Kas or Marmaris?

The swimming is equally good in both, but it works differently. In Kas you swim from wooden decks and rock platforms straight into deep blue water, and you need a short drive for sand, either to the gorge-foot cove at Kaputas or to the long, dune-backed beach at Patara.

Marmaris has its sand right in town: a long strip of coarse sand and shingle with loungers, running from the promenade towards Icmeler along a calm, enclosed bay. Its best water lies further out, at Turunc, the boat-trip coves and Sedir Island, and the main beach gets crowded in high summer.

Neither town is a food destination, and the meals are much alike: meze and grilled fish by the harbour, a weekly village market, and good olive oil and honey. In Kas the cooking around the old quarter is more consistent and uses herbs from the Lycian hills, but there are only a few streets of restaurants, and they charge yacht prices.

Marmaris has more choice and more filler. The seafront serves steaks, pizza and laminated menus, so the good eating is in the lokantas and kebab houses away from the promenade, where pine honey from the local forests is a speciality.

Kas has more history in the town itself, though not much. You pass the small Hellenistic theatre of Antiphellos facing the sea, rock tombs in the cliff and the Lion Tomb at the top of the shopping lane, all within a morning's stroll through whitewashed Greek-era houses. Marmaris has its hilltop Ottoman castle with a modest museum, a caravanserai holding the bazaar and an hour of stepped old lanes. In both, anyone serious about history spends their days on excursions.

The gap here is wide. Marmaris is a party resort in summer: Bar Street is one lane of open-fronted clubs with laser shows, packed with a young, mostly British crowd after midnight and running until near dawn. Quieter cocktail bars line the marina.

Kas has no clubs to speak of. Its evenings are late dinners followed by music bars in the lanes and terraces above the water, with divers, yacht crews and Turkish city visitors. Both towns go quiet from late autumn to spring.

Kas has the more remarkable setting for active days. Mountains drop straight into some of the clearest water in the Mediterranean, the town is a serious diving centre with caves, amphorae and wrecks, the Lycian Way passes the door, and paragliders launch from the mountain behind the marina.

Marmaris is better seen under sail. Its pine-covered bay opens onto the largely unbuilt Bozburun and Datca peninsulas, one of the great gulet and yacht grounds of the coast, and the Carian Trail runs through forest and fishing villages inland. It is lovely, but less varied than the Lycian coast around Kas.

Kas sits in the middle of ancient Lycia, so the excursions come thick and close: the sunken city at Kekova and the castle village of Simena, the tombs of Myra and the church of Saint Nicholas at Demre, Xanthos and Letoon, Patara, and a short ferry to the small Greek island of Kastellorizo.

Marmaris has the bigger single outing, the walled medieval town of Rhodes about an hour away by ferry. Beyond that its trips are spread more thinly: the river and rock tombs at Dalyan, the boatbuilding harbours of Selimiye and Bozburun, and a long drive to Knidos at the tip of the Datca peninsula.

Children are welcome at every table in Kas, and an evening walk round the harbour is easy, but almost nothing in town is made for them. It works best with older children: snorkelling in very clear water, a first try-dive, or a boat to Kekova that glides over the sunken city and then stops for a swim in the nearby coves. With younger ones you will spend most beach days out of town at Patara or Kaputas.\n\nMarmaris is the more practical family base, because the whole resort is set up around beach, pool and hotel.

Turkish staff are patient with small children, and boat trips round the bay are a favourite with older ones. Its limits are elsewhere. Families usually stay in Icmeler or Armutalan, away from the loud centre, and once you have done the beaches and pools there is little left aimed at children. In both towns the midsummer heat makes the middle of the day hard going.

Marmaris is a little easier to get around. A flat promenade runs for kilometres around the bay for walking or cycling, dolmus minibuses shuttle constantly between the districts, and water taxis cross to Icmeler and Turunc.

Kas is compact, but its lanes climb steeply and the peninsula road is long on foot. Coastal minibuses and harbour boats cover the main outings. In both towns, the inland sites and remote villages are reached by winding roads, so a hire car or tour is the usual answer.

Marmaris has more to shop for, mostly in its covered bazaar behind the harbour, where you haggle for leather jackets, carpets, spices and plenty of copy designer goods. Pine honey, natural sponges and cotton peshtemal towels are the souvenirs worth carrying home.

Kas offers less but is more selective: a couple of bougainvillea-shaded lanes with silver jewellery, linen clothes, ceramics, kilims and a few galleries. It is an evening browse rather than a shopping trip.

Marmaris is clearly the cheaper vacation. All-inclusive and package hotels are plentiful and keenly priced, and simple food away from the seafront costs little. The expense comes from Bar Street, imported drinks and organised trips.

Kas is one of the more upmarket small resorts on this coast, with boutique hotels, harbour restaurants, dives and boat trips priced close to southern Europe. Pensions in the back streets, pide bakeries and minibuses keep a careful budget workable. Both towns are cheaper in spring and autumn.

Neither town is a place to come for performance, and both have only a thin summer offer. Kas has acoustic and Turkish folk sets in bars, the odd concert in its ancient seaside theatre and a summer festival. In Marmaris the shows are mostly hotel entertainment and staged Turkish nights with belly dancing, plus occasional concerts at an open-air amphitheatre.

Marmaris offers more to someone who wants to be pampered. There are hammams all over town and in most big hotels, full spas at the larger resorts, and a half-day of mud baths and hot springs near Dalyan. For real quiet you have to go out to Turunc, Selimiye or Bozburun.

Kas relaxes you through its slow pace rather than treatments. Long breakfasts, afternoons on a sun deck and an absence of resort noise do most of the work. Several peninsula hotels have hammams, and yoga retreats come to the hills in spring and autumn.