Kotor or Naples?

Neither city has a real beach of its own, but Kotor makes swimming a little easier. Along the shore road to Dobrota and Muo you can step off a jetty into calm, warm bay water. The sandy beach at Jaz and the coves around Budva are about half an hour away by bus.

In Naples you swim off the rocks below the Lungomare or at paid lidos in Posillipo, and the water near the port is not always clean. The clearer coves on Capri, Ischia and Procida are a ferry ride away.

Food is one of the biggest gaps between the two. Naples is the home of pizza and has a deep street-food culture of fried pizza, cones of seafood, sfogliatelle and babà, plus espresso drunk standing at the bar. Its trattorias serve ragù and genovese with Campanian wines.

In Kotor the cooking is good but limited: grilled fish, bay mussels, black risotto, Njegusi ham and Vranac wine. The terraces in the old town are uneven, so the better meals are at konobas in Perast or Prcanj.

Kotor's appeal is the whole walled townscape: marble lanes, the 12th-century Cathedral of St Tryphon, a maritime museum and the walls climbing to St John's fortress. It all fits into a day or two.

Naples has enough for a week or more. There are Gothic and Baroque churches on almost every block of Spaccanapoli, the frescoes and mosaics from Pompeii in the Archaeological Museum, Greco-Roman tunnels under the streets, and the Royal Palace, Capodimonte and San Martino above them.

Naples has far more going on at night, though it is a street scene rather than a club scene. Students crowd the steps of Piazza Bellini, and Chiaia's small bars spill into the alleys until well past midnight. Kotor offers a quiet drink under the floodlit walls and a few late bars in summer. For dancing, people from both cities head out of town: to Budva's beach clubs from Kotor, and to the clubs on the coast from Naples.

Both have outstanding natural settings, but the landscapes are very different. Kotor sits under limestone walls rising more than 1,000m from a bay that looks like a fjord. You can start walking at the town gates and climb the Ladder of Kotor, then go on to the beech woods of Lovcen, or kayak past the villages along the shore.

Naples is volcanic country. You can walk to the rim of Vesuvius, explore the craters of the Phlegraean Fields at Astroni and Lake Avernus, snorkel at Gaiola, or spend a day on the Path of the Gods above the Amalfi Coast.

Kotor has good outings: Perast and the island church of Our Lady of the Rocks, the old royal capital of Cetinje over Lovcen, and Dubrovnik across the border. Most of them need a car or a driver.

Naples can hardly be beaten. Pompeii and Herculaneum are under an hour away by local train, and Caserta's palace is close too. Ferries run to Capri, Ischia and Procida, Sorrento is the gateway to Positano and Amalfi, and the temples of Paestum make a longer day.

Naples gives families more to do, though neither city is easy with young children. Naples has Edenlandia, the zoo and the science museum at Bagnoli, and older children usually love the tunnels, the funiculars and the ruins of Pompeii. Scooters, missing pavements and steps make life hard with a pushchair, though.

Kotor's car-free old town and its street cats are calm and safe. Beyond the bay swimming and the boat to Perast, however, there is very little made for children, and the fortress climb is too hot in summer.

Inside the walls of Kotor everything is a short, flat walk, but leaving town is the hard part. Buses are infrequent, the one road around the bay jams in summer, and most visitors end up hiring a car.

Naples has the edge here, because you never need a car. Metro Line 1 and four funiculars connect the centre with Vomero, and the Circumvesuviana goes to Pompeii and Sorrento, even if the trains are slow and crowded.

Kotor offers souvenirs, silver filigree and lace, and its best buys are things to eat and drink: Vranac, Njegusi ham and honey from the green market. For brands you have to go to the marina at Tivat.

Naples has real things to shop for. There are tailors in Chiaia, the high street along Via Toledo and the Galleria Umberto I, boutiques on Via dei Mille, nativity workshops on San Gregorio Armeno, and cameos and coral from Torre del Greco.

For everyday spending the two are fairly close, and Naples goes slightly further. Pizza, coffee at the bar, street food and the funiculars are all cheap, and there are plenty of simple B&Bs in the old centre. Kotor is cheaper than the resorts along its coast, and an apartment in Dobrota or Muo keeps costs down. In both, prices rise in the same kind of places: the squares inside Kotor's walls in high summer, and the ferries and island hotels around Naples.

Naples has a proper musical life. The Teatro di San Carlo, the oldest opera house in Europe still in use, holds seasons of opera, ballet and concerts, and you can also hear chamber music in churches, concerts at the conservatory and Neapolitan song in the trattorias. Kotor has nothing that runs all year. Its programme is a summer festival in the squares and churches, plus the carnival and Boka Night with decorated boats on the bay.

Naples is far from restful itself, but its volcanic ground gives it a real spa tradition. There are the Roman-era springs at Agnano, and Ischia's terraced thermal parks are a short hydrofoil ride away.

Kotor has only hotel spas. It offers rest of a different kind: quiet early mornings on the water and long lunches in the shore villages, away from the crowds in the old town at midday.