Budva or Mostar?

This is the biggest gap between the two. Budva has fine pebble and coarse sand on its doorstep, with Slovenska Plaza and the Mogren coves in town and Becici, Jaz and the beach facing Sveti Stefan a short ride away. The drawback is packed sunbeds and loud music in high summer.

Mostar has no beach. The Neretva is too cold for more than a quick plunge, so most visitors swim in the pool beneath the Kravica waterfalls. The nearest sea, at Neum, is over an hour's drive away, which makes it a day out rather than a place to stay.

Neither city is a place to travel for food, and the gap is small, though Mostar's cooking has the stronger identity. In Budva the promenade menus of grilled fish, black risotto and pizza are uneven. The good meals come from Njegusi ham, mountain cheese and the day's catch at family konobas, with a glass of Vranac.

Mostar sticks to Bosnian cooking: ćevapi in somun bread, pies made with thin pastry, stuffed peppers, and white Žilavka or red Blatina from the nearby valleys. Bosnian coffee in a copper džezva is a ritual in itself. Fine dining is thin in both.

Mostar has far more to see. The Old Bridge, rebuilt after it was destroyed in 1993, stands at the centre of a UNESCO-listed old town with the Kujundžiluk bazaar, a mosque minaret you can climb and Ottoman houses with carpeted rooms. The war-damaged façades along the old front line add a harder side to the visit.

Budva's walled Stari Grad, largely rebuilt after the 1979 earthquake, takes an hour or two. It has its churches, the Citadel and a small archaeological museum. For more heritage you have to travel to Kotor and Cetinje.

Budva is the place to go out, at least in summer. Beach bars and terrace clubs line Slovenska Plaza, and a large open-air club on the hill keeps going until dawn. Groups of friends come for exactly this, though nearly all of it shuts from October to May.

Evenings in Mostar are slower. You have dinner and a drink on a terrace facing the lit bridge, and there are a few cocktail bars and student clubs at weekends. It suits a quiet evening, not a late night.

Both towns sit beneath bare limestone mountains, but Budva has a slight edge because it also has the sea. There are paths between the bays, kayaking along the cliffs and paragliding above Becici, and Lovcen's beech forests and Lake Skadar are about an hour inland.

Mostar's outdoors is about rivers and high ground: rafting in the Neretva canyons, the Buna spring at Blagaj, the rugged Prenj range and the birdlife of Hutovo Blato. Spring and autumn are the times to walk in both, because summer heat is punishing in each.

Budva has the better choice of day trips. Kotor and its bay are about half an hour away, Perast and Cetinje are not much further, and the coast to the south leads to Stari Bar and Ulcinj. Dubrovnik is possible as a long day.

Mostar's outings are smaller and more personal: the dervish house at Blagaj, the hillside village of Počitelj, the medieval tombstones at Stolac and Tito's bunker at Konjic. Sarajevo makes a long day by train through the Neretva gorge, but most of the other trips need a car or a tour.

Budva works better with children, mostly because of its beaches. The town beaches slope gently, there are calmer bays at Becici and there is a water park on the hill. July and August are loud at night, so families often stay in Becici or come in June or September.

Mostar is manageable for a day or two. Children enjoy the bridge divers and swimming at Kravica, but the slippery cobbles are hard work with a pushchair and the summer heat is tough on small children.

Both have compact centres you can walk, and both need a car, taxi or tour for what lies beyond. Budva's old town, marina and promenade are close together, with buses along the coast and boat taxis to the coves. It has no railway, though, and its one coast road jams in summer.

Mostar's bridge and old town fit into a short walk along the river on worn cobbles. Its advantage is a train line to Sarajevo.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Mostar has more worth taking home. In the Kujundžiluk a few coppersmiths still hammer coffee sets by hand, alongside kilims and embroidered textiles, though much of the stock is imported. Budva's old town lanes and promenade stalls sell beachwear, silver filigree, olive oil, honey and rakija, and little else.

Mostar is clearly the cheaper of the two. Guesthouses cost little, so does a plate of ćevapi or a bottle of Herzegovinian wine, and only rooms near the bridge in midsummer push prices up.

Budva is Montenegro's most expensive resort, especially for seafront rooms and sunbeds in July and August. Apartments a few streets back, bakeries and local buses still compare well with Western European coasts, and coming in June or September brings costs down.

Live performance plays a small part in a visit to either. Budva's one fixture is Grad Teatar, a summer festival of theatre and concerts on open-air stages in the old town squares. Mostar has a national theatre and a long-established youth theatre, mostly performing in local languages, plus open-air concerts in summer.

Budva is the better choice for this. The large resort hotels at Becici and around Sveti Stefan have spas, and May or late September brings calm with the sea still warm. In high summer, though, the town itself is not restful.

Mostar has no working bathing tradition, since its old hammam is now a historic building, and only a few hotels offer spa treatments. What it offers instead is a slow pace: long coffees in the shade and quiet early mornings by the river.