Bari or Split?

Split is the better place for swimming. You can walk from the palace to Bačvice's shallow sandy bay, or to the pine-shaded coves around Marjan with their deeper, clear water. Ferries put the longer beaches of Brač, Šolta and Hvar within easy reach.

Bari has its sandy city beach at Pane e Pomodoro and the platforms at Torre Quetta, but these are ordinary. The good swimming is a train ride south, in the pebble cove at Polignano a Mare and the rocky inlets around Monopoli. In Bari the sea means half-day outings. In Split it can be part of every day.

Food is where Bari pulls clearly ahead. The cooking is rooted in the city's streets: thick focaccia barese, sgagliozze sold from kitchen windows, women making orecchiette in Bari Vecchia, and urchins and octopus eaten raw by the old pier with a beer. You eat well almost everywhere, and at fair prices.

Split's Dalmatian cooking is good, with black risotto, pašticada and peka, but you have to choose your table. The best meals are in the konobas of Varoš and behind the Riva, while many menus inside the palace are aimed at the summer crowds. Both cities have good local wines, Primitivo against Plavac Mali, and neither has much fine dining.

Split has the more remarkable centrepiece. Diocletian's Palace is a Roman emperor's residence that people still live in, with the cathedral set in his mausoleum and the original floor plan visible in the vaults below. The Meštrović Gallery adds a fine museum on the slopes of Marjan.

Bari's sights are pleasant rather than striking: the Romanesque Basilica di San Nicola with the saint's relics, the cathedral, the Norman-Swabian castle and the nineteenth-century Murat grid. Either city's sights can be seen in a couple of days, but in Split you spend those days inside the main monument.

The two are about level, and both cities do their drinking outdoors in summer. Bari's nights belong to students and young locals on the steps of Piazza Mercantile and Piazza Ferrarese, with beach clubs further down the coast in July and August.

Split's evenings move from the Riva into small bars tucked into the palace alleys and stairways, then on to the clubs around Bačvice. The bigger difference is the season. Bari keeps a quieter scene going through the winter, while Split shrinks to a handful of bars from October to May.

This is where the two differ most. Split sits between limestone mountains and an island-studded sea. Marjan's forest trails start at the edge of town, Mosor and Kozjak offer ridge hikes, Biokovo rises above Makarska, and there is rafting in the Cetina canyon and sea kayaking around the islands.

Bari is flat olive and stone-wall country. Its best outdoor options are the long seafront promenade, quiet walks and cycling on the open karst of Alta Murgia, and the Grotte di Castellana. All of these are gentle rather than dramatic.

Both make excellent bases, but Bari has the richer list of places to visit. Matera's cave dwellings, the trulli of Alberobello, Ostuni and the Valle d'Itria, Castel del Monte, Trani's cathedral on the sea and Baroque Lecce are each worth a trip in their own right. For the inland towns, a car helps.

Split's trips are mostly by sea and bus: medieval Trogir and Šibenik's cathedral, Roman Salona, Klis Fortress, and the islands of Hvar, Brač and Vis. The ferries make these trips easy in summer but need more planning in winter.

Families will find the two much alike. Both are relaxed and safe, have compact centres and offer little built specifically for children. Bari's advantages are its sandy city beach, the traffic-free old town and outings to the Fasano safari park and the Grotte di Castellana.

Split offers shallow paddling at Bačvice, shade and room to run on Marjan, and a ferry ride that is often the highlight of the trip. In both cities the midday summer heat calls for a long break, and Split's crowded streets in August make it harder work.

Both centres are easy on foot. Split's is slightly tighter: the palace, Varoš, the markets and Bačvice are all within about fifteen minutes of each other, and the ferry port, bus station and railway station sit together at the harbour. The polished steps of the palace are hard going with a pushchair.

Bari's old town, Murat and the seafront lie flat side by side, and a rail link runs to the airport. It is also the hub of regional railways to the coast and inland, though some lines are slow enough that many visitors hire a car.

Neither city is a shopping destination, but Bari offers more. Via Sparano has fashion chains and a few upmarket boutiques, and the delis sell dried orecchiette, taralli, olive oil and Puglian ceramics.

In Split, the shops inside the palace lean heavily on lavender, coral and souvenir ties. The Pazar green market, with its figs, honey and brandies, is the most enjoyable place to browse.

Bari is the cheaper trip, and the gap widens in summer. Street food, trattoria lunches and local wine cost little, and its main sights are free. Rooms tighten in July and August but rarely reach big-city levels.

Split in high summer charges Western European prices for rooms near the old town and a lot for waterfront fish sold by weight, and ferries add up for a family. If you go in May, June or late September, or eat at bakeries and konobas away from the Riva, the difference shrinks considerably.

Bari has the stronger stage. The Teatro Petruzzelli, one of Italy's largest opera houses, gives the city a full season of opera, ballet and symphonic concerts, and a long-running summer jazz festival takes over the castle and the piazzas. Plays at the Piccinni and the smaller theatres are in Italian.

Split's Croatian National Theatre also stages opera, ballet and drama through the season, and you need no Croatian for the opera or the ballet. What sets Split apart is klapa, unaccompanied harmony singing heard in the palace's domed vestibule, and the Summer Festival's open-air opera in the Peristyle. Beyond these, live music mostly means bar bands, and there is little of it outside summer.

Neither city has thermal baths, but Split is easier to unwind in. The local habit of fjaka means hour-long coffees on the Riva and empty streets in the afternoon heat, and there are pine woods on Marjan and resort spas along the coast. The islands are close by when the old town gets loud.

Bari's slower pace comes from long lunches and the evening stroll on the seafront. For real pampering, visitors usually leave the city for a restored country estate.