Dolomites or Puglia?

The gap here is as wide as it gets. In the Dolomites, swimming means a valley pool, Lake Caldaro on the wine route in high summer, or a drive to the top of Lake Garda. The famous high lakes such as Braies are for photographs and rowing boats.

Puglia is a sea vacation in its own right. The Ionian coast of the Salento has long pale sands and shallow turquoise water. The Adriatic side has limestone platforms and coves at Polignano and Torre dell'Orso, and the Gargano adds cliffs and sea caves. From a base in the Salento, both seas are easy to reach.

Both eat well, in very different styles. The Dolomites cook Alpine and Italian side by side: speck, canederli and strudel in South Tyrol, polenta and trout in Trentino. The highlight is lunch on a mountain hut terrace, and Alta Badia has a scattering of ambitious kitchens.

Puglia has the edge for anyone who travels to eat. Everyday food is more generous and more varied: burrata from the Murge, orecchiette, focaccia barese, raw sea urchins on the Bari waterfront and meat grilled to order in the Valle d'Itria. With it you drink Primitivo and Negroamaro rather than Lagrein and Gewürztraminer.

Puglia has more to see. Baroque Lecce, the trulli of Alberobello, Castel del Monte and a chain of Romanesque cathedrals from Trani to Otranto are sights people travel for, even though they are spread out and you need a car to reach them.

In the Dolomites the landscape is the monument. Bolzano's arcades and Ötzi, the frescoes in Trento's castle and Bressanone's cloister make rewarding valley days. The First World War tunnels on the passes stay with you. Still, these fill rainy afternoons rather than shape the trip.

Neither is a nightlife destination all year, but in summer Puglia is clearly livelier. Gallipoli's beach clubs run into the small hours, the Salento coast has DJ nights and Lecce's squares fill late, while Bari's bars stay open outside the season too. The Dolomites offer après-ski drinks in Selva, Canazei or Cortina that wind down by early evening, and summer villages are quiet by eleven.

This is the Dolomites' great strength, and it is in another league. The Tre Cime, the Sella and Seceda rise straight out of the meadows, and lifts carry walkers high from nearly every village. The Alpe di Siusi, the Alta Via 1 and the via ferrata network cover every level, from a gentle stroll to exposed rock, and the Dolomiti Superski area takes over in winter.

Puglia's countryside is softer: olive groves and dry-stone walls, best seen by bicycle. Its real drama is in the north, with the Gargano's beech forest and cliffs and the Tremiti islands offshore. The summer heat also pushes serious walking into spring and autumn.

Puglia makes the better touring base. Whitewashed Ostuni, Locorotondo and Cisternino are a short drive apart, the sea towns of Polignano and Monopoli lie just below them, and Matera's cave city is about an hour from Bari.

The Dolomites have strong outings too: Merano, the wine route, Verona by train and even Innsbruck over the Brenner. Most of them start from the Adige valley, though. From a high village every trip begins with a slow pass road, which is why it helps to split the stay.

Both suit families, in different seasons and styles. In summer the Dolomites offer walks across flat high pasture with lifts doing the climbing, huts with playgrounds and animals, summer toboggan runs and hotels with children's clubs. In winter there are ski schools and gentle nursery slopes.

Puglia is the easy beach version: shallow sandy water in the Salento, children welcome late in the piazza, villas with pools and the safari park at Fasano. Its drawback is the August heat. In the Dolomites it is a wet day with little built for children.

The Dolomites are somewhat easier to manage without a car. Trains run along the Adige and Puster valleys, buses climb to most resorts on one regional pass, and once you are in a village the lifts do the climbing. Crossing between valleys on hairpin passes is still slow.

In Puglia a car is close to essential. The roads are good, but the region is long, the Gargano is hours from the Salento, and inland trains and buses run rarely. Only the main coastal railway through Polignano, Monopoli and Lecce works well without a car.

Neither is a shopping destination, and visitors to both go home with food and crafts. The Dolomites have Val Gardena's woodcarving, the loden and old shops under Bolzano's arcades, a short strip of luxury boutiques in Cortina and some of the Alps' best-known Advent markets. Puglia answers with Grottaglie's ceramics, Lecce's papier-mache and Valle d'Itria linen, plus the mainstream chains of Bari, so in the end it is speck and grappa against olive oil and taralli.

Puglia is the cheaper trip, largely because eating and drinking cost less than in northern Italy. Summer rooms near the best beaches and car hire are where the costs rise.

The Dolomites are expensive in both ski season and high summer. Cortina and Alta Badia are among Italy's costliest resorts, and lift passes add up. Staying in the Fassa or Fiemme valleys or in Bolzano helps, and both regions cost noticeably less in June and September.

In the Dolomites, music fits around the walking. In summer there are musicians on meadows and hut terraces, and jazz in castles and wineries. Bolzano and Trento keep orchestras and theatres through the year, but most evenings in a mountain village offer a brass band or a folk night at best.

Puglia gives you more reasons to book an evening. Bari's opera house has a full programme of opera and ballet that no Dolomite town can match, and Martina Franca brings rarely staged operas to the Valle d'Itria each summer. The real difference is pizzica, a folk dance that visitors can join at Salento village festivals all summer, which has no counterpart in the Alpine valleys.

For a restful stay with proper spa facilities, the Dolomites are the stronger choice. South Tyrol's mountain hotels build their saunas and heated outdoor pools around the view, hay baths survive near Völs am Schlern, and Merano's thermal baths stand in the town centre.

Puglia relaxes you through its pace rather than treatments: a masseria among olive groves, a long lunch, an empty afternoon. The springs at Santa Cesarea Terme and Torre Canne are pleasant extras, not a reason to go.