Bodrum or Goreme?

This is the widest gap between the two. Bodrum is a peninsula of bays, from the long, shallow shores at Bitez and Ortakent to the jetty-and-deck swimming of Türkbükü and Yalıkavak, and boat days reach coves that no road gets to. The sand is often coarse and beach clubs hold the best stretches, but the water is clear and warm all summer.

Goreme has no sea at all. It sits on the central Anatolian plateau, a long day's drive from the coast, and swimming means a cave-hotel pool. Many travellers deal with this by combining the two: a few days in Cappadocia, then the Aegean.

Bodrum eats far better. Aegean cooking brings olive-oil vegetables, wild greens, octopus and long meze evenings with rakı. You can choose fish at the market and have it cooked at the tables around it, or eat slowly at Gümüşlük's waterfront fish tables. If you avoid the tourist menus in Gümbet, it can keep a week of dinners interesting.

Goreme's food is limited and repetitive: testi kebab cracked open at the table, manti, gozleme from roadside stalls and breakfasts on hotel terraces. Wines from the volcanic soil are the nice surprise, but after two or three nights the menus all look the same.

Each offers a day or two of sightseeing, but of very different kinds. Bodrum's culture rests mostly on one building, the Knights' Castle of St Peter, which holds the Museum of Underwater Archaeology and its shipwrecks raised from the coast. The Mausoleum, one of the Seven Wonders, is left only as foundations.

Goreme's sights are a whole valley of Byzantine faith. The rock-cut churches of the Open Air Museum, with the Dark Church and Tokali Church among the finest painted interiors in Cappadocia, are a short walk from the village, and more chapels and dovecotes are carved into the tuff all around it.

Bodrum is the place to go out, at least from June to early September. There is the bar street behind the harbour, louder and cheaper clubs in Gümbet for young package crowds, and dressed-up beach-club parties at Türkbükü and Yalıkavak that run until sunrise. Out of season it goes quiet.

Goreme has none of this. The balloons launch before dawn, so the village sleeps soon after dinner, and a night out means a glass of local wine on a terrace, looking at the lights on the rocks.

On land, Goreme's landscape is the stronger draw. Rose, Red, Love and Pigeon valleys begin at the edge of the village, and you can walk, ride or cycle for hours among pinnacles and cones, with dozens of balloons above them at sunrise. The range is narrow, though: there is no water to paddle on and little forest.

Bodrum's outdoors is mostly the sea. Gulet cruises to Kara Ada and the greener Gulf of Gökova, clear water for diving and snorkelling and the meltem for windsurfing off Bitez make it the choice for time on the water. Hiking in its dry hills is limited to spring and autumn.

Both make good bases, but for different kinds of outing. From Bodrum the range is wider: the Temple of Apollo at Didyma, with Miletus and Priene on the same day, Herakleia on Lake Bafa, and a ferry to the Greek island of Kos for a change of country.

From Goreme almost everything is less than an hour away, from the underground cities of Kaymakli and Derinkuyu to Uchisar's citadel and the potters of Avanos. Much of it is a variation on the same rock-cut heritage, so the outings feel more alike.

Bodrum suits more families, especially those with young children. Bitez and Ortakent have shallow, calm water, many hotels have pools, kids' clubs and slides, and there are large water parks. Just stay away from Gümbet and the bar district at night.

Goreme is an adventure for older children, who can sleep in a cave room, crawl through an underground city and ride horses through the valleys. With toddlers it is hard work: steep paths with unfenced drops, lanes that defeat buggies, and minimum ages for balloon flights.

In both places the walkable core is small, and beyond it you need wheels. Bodrum has the fuller public network, with dolmuş minibuses to almost every bay, but they route through town and the summer roads clog. In Goreme the village and nearby valleys are walkable, while the outlying sites mean slow local buses, a tour or a hired car.

Bodrum has more to buy. There are made-to-measure leather sandals from small workshops in the lanes, the covered bazaar, lively weekly markets and luxury boutiques at Yalıkavak marina. Goreme is mostly a souvenir street with two real crafts behind it: hand-knotted carpets and kilims, and the red-clay pottery of Avanos, which you can watch being made.

Goreme is the easier place to keep costs down. Cave-house hostels, simple guesthouses, gozleme stalls and walking the valleys for free keep a basic stay modest, though boutique cave hotels, tours and above all the balloon flight push the total up quickly.

Bodrum is Türkiye's most expensive resort area, and the north-coast bays of Yalıkavak, Türkbükü and Gölköy are priced for a wealthy crowd, with taxis and sunbed fees on top. Package hotels in Gümbet and Turgutreis, and the quieter months of May, June and late September, make it easier on the budget.

Bodrum has a real programme, though only in summer. There are concerts in the restored ancient theatre and the castle courtyards, a long-running ballet festival staged at the castle, and chamber music in Gümüşlük's old stone quarry. Goreme offers only shows staged for visitors: a Turkish night of folk and belly dancing in a cave venue, and the more rewarding Sema ceremony of the whirling dervishes in a caravanserai near Avanos.

Bodrum offers more, mostly inside its resorts, where the hammam, scrub and foam massage are part of elaborate spa floors around Türkbükü and Yalıkavak. Gümüşlük and the western villages are quiet, but choose your corner carefully, because August in the centre and the party bays is far from restful.

Goreme's calm comes from its evenings and its terrace breakfasts over the rocks, with a few village hammams and small spas in cave hotels. Pre-dawn balloon starts and full tour days cut into that rest, and real thermal water means a drive across Nevsehir province.