Goreme or Nicosia?

Neither city is a beach destination, but only Nicosia has the sea within easy reach. Larnaca's sand and the Kyrenia coast are each about 45 minutes away, and the water stays warm into autumn, so a swimming day is easy to add.

Goreme is a long day's drive from any coast, and swimming there means a cave-hotel pool. If you want the sea on a Cappadocia trip, you need to plan a separate stretch on the Turkish coast.

Nicosia is much the better place to eat. You can have meze in an old-town taverna or souvla from the grill, then cross the line on foot for kebabs and syrupy pastries near the Selimiye Mosque: two cuisines in one evening, with Commandaria and Troodos wines to go with them.

Goreme has less to offer: testi kebab cracked open at the table, manti, gozleme from roadside stalls and decent wine from the volcanic soil. After two or three dinners the terrace menus start to look the same.

Goreme's culture is concentrated in one remarkable place. The Open Air Museum is a valley of painted Byzantine rock churches, set beside a village carved from tuff, and you can see it properly in a day or two.

Nicosia gives you more to work through. There are the Venetian walls, the Cyprus Museum's antiquities and the icon collection at the Archbishop's Palace, and north of the Green Line the Selimiye Mosque and Büyük Han. Its layers of history, from Lusignan to British, fill two or three days in a way Goreme cannot match.

Evenings in Goreme end soon after dinner, usually with a glass of local wine or raki on a terrace, because the balloons go up before dawn.

Nicosia has a real night out. Pavement bars around Faneromeni Square and Ledra Street only fill up near midnight, and a few clubs on the avenues beyond the walls keep going after that. It is local and easygoing rather than a party city, but it is a different world from Goreme's early nights.

Goreme comes out clearly ahead here, because the landscape is the reason to go. Rose, Red, Love and Pigeon valleys begin at the village edge, with hours of walking among cones and ridges of tuff and the dawn balloons drifting overhead.

Nicosia's own setting is a flat plain that turns brown in summer, so its nature is a drive away. There are crest trails on the Kyrenia range with views over the sea, and the pine forests of the Troodos about an hour off. The forest and cool mountain air are things Goreme lacks, but none of it is on the doorstep.

Both make excellent bases, but the outings are of different kinds. From Goreme nearly everything is under an hour away, and nearly everything is cut into the rock: the underground cities of Kaymakli and Derinkuyu, Uchisar's citadel and the cave village of Zelve. The Avanos potters and Kayseri's bazaar make a change.

From Nicosia the island opens up in every direction. Choices include Kyrenia's harbour and St Hilarion, Famagusta and Roman Salamis, the painted churches of the Troodos and Larnaca on the coast. Expect more driving and much more variety.

Neither has attractions built for children, and both suit older children better than toddlers. In Goreme the landscape is the adventure: cave bedrooms, underground tunnels, horse rides and balloons at dawn. The steep, unfenced valley paths are a worry with small children.

Nicosia's strength is how relaxed it is with children, and families eat out together late. Daytime fun is limited to museums, the moat gardens and a drive to the beach, though, and the high-summer heat is hard on young children.

Both are easy on foot at the centre and awkward beyond it. Goreme's village is tiny, with the Open Air Museum and the valley trails within walking distance. Buses to the outlying sites are sparse, so you need tours, taxis or a hired car or scooter.

Nicosia's walled old town is compact, and the Ledra Street crossing to the north takes minutes with a passport check. The suburbs, though, are built for the car and there is no rail. A hire car, driven on the left, is the usual way to reach anything outside the walls.

Nicosia has the broader shopping. There are chain stores on Ledra and Onasagorou streets, designer brands along Makarios Avenue, Lefkara lace at the Cyprus Handicraft Centre, and spices and copperware in the Bandabulya market.

Goreme sells mostly souvenirs plus two real crafts: hand-knotted carpets and kilims, and Avanos pottery that you can watch being thrown. Buy a good rug in Goreme and leave the rest of your shopping for Nicosia.

Overall costs are similar, but the money goes in different places. In Goreme a cheap stay is easy in guesthouses and cave hostels. The big costs are the things people come for: a boutique cave hotel, guided tours and above all the balloon flight.

In Nicosia food is the bargain, with filling meze and cheap coffee, and the northern half is cheaper still. Rooms are mid-range, and a hire car is the main extra cost.

Goreme's performances are staged for visitors. There is a Turkish night dinner show in a cave venue, and the whirling dervish Sema ceremony in a caravanserai near Avanos, which is the one worth seeing.

As the capital, Nicosia has a real, if modest, calendar. It includes the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra, theatre that is mostly in Greek, rebetiko and jazz in old-town bars, and summer concerts in the moat. If you want live music on an ordinary evening, Nicosia is the only one of the two that offers it.

Both are calm places with a hammam or two, but the calm comes from different things. In Goreme it comes from the landscape at dawn and the empty evenings, though early balloon starts and full tour days work against it. For thermal water you have to drive across the province.

Nicosia has a real bathing history, with the domed Omeriye Hammam and the old baths in the north. Its rest comes from a slow city rhythm of coffee in shaded squares and a quiet summer siesta, and the cool Troodos villages are there for a longer retreat.