Kos or Peloponnese?

The beaches are about equally good, but they suit different trips. Kos is mostly sand, and all of it lies within an hour's drive. There are long, open strands from Tigaki to Mastichari, where the meltemi can whip up the sea, sheltered water around Kardamena and the island's finest bays at Paradise Beach and Agios Stefanos on the Kefalos peninsula.

The Peloponnese gives you more variety but makes you choose a coast. In Messinia there is the horseshoe of Voidokilia and the calm of Navarino Bay. Elafonisos has pale, tropical-looking water, and the Mani has pebble coves and rocks to swim from. Outside July and August, many of these beaches are almost empty.

The Peloponnese eats better because its cooking comes from what grows around it: Kalamata olives and oil, slow-cooked goat, the Mani's cured pork and wine from the Nemea vineyards and the Tripoli plateau. Kalamata's covered market and Nafplio's ouzeri give it some range beyond the village taverna.

On Kos you can eat well if you go looking, with pitaroudia and wine-cured krasotyri in the hill villages of Zia and Pyli or fish at Mastichari's harbour. In the big resorts, though, much of the food is cooked for package tourists.

This is the widest gap between the two. The Peloponnese holds a large share of ancient and medieval Greece: the Lion Gate at Mycenae, the theatre at Epidaurus, Olympia, Messene, the lone temple at Bassae, Mystras, Monemvasia and the Venetian castles at Methoni and Koroni. Nafplio puts the Argolid sites within an hour.

Kos has an attractive layer of history in its main town, where Roman ruins lie among the streets, the Knights' castle guards the harbour and the Asklepieion stands on its hillside above. It makes a satisfying few days, but no more.

Kos is the place to go out, at least from June to September. The old-quarter lanes of Kos Town are full of loud bars until the small hours, there are beach clubs at Lambi, and Kardamena has late clubs for a young crowd.

On the Peloponnese an evening usually means a long dinner and a drink by the harbour in Nafplio or Kalamata. Patras is the only place with a real club scene, and it is far from most bases.

The Peloponnese has real mountains. Taygetos rises to about 2,400m above Kalamata, monasteries cling to the cliffs of the Lousios gorge, the Menalon Trail crosses Arcadia, and there is winter skiing on Chelmos. The Gialova lagoon draws migrating birds, and the coast is good for kayaking.

Kos is low and dry by comparison. It has the Dikeos hills with their sunset view from Mount Christos, peacocks in the Plaka forest and flamingos at Alikes. Its one clear edge is wind: Marmari and Tigaki are good for windsurfing and kitesurfing.

With a car, the Peloponnese offers far more. From Nafplio you can reach the Nemea wine villages, take a ferry to car-free Hydra or Spetses, or drive to Athens in about two hours. Further south there are Monemvasia, the Mani tower villages and Elafonisos.

The day trips from Kos all go by boat, and they depend on the ferry timetables. You can cross to Bodrum in Turkey (bring a passport), climb into the volcanic crater on Nisyros or visit the sponge-diving harbour on Kalymnos.

Kos still has the edge with younger children, partly because you can pick a base to suit their bedtimes. Tigaki, Marmari and Kefalos are quiet after dark, while Kardamena's late clubs make it the one resort families wanting calm nights should avoid. In July and August the midday heat sets the rhythm, with mornings on the sand and afternoons in the shade. Older children will get a day or two out of the castle and Roman ruins in Kos Town.

On the Peloponnese the history is the bigger draw for older children. Mycenae and Olympia catch their imagination, but the sites have little shade, so go early in the morning. Neither destination has a zoo or an aquarium. Nafplio is the easiest town to manage with a pushchair, and the large Messinian resort hotels have pools and kids' clubs for the beach days.

Kos is much easier to get around. It is long and narrow, so nowhere is much more than an hour away. Buses run along the main road between the town and the resorts, and cycle lanes lead out of Kos Town to the beaches. A car for a day or two is enough to reach the hill villages and the far south-west.

On the Peloponnese a car is essential. Motorways link the main towns quickly, but the mountain and Mani roads are slow, and the buses barely reach the sites or the beaches.

Neither is a shopping destination. On Kos the shopping is in the lanes of the old quarter, which are mostly leather, sandals and sponges, with herbs and local produce in the Italian-era market hall.

The Peloponnese is better for things to eat and drink. You can buy olive oil and honey from the producers, wine at the Nemea wineries and food at the weekly markets in Kalamata and Tripoli. Nafplio's lanes have the best range of jewellery and ceramics.

Kos saves you money on getting about. Buses and bike hire cover most journeys, a car is needed for a day or two at most, and the ruins in Kos Town and the Asklepieion cost little to see. Where it takes your money is the seafront: sunbeds and harbour-side tables add up, and the package-built resorts keep rooms mid-range rather than cheap, more so in July and August.

The Peloponnese comes out somewhat cheaper overall, though it spends differently. The hire car and fuel you cannot do without eat into the savings, and Mycenae, Olympia and Epidaurus cost more to enter than anything on Kos. Against that, a family-run room in a Mani or Arcadian village and a taverna dinner with local wine cost noticeably less than a resort stay on the island, especially in May, June and September.

The Peloponnese has one experience Kos cannot match: ancient Greek drama on summer weekend nights in the theatre at Epidaurus, where the acoustics are so clear the actors need no amplification. Concerts at the Little Theatre nearby and Kalamata's July dance festival add to it.

Kos has its summer Hippokrateia festival, staged at the Asklepieion, the Odeon and the castle, and village saints' day festivals. Otherwise there are only the resort Greek nights.

Both are restful mainly for their slow pace, and the hot springs take different forms. On Kos, the spring at Therma runs down onto a pebble beach, and bathers pile up stones to make pools where the hot water mixes with the sea. It is simple and free-form rather than a spa.

The Peloponnese has old spa towns at Loutraki and Methana, a lake at Kaiafas fed by warm sulphur springs and the most complete spas in the large Messinian resorts.