhood Museum, and the National Museum holds the medieval Sarajevo Haggadah.

Bari is the livelier night out, especially in summer, when students crowd the steps of Piazza Mercantile and Piazza Ferrarese and the party moves to beach clubs south of the city. Sarajevo's evenings are cheaper and calmer, built around café-bars, cellar bars and rakija rather than dancefloors.

This is where Sarajevo pulls clearly ahead. Mountains are minutes away by cable car, and the Olympic slopes of Jahorina and Bjelašnica are under an hour's drive, with skiing in winter and hiking and mountain biking in summer. Other outings include Lukomir above the Rakitnica canyon, the springs of Vrelo Bosne and rafting on the Neretva.

Bari's outdoors is flatter and quieter: walks along the seafront, the open karst of Alta Murgia, the Castellana caves and gentle cycling in the Valle d'Itria.

Bari is one of the great bases in southern Italy. Matera's cave dwellings, the trulli of Alberobello, Ostuni and Locorotondo, Castel del Monte, Trani's cathedral by the sea and Baroque Lecce are all within a day. You can reach several of them by train, though a car helps for the inland towns.

Sarajevo has one outstanding outing in Mostar. The scenic railway there runs through the Neretva gorge and passes Konjic and Jablanica on the way. Blagaj's dervish house and the fortress village of Počitelj lie beyond Mostar and make good additions to that day. Travnik and Višegrad complete the list, but the roads are slow and winding, and there are fewer trips to choose from.

Bari is easier with children. It has a sandy beach in town, traffic-free lanes, gelato, and easy outings to the Castellana caves, the Fasano safari park and Alberobello. Sarajevo welcomes children too, with the Trebević cable car and the carriage ride to Vrelo Bosne. Its main sights deal with war, though, and steep hillsides and winter smog are harder on small children.

The two are much alike: both have compact, flat centres you can cover on foot. The difference is in transport. Bari's strength is its regional railways and the rail link to the airport, while Sarajevo has a historic tram running along its valley floor and cheap taxis for the airport, the tunnel and the ski mountains. Both reward hiring a car for the outlying sights.

Neither city is a shopping destination, but they offer different things. In Bari the best buys are edible, such as dried orecchiette, taralli, olive oil and wine, alongside Puglian ceramics and the fashion chains of Via Sparano. Sarajevo's draw is craft, with coppersmiths hammering on Kazandžiluk and kilims and filigree in the Bezistan, though you need to sort it from the souvenir stock.

Sarajevo is clearly the cheaper stay. Food, coffee, trams, taxis, museum entry and central guesthouses all cost well below Western European levels, and only the Old Town and the summer film festival push prices up a little.

Bari is reasonable for Italy, with cheap street food, free entry to the basilica and the old town, and inexpensive local wine. Rooms in July and August, beach clubs and hire cars make a summer week noticeably dearer.

Bari has the grander evening out in the Teatro Petruzzelli, one of Italy's largest opera houses, and adds summer concerts in its piazzas and castle. Sarajevo's National Theatre and Philharmonic are smaller in scale. Its festivals, MESS in autumn and the November jazz festival, are its best moments, along with sevdah heard in traditional restaurants.

Sarajevo has the edge thanks to Ilidža, where thermal springs used since Roman times feed a spa at the end of the tram line, with the shaded avenue of Vrelo Bosne close by. Bari has no bathing tradition. Its version of relaxing is the long lunch and the evening promenade by the sea, and anyone wanting real pampering heads to a country estate outside the city.