Lake Garda or Puglia?

At Lake Garda you swim in fresh water, with no salt, no tide and hardly a wave. You get in from a jetty or a stone shelf and spend the afternoon on the lawn behind it. The prettiest places are the cove at Punta San Vigilio and the bays of the Valtenesi near Manerba. The lake is only really inviting at the height of summer, and the water is cooler and choppier in the north around Riva.

Puglia wins easily because it has open sea and many more kinds of shore. You can swim from sand, from the flat limestone rocks off towns such as Monopoli, or from a boat in the sea caves below the Gargano cliffs near Vieste. The swimming season also lasts a little further into autumn than the lake's. The drawback is August, when lidos fill the most popular stretches and the beaches are crowded. June and September have more room.

Puglia eats better and more reliably. Burrata from the Murge, orecchiette with turnip tops, raw sea urchins on the Bari waterfront and the butcher-grill houses of the Valle d'Itria make ordinary meals memorable, and even simple trattorias keep a strong regional character.

Lake Garda's strength is its wine rather than its kitchens. Bardolino, Chiaretto and Lugana are on the doorstep, with Amarone just beyond. The lake fish and bigoli are good, but the harbour fronts lean on pizza and set menus, so the best meals usually mean driving up to an agriturismo in the hills.

Puglia has much more to see in its own right. Lecce's baroque streets, the trulli districts of Alberobello, the lone octagon of Castel del Monte and the Romanesque cathedrals at Trani, Bari and Otranto are sights you would travel for, although seeing them means driving from town to town.

Garda's heritage works better as a series of half-days. There is Sirmione's moated castle and the Roman villa at the Grotte di Catullo, d'Annunzio's strange Vittoriale with a warship set into the hillside, and the castles at Malcesine and Riva. These are attractive outings rather than the reason to come.

Puglia goes out later and louder, at least in summer. In July and August Gallipoli's beach clubs run from sunset into the small hours, Lecce's baroque squares fill with drinkers, and Bari keeps its old-town bars busy all year.

On Lake Garda, a typical evening is an aperitivo by the harbour, dinner and a stroll along the promenade. Desenzano is the only town with real nightlife, with lakefront bars and a few large clubs that fill on weekends. Most other towns are quiet early.

Lake Garda is far stronger for the outdoors. The narrow north is a fjord walled by mountains: the cable car from Malcesine climbs Monte Baldo for ridge walks and paragliding, Arco's limestone draws climbers all year, and Torbole's steady wind makes it a classic for sailing and windsurfing.

Puglia is mostly gentle olive country, better for a bike ride through the Valle d'Itria than for anything demanding. Its wilder side is in the Gargano, with the beech woods of the Foresta Umbra, the sea caves and the Tremiti islands for snorkelling, and in the cliff paths of the far Salento.

Both make excellent bases for outings, but the outings are different. From Garda's southern shore the main line takes you to major art cities without a car: Verona in well under an hour, Venice, Vicenza and Padua on the same line, and Mantua and Bergamo close by.

Puglia's day trips are small towns reached by car: whitewashed Ostuni and Locorotondo, harbours such as Trani and Polignano, and the Greek-speaking villages near Lecce. Matera's cave dwellings, about an hour from Bari, are the one great outing comparable to Verona.

Lake Garda is better set up for children. Gardaland, its aquarium, the water parks and the Parco Natura Viva safari park all sit around the south-east shore, and the resort campsites with pools and children's clubs mean parents rarely need to plan. Older children can try biking or windsurfing in the north.

Puglia is easy-going rather than organised. The shallow sandy beaches of the Ionian Salento suit small children, Italian piazza life welcomes them late into the evening, and the trulli and the Fasano safari park make good outings. Otherwise most days are spent on the beach.

Getting around is about as easy in both, but in different ways. Garda is compact: the towns are walkable and linked by ferry, which makes it easy to manage without a car from a single base. Driving is the weak point, with narrow, tunnelled shore roads that clog in summer.

Puglia's roads are good and mostly uncrowded, but the distances are long, about four to five hours from the Gargano to the southern tip. A car is close to essential, except for staying along the Bari to Lecce railway at Polignano or Monopoli.

Puglia gives you more worth bringing home. There are the ceramic workshops of Grottaglie, Lecce's papier-mache figures, and linen and pottery from the Valle d'Itria, and Bari's streets around Via Sparano cover everyday fashion.

Lake Garda's shopping is mainly its weekly markets at Desenzano, Lazise and Bardolino, along with oil, wine, Limone's lemon products and good outdoor gear in Riva and Arco. Anyone after fashion goes to Verona or Milan.

Puglia is the cheaper of the two, and most of the saving is at the table. Trattoria meals, street food and local wine cost less than around the lake, although high-season rooms near the Salento beaches, the paid loungers and the car hire still add up.

On Lake Garda the lakefront hotels in Sirmione, Malcesine and Limone are expensive, and theme parks and ferries get costly for a family. The campsites, agriturismi and Valtenesi villages are the way to keep costs down. In both regions spring and autumn are noticeably cheaper.

Puglia has more of its own. Bari's Teatro Petruzzelli holds a full opera and ballet season, Martina Franca's summer festival stages rare operas in a palace courtyard, and the pizzica folk dance comes together each August at the Notte della Taranta in Melpignano.

Lake Garda's own offer is summer shows in the Vittoriale's amphitheatre and band concerts in the town squares. Its best evening of music is outside the region, at the opera in Verona's arena.

Lake Garda has the stronger spa tradition. Sirmione's warm sulphur springs rise from the lake bed and supply thermal pools that look out over the water. The open-air thermal park near Lazise and the hotel spas at Gardone and Salò add to it.

Puglia's calm comes from its countryside rather than its baths. Restored masserie with pools, and long lunches in the Valle d'Itria, set the pace. The springs at Santa Cesarea Terme and Torre Canne are pleasant extras rather than a reason to go.