Bodrum or Antalya?

Both are strong places to swim, but they work differently. Antalya has two long city beaches, the pebbly, quickly deepening Konyaaltı under the mountains and the sandy Lara strip. Belek's sand and Kemer's pine-backed coves are within an hour, and the sea is noticeably warmer in summer.

Bodrum is a peninsula of smaller bays rather than long strands. You swim off wooden decks on the north coast, paddle in the shallows at Bitez and Ortakent, or take a boat to Kara Ada, and beach clubs tend to hold the best stretches. The western shore stays breezier and cooler in the meltem.

There is little to choose between them, but the cooking differs. Antalya's food is heartier and more everyday: piyaz in a tahini dressing beside grilled köfte, slow-cooked tandır lamb and fish from the Gulf. The best meals are in plain kebab houses in the modern city rather than in Kaleiçi.

Bodrum is Aegean, with olive-oil vegetables, wild greens, octopus, long meze evenings, the fish-market tables in town and slow waterfront meals at Gümüşlük. It also has more polished restaurants on the north coast, though the choice thins out once summer ends.

Antalya has more to see in town. Kaleiçi is a walkable walled quarter of Ottoman houses that you enter through Hadrian's Gate. The Antalya Museum, with its marble statues from Perge and its sarcophagi, deserves a long morning.

You can see Bodrum's sights in a day or two. The Castle of St Peter and its Museum of Underwater Archaeology are excellent. Little more than the foundations of the Mausoleum survives, though, and apart from the theatre and the Myndos Gate the town offers atmosphere more than monuments.

Bodrum is the place for going out. Through the summer the bar street behind the harbour, Gümbet's louder clubs and the dressed-up beach parties at Türkbükü and Yalıkavak keep going until sunrise, and the whole peninsula is geared to it.

Antalya's nights are fun rather than memorable: courtyard bars in Kaleiçi, beach clubs at Konyaaltı and Lara, and hotel entertainment, spread out enough that you need taxis between them. Both go quiet in winter, Bodrum more abruptly.

Antalya's setting is far grander. The Taurus and Beydağları mountains drop straight to the sea. You can ride the cable car up Tahtalı Dağı, follow stretches of the Lycian Way over the cliffs and through pine forest past Phaselis and Olympos, raft in Köprülü Canyon and even ski at Saklıkent in winter.

Bodrum's landscape is dry hills, olive groves and scrub, and you see it best from a gulet among the islands or in the greener Gulf of Gökova. Diving, snorkelling and windsurfing in the meltem are good. On land there are mostly village paths and parts of the Carian Trail.

Both are excellent bases for ancient sites, and Antalya is a little ahead. Perge is close by, Aspendos has its remarkably intact Roman theatre and Termessos sits high on its mountain. Myra and the sunken city at Kekova make a longer day.

From Bodrum you head north into Caria and Ionia, where Didyma, Miletus and Priene fit into one day and Herakleia sits on Lake Bafa. Its trip that Antalya cannot match is the ferry to Kos, a Greek island town less than an hour away. Ephesus works better as an overnight trip.

Antalya has more for children. Lara, Belek and Kemer have resort pools and kids' clubs, Belek has a theme and water park, and the big aquarium in the city fills the hottest part of the day. Lara's shallow, sandy water suits toddlers.

Bodrum is just as welcoming to children and has calm shallows at Bitez and Ortakent. Away from the beach, though, the castle's shipwrecks are about the only outing for children. Families also do better to stay well away from the noise of Gümbet and the bar district.

Antalya is easier without a car, because its trams connect the airport, the bus station, the old town and Konyaaltı. The resorts and ancient sites are still spread out, so most people who want to explore hire a car or book tours.

You can walk around Bodrum's centre, but everywhere else depends on dolmuş minibuses that mostly run through town, so hopping from bay to bay is slow. Summer traffic and expensive taxis push many visitors into a hired car or onto a scooter.

Neither city is a shopping destination, and they offer different things. Antalya is practical: carpets, ceramics and spices in Kaleiçi, large malls that are also a refuge from the heat, and neighbourhood markets for dried fruit and olives.

Bodrum has a real local craft in made-to-measure leather sandals, along with its weekly markets, and at the other end of the scale the luxury boutiques of Yalıkavak marina. In both bazaars you see the same goods again and again.

Antalya is clearly the cheaper trip. Local food, city transport and all-inclusive packages keep costs down. Only Kaleiçi's restaurants, the boat trips and rooms by the sea come at visitor prices.

Bodrum is the most expensive resort area in Türkiye, and in midsummer the north-coast bays, taxis and sunbed fees add up quickly. Staying in Gümbet or Turgutreis, using the dolmuş or travelling in May, June or late September makes it far more manageable.

Antalya has the edge because it has its own state opera, ballet and theatre companies, which perform through the winter. In summer the opera and ballet festival fills the Roman theatre at Aspendos.

All of Bodrum's performances are in summer and in the open air: concerts in its ancient theatre and the castle courtyards, a ballet festival at the castle, and chamber music in a stone quarry at Gümüşlük. Out of season there is almost nothing.

Antalya is the more rewarding place to unwind. Kaleiçi has several old hammams with the full scrub and foam massage on warm marble, and the resorts in Lara, Belek and Kemer have large spas.

In Bodrum, wellness mostly means hotels, from the hammams in the big resorts to the spa floors of the luxury hotels around Türkbükü, and the town has only simple bathhouses. For a quiet stay in August, choose Gümüşlük or the western villages over the party bays.