Goreme or Kas?

Here the two could hardly be more different. Goreme has no beach life whatsoever. It sits on the dry Anatolian plateau, the river near Avanos is not for swimming, and a hotel pool is the only option.

Kas is a swimming town first. You climb down ladders from wooden decks on the peninsula into very clear blue water, or use the two small pebble beaches by the harbour. For sand there are Kaputas at the foot of its gorge and the long turtle-nesting stretch of Patara. Many people who visit Cappadocia add a few days on this coast for exactly this reason.

Kas eats better. Its harbour tables of cold mezes, grilled fish and rakı, the village breakfasts and the use of Lycian hill greens give it more range than Goreme, though a few streets of similar restaurants can start to feel samey on a long stay.

Goreme keeps to a short list of dishes. The best of them is testi kebab, cracked open at your table, along with manti and roadside gozleme, and the local volcanic-soil wines are its most distinctive offer. After two or three nights the menus repeat.

Goreme is the richer sight. The Open Air Museum holds a whole monastic valley of rock-cut churches, and the Dark Church and Tokali Church keep some of the finest Byzantine painting in the region. On top of that, the village itself is carved into the tuff, with chapels hidden in the valleys around it.

Kas offers a pleasant morning of history: the Hellenistic theatre facing the sea, Lycian tombs in the cliff, the Lion Tomb at the top of the shopping lane and the whitewashed Greek-era houses. Its major ancient cities lie outside the town.

Neither is a party place, but Kas at least has an evening. In summer, cocktail and music bars in the lanes behind the harbour and on sea-view terraces stay busy past midnight with divers, yacht crews and Turkish city visitors.

Goreme is in bed before that. The balloons launch before dawn, so a glass of local wine or raki on a terrace looking at the lit-up rocks is the whole night out.

Both are outdoor destinations, and Kas offers the wider range. Mountains drop straight into some of the clearest water in the Mediterranean, so you can dive reefs and wrecks, kayak over the sunken ruins at Kekova, paraglide down to the marina and hike cliff-top stretches of the Lycian Way.

Goreme has one remarkable landscape and a narrower set of things to do in it. You can walk Rose, Red, Love and Pigeon valleys straight from the village, ride horses or bikes among the cones, and watch the balloons at sunrise. There is no water to paddle on and little forest.

Goreme's outings all go by road, and most stay within an hour: the Kaymakli and Derinkuyu underground cities, Uchisar's citadel, the potters of Avanos and the old Greek mansions of Mustafapasa. They are impressive, but much of the circuit is variations on the same rock-cut theme.

Kas offers more range, partly because many of its best trips leave by sea. A short ferry crosses to the Greek island of Kastellorizo, and boats reach the sunken city at Kekova and Simena, a castle village with no road. On land there are Myra and the Saint Nicholas church at Demre, and the UNESCO-listed Xanthos and Letoon.

For families the two are about even, and both suit older children better than toddlers. Goreme offers cave rooms, underground tunnels to crawl through, horse rides and dawn balloons, but the valley paths have unfenced drops.

Kas is all about water. Children who can snorkel or try diving will love it, but small ones need the shelving sand at Patara or Kaputas, because the town swimming is deep water off ladders.

Kas is a little easier to get around without a car. Minibuses run along the coast road to Kalkan, Kaputas, Patara and Demre, and boats from the harbour cover Kekova and the Greek island, although the town's lanes climb steeply.

You can walk all of Goreme village and reach the Open Air Museum on foot, but its local buses are slow and infrequent. For the underground cities and Ihlara you will need a tour, a taxi or a hired car.

Shopping is light in both, and Kas edges ahead. Its bougainvillea-shaded old-quarter lanes have small boutiques for silver, linen clothes and ceramics, plus a few galleries, which makes for a pleasant evening browse.

Goreme's main street is mostly souvenirs. Its real draws are Cappadocian carpets and kilims and the red-clay pottery you can watch being thrown in Avanos.

Goreme stretches a budget further. Cave-house hostels, simple guesthouses, local buses and free walks in the valleys keep a basic stay modest, although a boutique cave hotel and the balloon flight can quickly change that.

Kas is one of the more upmarket small resorts on this coast. Harbourside meals, dives and boat trips in summer cost close to what they would in southern Europe. Back-street pensions, pide bakeries and travelling outside summer bring the cost down.

Neither town is a place to come for performance, and what each offers is different. Goreme's evenings are staged for visitors, with dinner shows of folk and belly dancing in a cave venue, and the more rewarding Sema ceremony of the whirling dervishes in a caravanserai near Avanos.

Kas offers informal live music instead: folk, pop or acoustic sets in summer bars, and the occasional concert in the ancient theatre by the sea.

Both rest you through their slow pace rather than through spa culture, and the setting is what differs. In Goreme you have a quiet terrace breakfast above the rock formations and a village hammam for a scrub, though pre-dawn balloon starts and long tour days get in the way of rest.

Kas swaps that for afternoons on a sun deck over the sea, hotel hammams on the peninsula and yoga retreats in the hills in spring and autumn.