Cinque Terre or Puglia?

Puglia is the beach destination of the two. The Ionian shore of the Salento has long stretches of pale sand and shallow turquoise water. The Adriatic side adds rock platforms at Polignano and coves near Otranto, and the Gargano has sea caves around Vieste.

The sea at Cinque Terre is just as clear, but the shore is mostly cliff. Fegina at Monterosso is the only real beach. Everywhere else you swim off harbour slipways and rocks at Vernazza or Manarola, which is fine for a dip between walks but not for a full day on the sand.

Both regions cook simply from local produce, but Puglia has far more to eat. Cinque Terre's Ligurian table is narrow: trofie with pesto, focaccia, Monterosso anchovies and a cone of fried fish, with Sciacchetrà to finish. In the busier villages, many menus are written for day-trippers.

In Puglia you can eat burrata from the Murge, orecchiette, panzerotti, Lecce's pasticciotto, sea urchins on the Bari waterfront and meat from the butcher-grill houses of the Valle d'Itria, with Primitivo or Negroamaro to drink. Neither is the place for serious fine dining.

In Cinque Terre the landscape is the monument: terraced cliffs and five villages, listed by UNESCO together. Beyond that there are modest striped churches and the watchtower above Vernazza, and a day or two covers it all.

Puglia has much more to see, though it is spread over a wide area. There is Lecce's baroque and its Roman amphitheatre, the trulli of Alberobello, Castel del Monte and a line of Romanesque cathedrals from Trani to Otranto. Expect to drive between them.

An evening in Cinque Terre means a sunset glass of white on a harbour wall, perhaps a few bars in Monterosso or Riomaggiore, and bed before midnight. Puglia has a real summer scene, with Gallipoli's beach clubs running into the small hours and Lecce's baroque lanes full of people drinking. Outside July and August the Puglian coast goes quiet too, but Bari's old town keeps its bars open all year.

Cinque Terre is the better place to walk. The Sentiero Azzurro along the cliffs, the Sentiero Rosso on the ridge and the old mule tracks give steep, varied hiking with the sea always below, and the marine reserve adds kayaking and diving.

Puglia's countryside is softer: olive groves and dry-stone walls, best seen by bike. Its drama is all in the Gargano, with the Foresta Umbra, the sea caves and the Tremiti islands, which is a long way from the Salento.

Both make good bases for outings, and Puglia has more variety close at hand. From Cinque Terre, boats run to Portovenere and the train takes you to Pisa, Lucca or Genoa in under two hours. That gives a mix of Tuscan cities and Riviera ports without needing a car.

In Puglia a day out means hopping between towns by car: Ostuni, Locorotondo and Martina Franca in the Valle d'Itria, Trani on the Adriatic, and Otranto from Lecce. Most visitors put Matera's cave dwellings first, about an hour from Bari.

Cinque Terre is hard work with small children. The villages are built of steps, the trains are packed in summer, and Corniglia sits hundreds of steps above its station. It works for older children who like walking, and families with toddlers usually stay in flat Monterosso.

Puglia is much easier. It has shallow sandy beaches on the Ionian side, villas and masserie with pools, the safari park at Fasano, and a way of life in which children stay up late in the piazza. You will need a car.

Cinque Terre is the easier place to get around. A coastal train links the five villages a few minutes apart, boats run between the harbours in season and the trails connect the rest, so a car only gets in the way. The catch is the summer crush on platforms and the steep paths.

Puglia is long and spread out, and you more or less need a car. The main railway line serves Bari, Polignano, Monopoli and Lecce, but local trains and buses to the inland towns and the Salento are slow, and the Gargano is four to five hours from the southern tip.

Neither is a place to go shopping. In Cinque Terre it ends with pesto, anchovies, lemon liqueur and wine. Puglia goes further into crafts, with the ceramic workshops of Grottaglie, papier-mache from Lecce and linen from the Valle d'Itria, and Bari's streets around Via Sparano have the usual Italian chains.

Puglia is the cheaper trip. The main reason is Cinque Terre's accommodation: its few village rooms cost far more in season than similar rooms elsewhere on the Italian coast, and you also pay to use the paths. Many travellers on a budget sleep in La Spezia or Levanto instead.

In Puglia, eating out costs less than in most of northern Italy, and staying inland or going in June or September keeps room costs down. Car hire and the paid lidos add to the bill.

Cinque Terre has little beyond the bands at feast-day processions and the odd concert in a church, and for anything more you go to La Spezia or Genoa. Puglia has opera at Bari's Teatro Petruzzelli and a summer opera festival in the courtyard of Martina Franca's ducal palace. It also has pizzica, the folk dance of the Salento, which fills the open-air Notte della Taranta at Melpignano each August.

Neither has a spa culture, and in both the rest comes from the pace. In Cinque Terre the calm comes from car-free lanes and a terrace above the sea, and it is best in spring, in autumn or early in the morning, before the day visitors arrive.

Puglia offers more. There are masserie among the olive groves with pools and their own spas, the sulphur springs of Santa Cesarea Terme in sea caves, and the long-established thermal spa at Torre Canne.