Goreme or Istanbul?

Neither place is a beach destination, but Istanbul at least gives you the option. In midsummer, the sandy Black Sea strands at Kilyos and Sile are about an hour away, and the Princes' Islands have small pebbly coves, so a swimming day can be added to a city stay.

Goreme is landlocked on a dry plateau, a long day's drive from any coast. The only place to swim is a hotel pool, so people who want the sea usually add a few days on the Aegean or Mediterranean.

Goreme's food is pleasant but narrow. Testi kebab is cracked open at the table, women make gozleme at roadside stalls, and Cappadocian wine is worth trying. Still, the terrace menus repeat themselves after a night or two.

Istanbul is one of the reasons to travel to Turkey. Dishes come from every region, from Black Sea anchovies to south-eastern kebabs. You can eat lunch at a lokanta, fish sandwiches by the Galata Bridge, and evenings of meze at a meyhane. A food lover could fill a week with it.

Goreme's culture is one remarkable subject seen up close. The frescoed rock churches of the Open Air Museum, the Dark Church above all, can be covered well in a day or two.

Istanbul works on another scale altogether. Hagia Sophia, Topkapi, the Blue Mosque and the Basilica Cistern stand within walking distance of each other, and then there are Süleymaniye, the Chora mosaics, the land walls and the Bosphorus palaces. You could spend a week and still leave a list behind.

The two are opposites after dark. In Goreme, a glass of local wine on a terrace under the lit rock formations is the whole evening, because everyone is up early for the balloons. Istanbul goes on until morning. There are bar streets off Istiklal, cocktail bars in Karakoy and craft beer in Moda, and on summer nights the clubs along the shore at Ortakoy run until dawn.

This is where Goreme wins. The village sits inside the eroded volcanic landscape, and you can walk for hours among cones, pinnacles, orchards and forgotten chapels, with balloons drifting overhead at sunrise. The country beyond those valleys has no coast and little forest, though.

Istanbul's natural side is gentler and more spread out. You have the wooded Bosphorus seen from a ferry, tulips in Emirgan in April, trails in Belgrad Forest and cycling on the Princes' Islands. It is pleasant, but getting out of the city takes time, and none of it has the impact of the Cappadocian valleys.

Goreme has the better position for outings. The Kaymakli and Derinkuyu underground cities, the Uchisar citadel, the abandoned cave villages at Zelve and the potters of Avanos are mostly less than an hour away. The catch is that many of them are variations on the same rock-cut theme.

Istanbul's outings show more variety but take more effort. The Princes' Islands and an upper-Bosphorus cruise are easy days by water. Bursa, the first Ottoman capital, is the best town to visit, while Edirne and Iznik make long days, and Gallipoli needs an overnight stay.

Istanbul offers families more to do. There are ferries for any age, the ships and submarine of the Rahmi M. Koç Museum, Miniaturk, aquariums and seaside parks, and locals make a fuss of children everywhere. Crowds, hills and traffic do tire small children out.

Goreme suits older children best. Sleeping in a cave room and crawling through an underground city are real adventures. Steep valley paths with unfenced drops, lanes that are hard on buggies and age limits for balloon flights make it harder with toddlers.

Istanbul is easier to get around without a car. One card covers the metro, the T1 tram through the old city, the Marmaray tunnel and the ferries, which are themselves one of the pleasures of a stay. Expect crowded trams near the sights and slow taxis.

Goreme is easy within the village, but its sights are spread out. The local buses are slow and infrequent, so the underground cities and Ihlara usually mean a tour, a taxi or a hired car or scooter.

In Goreme you shop on the way back from a valley walk. You might pick up a scarf, a bag of dried apricots or a small ceramic bowl from the stalls on the main street. Apart from a small weekly market, that is all there is, and an hour covers it.

In Istanbul the shopping is a sight in its own right, and you could spend a whole day on it. Haggling over leather, gold or a brass lamp in the courtyards of an old Ottoman han is something no Cappadocian village can offer. The city also has Turkish fashion labels, big malls and neighbourhood street markets for everyday things. If you like to browse and compare before you buy, Istanbul gives you far more choice, and handwoven towels and tea glasses pack easily for the flight home.

Overall costs are much the same, but the spending goes on different things. In Goreme the big expenses are the balloon flight, a boutique cave hotel and guided tours, while hostels in cave houses and walking the valleys cost little.

In Istanbul, transport and street food are cheap. Stays in Sultanahmet or on the Bosphorus are expensive, and so are heavily taxed drinks and entry fees to the monuments. Staying in Kadikoy keeps costs down.

In Goreme, live performance fills one evening of your stay. The whirling dervish ceremony in the caravanserai near Avanos is worth booking, and the cave dinner show is the lighter option. Both are staged for tour groups, though, and there is nothing to see on the other nights.

Istanbul has the same Sema ceremony, but in its old dervish lodges it is one choice among many. You can plan an evening around opera or ballet at the Ataturk Cultural Centre, catch a summer festival concert in a historic courtyard, or end up listening to Anatolian folk or jazz in a small room in Beyoglu or Kadikoy. Music also finds you without any planning, when fasil players come round the tables at dinner. The only gap is theatre, because most of it is in Turkish.

For a proper bath, Istanbul wins clearly. Sinan's hammams, such as Cemberlitas and Haseki Hürrem, are still working, with marble domes, star-shaped skylights and a heated central stone. The city around them is loud and hectic, though.

Goreme's calm comes from the place itself. Evenings are quiet and breakfast on a terrace above the rocks is slow, but its hammams are simple, and early balloon flights and busy tour days get in the way of rest.