Dubrovnik or Valletta?

In both towns you swim off rock rather than sand, but Dubrovnik makes it easier and lovelier. Banje beach sits just outside the gates, the Lapad coves are calm, and Lokrum and the Elafiti islands, including the sandy cove at Sunj on Lopud, are a short boat ride away.

In Valletta, swimming in town means ladders down from limestone ledges below the bastions or along the Sliema shore. The island does have real sand at Golden Bay, Ghajn Tuffieha and Mellieha, but these are up to an hour away by bus, so a beach becomes a half-day outing rather than part of the day. The sea there stays a little warmer late in the season.

Valletta's food has more range and more everyday character. The cooking draws on Sicily, North Africa and Britain, pastizzi and ftira give it the cheap street food Dubrovnik mostly lacks, and Marsaxlokk is the place for fish on a Sunday morning.

Dubrovnik's strengths are narrower: Dalmatian seafood, Ston oysters and Peljesac reds, best found at konobas in Lapad, Gruz or Konavle rather than on the Stradun. Both centres have plenty of tourist menus aimed at cruise passengers.

These are two compact walled cities of equal standing, and each takes two or three days. Dubrovnik's appeal is the whole townscape: walking the unbroken walls above the terracotta roofs, Fort Lovrijenac on its rock, and stone streets rebuilt after the 1667 earthquake and the 1991-92 siege, with small museums along the way.

Valletta is the Knights' planned grid, and its interiors are its strength: the gilded St John's Co-Cathedral with its Caravaggio, the Grandmaster's Palace and MUZA. Across the harbour, the Three Cities and the Hypogeum at Paola add older layers.

Neither is a party city, but Valletta gives you more choice. Its own evenings are calm, with wine bars on Strait Street and tables on side-street steps. For something louder, Paceville in St Julian's is half an hour away and runs until dawn in summer.

In Dubrovnik a night out means a sunset drink at the rock bars below the walls, the small bars off the Stradun and the club inside Revelin fortress. It is a beautiful setting but a small scene, and much of it closes from November to March.

Dubrovnik has the more dramatic and varied landscape: mountains dropping into a sea full of islands, the climb up Mount Srd, wooded Lokrum, and the pine forest and saltwater lakes of Mljet national park. Walking and cycling on the Elafiti islands and in the Konavle valley give it real outdoors on land as well.

Valletta's outdoors is mostly underwater. Malta is dry and built-up, and its hikes are short, along the Dingli Cliffs and on greener Gozo. Its standout is diving, with wrecks, caves and Gozo's Blue Hole close to shore.

Valletta fits more into short hops. Mdina and Rabat are half an hour away, the temples of Hagar Qim and Mnajdra are older than the pyramids, Marsaxlokk has its painted luzzu boats, and Gozo is a full day by ferry. Everything is close, though it all has the same island feel.

Dubrovnik's outings take you across borders: Kotor and Perast in Montenegro, Trebinje and Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with Ston and Cavtat nearer home. The cost is longer drives and summer border queues that can add hours.

Valletta is the easier choice with children, mostly for practical reasons. English is spoken everywhere, distances are short, and the national aquarium at Qawra, Popeye Village and the shallow sandy bays in the north are all within reach. The noon cannon at the Upper Barrakka Gardens is a sure hit.

Dubrovnik has the walls, the cable car, boats to Lokrum and a small aquarium, but very little is made for children. Both old centres are steep and full of steps for pushchairs, and both are tiring in high summer. Families do best staying in Lapad or Babin Kuk at Dubrovnik, or in Sliema at Valletta.

The two are about level. Both centres are best on foot but full of stairs, neither has rail, and buses cover the wider trips, so the difference is in layout. Dubrovnik's hotels are spread across Lapad, Babin Kuk and Gruz along one coast road that jams in summer, taxi boats serve the islands, and a car helps for Konavle or Montenegro.

Valletta is a simple grid about a kilometre long, with a lift down to the harbour and short ferries to Sliema and the Three Cities. Its island-wide buses mean you never need a car, though they are slow on Malta's crowded roads.

Valletta has a real shopping spine in Republic Street and Merchant Street, with chains, jewellers and a street market. Sliema across the harbour has the fashion and malls, and the Ta' Qali crafts village is where you can watch filigree, lace and glass being made.

Dubrovnik's streets are mostly souvenir shops, and the buys worth having are Konavle embroidery, coral, filigree, and the figs and candied peel from the Gunduliceva Poljana market. Neither is worth a trip for shopping alone, but Valletta copes better if you actually need something.

Valletta is clearly easier on the wallet. Malta is mid-priced for southern Europe, buses and pastizzi are cheap, and staying in Sliema or Gzira brings room costs down.

Dubrovnik is the most expensive place in Croatia. Summer rooms near the Old Town cost what they would in a major capital, and the walls, cable car and boats all add up. Staying in Lapad, Gruz or Cavtat and coming in spring or autumn helps, but it stays expensive.

Valletta has more on any ordinary evening. The gilded oval Manoel Theatre of 1731 stages chamber music, drama and the Malta Philharmonic. The year adds a winter baroque festival, summer jazz on the Grand Harbour and the two rival opera houses on Gozo in autumn.

Dubrovnik comes alive for its Summer Festival in July and August, when theatre and concerts fill Fort Lovrijenac and the Rector's Palace atrium, a superb setting. The rest of the year offers little beyond occasional orchestra and church concerts.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, and in both the spas are inside hotels, so calm depends on where and when you go. In Dubrovnik that means leaving the centre for the Elafiti islands or Cavtat, where the day follows the harbour and the afternoon heat.

In Valletta the quiet comes to the city itself. Once the cruise passengers leave in the late afternoon, the streets empty, the limestone turns gold and the Barrakka Gardens are a peaceful place to watch the harbour.