Goreme or Marmaris?

Goreme has no beach at all. It lies deep inland on a dry plateau, and the only swimming is in a cave hotel's pool.

Marmaris is built around the water. A long promenade beach runs towards Icmeler, and the enclosed bay stays calm and clear. Pine-backed beaches at Turunc, boat trips to coves and the fine sand of Sedir Island offer better swimming than the busy main strip.

Neither town is a place to come for the food, but Marmaris has more range. Goreme's terraces serve much the same testi kebab, manti and gozleme, and after a couple of nights the menus start to blur together. Its best extra is the wine made from Cappadocia's volcanic soils.

In Marmaris you have to walk past the seafront's steaks and pizza. Behind them are lokanta with stews and olive-oil vegetables, fish and meze around the harbour, and a weekly market full of cheeses, olives and pine honey.

This is where Goreme pulls clearly ahead. The Open Air Museum is a valley of rock-cut Byzantine churches, and the Dark Church and Tokali Church keep some of the finest frescoes in Anatolia. The village itself, with its dovecotes and houses carved into tuff, is part of the sight.

Marmaris offers a small Ottoman castle with a modest museum, a whitewashed old quarter and a caravanserai that now houses the bazaar. It all fits into a morning, and visitors interested in history spend their time on excursions instead.

The nights could hardly be more different. In Goreme, most visitors are in bed soon after dinner, ready for a pre-dawn balloon launch, and an evening means a glass of raki on a terrace.

In summer, Marmaris has Bar Street: clubs, laser shows and foam parties packed with a young crowd until near dawn, plus calmer cocktail bars along the marina. It is one style of night out, though, and from November to April most of it shuts.

Both are outstanding outdoors, but the settings have little in common. Goreme is all dry land, with Rose, Red, Love and Pigeon valleys starting at the edge of the village. You walk, ride or bike among pink tuff pinnacles, with balloons overhead at sunrise.

Marmaris is green and coastal. Pine-covered hills surround the bay, and the Bozburun and Datca peninsulas are prime sailing country for gulet cruises. Add diving, sea kayaking and the Carian Trail, and there is the water that Goreme lacks entirely.

Both make good bases, but for different kinds of outing. From Goreme, most of the Cappadocian circuit is less than an hour away: the underground cities of Kaymakli and Derinkuyu, Uchisar's citadel, the cave villages of Zelve and the potters of Avanos. The catch is that much of it is variations on rock-cut heritage.

Marmaris offers more variety at longer distances. There is the medieval old town of Rhodes by ferry, Lycian rock tombs on the river at Dalyan, and boatbuilding harbours at Selimiye and Bozburun. Ancient Knidos, at the tip of the Datca peninsula, makes a long but rewarding day.

Marmaris is easier with children of any age. The water at the edge of the bay is shallow and calm, the large hotels have pools and kids' clubs, and there is a water park. Families usually stay in Icmeler, away from the noise of Bar Street.

Goreme is more of an adventure, and suits older children best. Sleeping in a cave room, crawling through an underground city and riding horses through the valleys are hard to beat. Toddlers fare less well, with steep paths, unfenced drops and minimum ages on balloon flights.

Marmaris is the simpler place to get around. A flat promenade runs for several kilometres to Icmeler, dolmus minibuses come and go constantly and water taxis cross the bay. Goreme's village is tiny and easy to walk, but its local buses are slow and infrequent.

In both places, the best places outside town need a tour or a hired car: Goreme's underground cities and Ihlara, and the peninsula villages and Dalyan from Marmaris. Goreme's airports are about an hour away, and Dalaman is about an hour and a half from Marmaris.

Neither is a shopping destination, and they suit different buyers. Goreme is worth it if you have one serious purchase in mind: a hand-knotted carpet or kilim, or a piece of Avanos pottery bought where it was made. Apart from that, the village has little more than trinkets, and it won't fill an afternoon of browsing.

Marmaris has more for the casual shopper. Haggling in the covered bazaar is part of the fun, though much of what it sells is leather and copied labels. The better buys are small and local, such as pine honey from the surrounding hills, natural sponges and cotton bath towels, and the weekly market is the best place to find them. For fashion or design, look elsewhere in either case.

The two cost about the same overall, but the money goes in different places. In Goreme, hostels in cave houses, gozleme stalls and walking the valleys cost little. The boutique cave hotels, site entry fees and especially the dawn balloon flight make a typical trip much dearer.

Marmaris is good value through its competitive package and all-inclusive hotels, cheap dolmus rides and lokanta. Costs rise at seafront restaurants, on Bar Street and on organised trips. Rooms are cheaper in spring and autumn than at the height of summer.

Neither place is for theatre or concerts. In both, performances are mostly Turkish nights with folk and belly dancing put on for visitors. Goreme has one thing worth going for: the Sema ceremony of the whirling dervishes, held in an old caravanserai near Avanos. Marmaris has only the occasional summer concert in its open-air amphitheatre and cover bands in a few bars.

Marmaris is better set up for rest. It has hammams all over town, full spas in the bigger resorts, and the mud baths and hot springs near Dalyan for half a day of soaking. Turunc, Selimiye and Bozburun are very quiet places to stay.

Goreme's calm comes from its quiet evenings and long breakfasts looking out over the rocks. It has a few hammams and some small cave-hotel spas, but pre-dawn balloon starts and full tour days cut into the rest. For thermal water you have to drive to spa towns elsewhere in the province.