Dubrovnik or Sorrento?

In both places you swim from rocks and platforms rather than sand, but Dubrovnik has more swimming close at hand. You can get in off the rocks beneath the seaward walls, at Banje just outside the Old Town and in the coves of Lapad and Babin Kuk. A short boat ride takes you to Lokrum or to Lopud's sandy cove at Sunj.

Sorrento stands on a cliff, so most swimming is from the wooden lido piers at Marina Piccola and Marina Grande, much of it paid, with deep water below. The rocky Bagni della Regina Giovanna is the free option. For a proper beach you take the bus to Marina del Cantone or a boat to Capri.

Sorrento eats better. This is Campanian cooking where it comes from: gnocchi alla sorrentina, fish all'acqua pazza, mozzarella and provolone from the hill dairies, Naples-style pizza and lemons in almost everything. The hill villages of the peninsula also have some of southern Italy's best-known fine dining.

Dubrovnik's Dalmatian food covers less ground: grilled fish, black risotto, Ston oysters and red wines from Peljesac. The tourist restaurants in the Old Town make good meals harder to find than they are around Sorrento. Your best bets are the konobas of Lapad and Konavle or lunch at an oyster farm near Ston.

Dubrovnik is far ahead here, because the town itself is the monument. The Sponza Palace, the Franciscan monastery with its old pharmacy, the baroque Church of St Blaise and the Dominican collection of Dalmatian painting all stand inside walls that run unbroken all the way round. That means a culture trip there never has to leave town.

Sorrento's own sights take a day or two at a gentle pace. There are lanes on the old Roman street plan, the Arab-style arches of the San Francesco cloister, the Museo Correale's Neapolitan paintings and the sunken ravine of the Vallone dei Mulini. The area's great sites are outside the town, at Pompeii and in Naples, so you need a train ride each time to see them.

Neither town is for serious clubbing, but Dubrovnik has a bit more going on after dark in summer. There are sunset drinks in the bars on the rocks outside the walls, wine and cocktail bars open late in the lanes off the Stradun, and a club inside the Revelin fortress.

Evenings in Sorrento are gentler: a passeggiata along Corso Italia, a drink on a terrace and piano bars playing Neapolitan songs. The town goes quiet early, and because the last trains and ferries leave in the evening, a big night out in Naples or on Capri means staying over.

Both have limestone mountains dropping into clear sea, but Sorrento has the better walking. Terraced paths link the hill villages of the peninsula, and trails lead to Punta Campanella and the protected bay of Ieranto. The Path of the Gods, Monte Faito and the crater rim of Vesuvius are all within reach.

Dubrovnik's outdoors are more about the sea and the islands. You can kayak round the walls to Lokrum, climb Mount Srd, or head for the pine forest and saltwater lakes of Mljet and the trails of the Konavle valley. In both places spring and autumn are far better for hiking than the summer heat.

Sorrento is one of the best bases on the Mediterranean for day trips. Pompeii is about half an hour away on the Circumvesuviana, and Herculaneum and Vesuvius are on the same route. Capri is under an hour by ferry, summer boats run to Positano and Amalfi, and Naples with its archaeological museum is about an hour away.

Dubrovnik's day trips are fewer and further, but they cross borders: the Bay of Kotor and Perast in Montenegro, and Trebinje and Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Closer in are Cavtat, Ston and the Elafiti islands. Queues at the borders in summer can make those long days longer still.

Neither town is built for children, but Dubrovnik offers families a little more. There are calm, clear coves in Lapad for swimming, the cable car, boat rides to the peacocks on Lokrum and a small aquarium in the St John fortress. Its weak point is the stairs, which make a pushchair hard work away from the Stradun.

Sorrento is strong where Dubrovnik is weak, with a flat centre that is easy with a pushchair, and children enjoy the trips to Capri and Pompeii. But you swim from piers into deep water, which is harder with small children than the coves of Lapad, and many hotels are on steep lanes with no pavements.

In both towns you can manage without a car, but each gets harder beyond the centre in its own way. Dubrovnik's car-free Old Town is tiny but full of steep stairways. There is no railway, so buses on the single, often jammed coast road link the hotel areas of Lapad, Babin Kuk and Gruz, and boats from Gruz and the Old Harbour serve the islands.

Sorrento's centre is flat and easy to walk, and it has the train Dubrovnik lacks: the Circumvesuviana to Pompeii and Naples, though it is old, crowded and often late. Summer buses on the Amalfi hairpins are slow, so ferries are the more comfortable way to reach Capri and the coast.

Sorrento has a bit more worth buying. Beyond the lemon soaps and limoncello there are real local crafts: inlaid wooden boxes and trays from the intarsia workshops, leather sandals made to measure while you wait, linen and cameos.

Dubrovnik's Old Town is mostly souvenir shops. The better buys are Konavle embroidery, silver filigree, and the dried figs and candied orange peel from the morning market. Neither town has fashion streets, though from Sorrento you can at least reach Naples and the boutiques of Capri.

Both are among the more expensive places to stay on the Mediterranean in summer, and there is little between them. Dubrovnik is Croatia's most expensive city: rooms in the Old Town cost as much as in a Western European capital, and the walls, the cable car and boat trips add up fast.

Sorrento charges resort rates for sea views, lido sunbeds and boat trips, but cheap trains and buses and fairly priced pizzerias make it the easier base on your budget for exploring its region. In either town, coming in spring or late autumn and staying away from the centre keeps costs down. In Dubrovnik that means Lapad or Gruz, in Sorrento the streets away from the main squares.

In summer Dubrovnik has the bigger stage. The Summer Festival, held every July and August since 1950, brings theatre, classical music and dance to Fort Lovrijenac, the Rector's Palace atrium and the squares, and it is worth planning around if your dates fit. The rest of the year there is little beyond the symphony orchestra and the odd church concert.

Sorrento's evenings lean towards local song: Neapolitan song and tarantella shows put on for visitors, chamber concerts in the San Francesco cloister, and hotel pianists who seldom get through a night without 'Torna a Surriento'. Its real advantage is Naples, about an hour away, where the Teatro di San Carlo stages opera.

Sorrento is the more restful choice. Its cliff-top hotels have spas and pools above the bay, the lemon groves and villa gardens set a slow pace, and the hot springs and terraced thermal gardens of Ischia are about an hour away by ferry.

Dubrovnik has no bathing tradition, and the spas are mostly in the bigger hotels of Lapad and Babin Kuk. Real calm there means leaving for Cavtat or the Elafiti islands. Both town centres are crowded in July and August, and both are at their quietest in spring and autumn.