Kalambaka or Matera?

Neither is a beach destination, but Matera at least puts the sea within reach. The sandy, pine-backed Ionian shore around Metaponto and Policoro is under an hour's drive away, with shallow water that is easy for children, and Puglia's rocky Adriatic coves are a longer outing.

From Kalambaka the coast is well over two hours away, so swimming means a hotel pool or a cold mountain river in the Pindos. Plan the beach days for another part of Greece.

Matera eats better. Its Basilicata cooking has a clear identity: the horn-shaped durum-wheat loaf, fave e cicoria, hand-made cavatelli, crackling dried peppers and Aglianico del Vulture, served in cave rooms in the Sassi or, more fairly priced, in the upper town.

Kalambaka offers hearty central Greek grills, baked meats, bean soups and pies with tsipouro and meze. It is generous and good, but the menus barely change from one taverna to the next, and the sunset view of the rocks is often the best part of dinner.

Both towns are built around one extraordinary site, but Matera's is larger and lived in. The Sassi are whole districts of cave houses, carved churches with medieval frescoes and stacked dwellings on the Gravina gorge, and the upper town adds the Palombaro Lungo cistern, Carlo Levi's panorama at Palazzo Lanfranchi and sculpture in MUSMA.

Kalambaka's draw is the six active Meteora monasteries on their pillars, with frescoed churches, refectories and icon collections, plus the Dormition church in town. They are unforgettable, but the town around them is plain and modern, so the cultural side of a stay is done in two days.

Neither town is for a night out, though Matera gives a little more to do after dinner. Its passeggiata along Via del Corso, the terraces above the lit Sassi and a few cave wine and cocktail bars that stay open late in summer suit couples well.

In Kalambaka the evening ends with a drink at a café-bar on the central square. Anyone wanting more drives half an hour to Trikala and its student bar street.

Kalambaka is the stronger choice for the outdoors. The Meteora pillars, some rising about 400m, begin at the back streets, with footpaths through oak woods and ravines, famous conglomerate climbing and the Pindos fir forests, the Aspropotamos rafting valley and winter ski slopes near Metsovo beyond.

Matera's nature is on a smaller scale: the Gravina gorge below the Sassi and the stony Murgia plateau opposite, with abandoned rock churches and Neolithic sites along the trails. The Lucanian Dolomites and Pollino forests need a drive of an hour or more.

Matera is the better base for day trips. Sitting on the Puglia border, it has Altamura and Gravina close by and the trulli of Alberobello, the white towns of the Valle d'Itria, Bari, Castel del Monte and Polignano a Mare within about an hour, plus Craco, Metaponto's temple and the mountain villages of Basilicata.

From Kalambaka the choice is narrower but still good: Trikala's Varousi quarter and castle, the stone village of Metsovo over the Pindos, and Ioannina's lakeside castle district. Both towns need a car for most of these outings.

Both work for a night or two with children rather than a full family vacation. In Kalambaka the thrill is the rocks, with trails and beginner climbing for older children, set against long monastery staircases and dress rules that tire younger ones.

Matera has the caves, the underground cistern and the gorge, but its steep stone steps rule out pushchairs. Its edge for families is the shallow, sandy Ionian beaches within a drive.

Getting around is similar in both, and in both a hire car makes the wider region far easier. Kalambaka is small and flat with a rail link to the Athens to Thessaloniki line, but its monasteries sit several kilometres up a winding road with an infrequent bus, so you need taxis, a tour or an hour's hike.

Matera keeps its sights within walking distance, though the Sassi stairways are hard on the legs and cars are kept out. Its weakness is the arrival, as it lies off the national rail network with only a slow narrow-gauge line to Bari.

Matera has a little more to browse. The Sassi workshops sell painted cuccù whistles, tufa-stone carvings and ceramics, and Via del Corso has ordinary Italian shops. Kalambaka is limited to souvenir icons, carvings, honey and tsipouro, with the monasteries selling religious items. In both, local food and drink make the best things to take home.

Kalambaka is the cheaper stay. Family guesthouses are modest in price and taverna meals are filling, with costs rising only at the hotels facing the rocks and over Orthodox Easter and the long weekends around national feast days.

Matera eats cheaply for Italy, but its signature cave hotels in the Sassi are priced as a speciality. Sleeping in the newer town, a short walk away, closes much of the gap.

Kalambaka has no stage of its own, only the odd summer festival of traditional music and dance or a musician in a taverna on a busy night. The Byzantine chant at a monastery service is moving, but it is worship rather than a show.

Matera has a few more fixed points: concerts at the music conservatory, a summer jazz festival and open-air events set against the Sassi. Its big night is the Festa della Bruna, with its procession and the ritual tearing apart of the papier-mâché float.

Calm in Kalambaka comes from early nights and slow mornings with the dawn light on the pillars, while treatments stop at a few hotel saunas and massage rooms.

Matera offers a little more to sink into, with hotel spas in candlelit cave rooms and pools cut into the rock, and quiet hours in the Sassi before the tour groups arrive.