Fethiye or Kusadasi?

Both towns are beach places at heart, and Fethiye has the slight edge because of Oludeniz. Its shallow turquoise lagoon behind a shingle spit is the best-known view on this coast, and Butterfly Valley, Kabak and Kidrak give you more coves to try. The water there is also warmer.

Kusadasi wins on sand. Ladies Beach, Long Beach and the wide sweep at Pamucak are proper sandy beaches, although the town stretches are built up and crowded in summer. Its clearest water is in the pebbly coves of the Dilek Peninsula, which make a good change from the busier sands.

The food is much the same in both: honest Turkish coast cooking, neither of them a reason to travel. Fethiye's best meal is a ritual. You buy fish at the market stalls and have it cooked in a restaurant around the square.

Kusadasi has a little more depth, with Aegean olive-oil dishes, wild greens and fish meyhanes in Kaleiçi. In both towns, avoid the resort strips with their English breakfasts and hotel buffets.

Fethiye has more to see in the town itself. Lycian rock tombs are cut into the cliff above the streets, sarcophagi stand at the roadside, there is a Roman theatre by the harbour, and the empty Greek village of Kayakoy is just over the hill and makes a moving visit.

Kusadasi's town sights take an hour or two: the small fortress on Pigeon Island, the Ottoman caravanserai and a few old lanes in Kaleiçi. You will find its history inland, not in the centre.

Kusadasi is the better night out. Bar Street by the harbour runs late with pubs, karaoke and dance bars, and large open-air clubs around Long Beach and the marina keep going into the early hours in high summer.

Fethiye's scene is split. Paspatur has relaxed cocktail bars and rooftop terraces, and the noise and late clubs are up the hill in Hisaronu. In both towns most of it closes outside the summer.

This is where Fethiye pulls clearly ahead. Babadag rises almost 1,970m behind Oludeniz, and the tandem paraglide down to the lagoon is famous. The Lycian Way follows cliff paths past Butterfly Valley, and Saklikent Gorge has you wading upstream between high canyon walls.

Kusadasi's outdoors is mostly one place, the Dilek Peninsula national park, with a canyon walk, wild horses and the Büyük Menderes delta. The granite Latmos mountains above Lake Bafa add rocky hikes, but they are about an hour away.

Fethiye offers many smaller outings rather than one great one. The old Lycian cities are scattered across the valleys and along the coast, and each impresses more by its setting than its size: Tlos on its hilltop acropolis, Patara's ruins behind a long beach and dunes, the boat ride beneath rock tombs on the way to Kaunos from Dalyan. When you have had enough of ruins, Kas and Kalkan are good for a day of wandering, and in winter, when the Rhodes boat stops running, the Lycian sites are at their most pleasant.

Kusadasi comes out ahead because a single site outweighs all of these. At Ephesus you can walk a whole Roman city street by street, from the Library of Celsus to the great theatre. It is near enough to go early in the morning and be back before the midday heat. Both towns have a summer ferry to a Greek island, Rhodes from Fethiye and Samos from Kusadasi, and Izmir, a little over an hour north, gives Kusadasi a large Turkish city within easy reach.

Both work well for a simple beach vacation with children, and neither has zoos or museums aimed at them. Fethiye's best asset is the shallow, sheltered lagoon at Oludeniz, which suits very young swimmers.

Kusadasi has sandy beaches with gentle entry, hotels with kids' clubs, and two large water parks, compared with Fethiye's single small one.

You get around both towns the same way. The centres are compact enough to walk, and shared dolmuş minibuses handle the beaches. Fethiye's centre and waterfront are flatter, and water taxis cross the bay to Calis.

The dolmuş from Kusadasi to Selçuk makes Ephesus easy without a car, but many of its hotels are strung out along the coast road. In both towns the outlying ruins are much easier with a hire car or a tour.

Neither town is a shopping destination. Both have a weekly market that is better than the shops, for olives, spices, honey and cotton towels. Fethiye's Paspatur lanes of carpets, ceramics and lamps are calmer to browse.

Kusadasi's covered bazaar is geared to the cruise port, with leather, gold and carpets and a persistent sales pitch, and the town also has a modern mall.

Both cost about the same, and in both the bill depends on where you stay. In Fethiye, staying in town rather than at Oludeniz or Hisaronu keeps costs low, but paragliding, diving and boat cruises add up.

In Kusadasi, the all-inclusive packages are good value for the Aegean. The cost of entry tickets to Ephesus and the other big sites builds up over several outings.

Neither has a theatre, opera or concert season, so plan for informal music. In Fethiye that tends to be a saz player or a small band in a meyhane. Kusadasi leans towards Turkish-night dinner shows with folk and belly dancing.

Fethiye is the better place to slow down. Alongside the Ottoman hammam in Paspatur, there are small yoga retreats on the slopes above Kabak and Faralya, with sea views and very little else.

Kusadasi has a historic bath in the old quarter, but most hammams there are tourist versions inside resort hotels. Out of high summer, the hotels outside town and the coves to the south are its quieter places to stay.