Lake Garda or Sicily?

Garda's swimming is lake bathing: grassy lidos, jetties and pebble shores at Sirmione, Lazise, Bardolino and the Valtenesi. The water is pleasantly warm only in high summer, and cooler and windier at the narrow northern end. It is a day on a lawn with a lounger, not a beach of sand and surf.

Sicily has the real seaside, and far more variety. You can choose between the white crescent of San Vito Lo Capo, the coves of Zingaro and Vendicari, the Scala dei Turchi cliffs and the very clear water around Favignana and the black-sand Aeolian Islands. The season is also longer, with swimming comfortable well into October.

Garda eats well in a quiet northern way: grilled lake fish, bigoli, polenta and its own olive oil. Wine is its real strength, with Lugana in the south and Bardolino and Chiaretto on the east shore. The best meals are in agriturismi in the hills, because the harbour fronts lean heavily on pizza and set menus.

Sicily is one of Italy's great places to eat. You can stand at the stalls in Ballarò for panelle and arancine, have granita with brioche for breakfast and eat fish couscous in Trapani. Modica's grainy chocolate and Etna's volcanic wines add to it, and the simple trattorie keep it all within easy reach.

Garda's sights make a pleasant round of half-days. There is Sirmione's moated castle and Roman villa ruins, d'Annunzio's Vittoriale with its warship in the hillside, and the castles of Malcesine and Riva. None of it would justify the journey alone.

Sicily's heritage is the reason many people go at all. It includes the Doric temples of Agrigento and Segesta, the Greek theatres of Syracuse and Taormina, the mosaics of Piazza Armerina and Monreale, and the baroque towns of Noto and Ragusa Ibla. The sites are spread across the island, so plan for a week to see the best of them.

Neither is a place for serious going out, but Sicily has more to offer after dinner. Catania's student bars spill across the old-centre piazzas until late, Palermo drinks in the street around the Vucciria, and in summer there are open-air clubs at Mondello and below Taormina.

Garda's evenings are an aperitivo, dinner and a stroll along the promenade. Desenzano, with its lakefront bars and weekend clubs nearby, is the only real exception, and most towns are quiet early.

Both are excellent outdoors, but in different ways. Garda's northern end is a sports base. Arco's limestone draws climbers, via ferrate run up the cliffs, the cable car climbs Monte Baldo and the afternoon wind at Torbole is reliable for windsurfing and sailing.

Sicily's outdoors is about volcanoes and the sea. You can walk Etna's lava fields with a guide, climb Stromboli in the evening to watch it erupt, follow the Zingaro cliff path or dive around the Egadi and Aeolian Islands. Its interior is too hot for hiking in high summer.

Garda's best outings leave the lake by train from the southern shore. Verona is under an hour from Peschiera or Desenzano and Venice about an hour and a half, with Vicenza's Palladian villas and Padua's frescoes on the same line. Westward, Brescia and Bergamo's walled upper town make a separate day out, Mantua is an easy drive, and the north shore has Trento and Rovereto close at hand.

Sicily's day trips stay on the island and mostly need a car. Palermo opens up Cefalù, hilltop Erice and the salt pans of Trapani, while Syracuse or Noto leads to Modica, Ragusa and Marzamemi. Ferries turn Favignana or Lipari into a full day at sea, something Garda's short lake crossings cannot match.

Few stretches of Italian shoreline are as geared to children as Garda's south-east side. Gardaland and its aquarium, the water parks and the Parco Natura Viva safari park are all a short drive apart, and the campsite villages there add pools and organised fun. Older children can head to the northern end to bike or windsurf.

Sicily welcomes children warmly, and the shallow sandy bays at San Vito Lo Capo and Mondello suit small ones. Beyond the beach there is little built for them, and long drives, steep hill towns and July heat make the island tiring with a young family.

Garda is easier without a car. You can stay in one compact town and use the ferries, and the southern rail stations link you to the wider region. Driving all round the lake is slow on narrow, congested roads.

Sicily is a large island, and most trips depend on a hire car, with slow inland roads and chaotic city traffic. Trains are sparse and island ferries can be cancelled by rough seas. Without a car you will see much less of it.

Sicily gives you more to bring home. There are majolica ceramics from Caltagirone, coral work from Trapani, puppet makers in Palermo, Bronte pistachio cream and Modica chocolate, plus proper fashion streets on Via Libertà and Via Etnea.

Garda's shopping is weekly lakefront markets, olive oil, Lugana and Bardolino wine, Limone's lemon products and outdoor gear in Riva and Arco. For anything more serious, go to Verona or Milan.

Sicily is the cheaper trip. Street food, trattoria lunches and B&Bs in Palermo, Catania and the baroque south east stay fair even in summer, and only Taormina, the Aeolians and the top resorts push prices up.

At Garda in summer, lakefront hotels in Sirmione, Malcesine and Limone are expensive, and theme parks and ferries add up for a family. Campsites, the hill agriturismi and the shoulder seasons are how to keep costs down.

Sicily has a genuine stage life. The Teatro Massimo in Palermo is one of Europe's largest opera houses, Catania has the Teatro Bellini, and Syracuse's ancient theatre stages Greek tragedy each spring. In summer, Taormina's theatre holds concerts with Etna behind the stage.

Garda has open-air summer shows at the Vittoriale and band concerts in the town squares. Its great evening out, the opera in Verona's Roman arena, lies outside the lake.

Garda has a real spa tradition. Sirmione's sulphurous springs rise from the lake bed and have fed thermal cures for over a century, and there are open-air thermal pools in a historic villa park near Lazise. Calm hotel spas line the shore at Gardone and Salò.

Sicily's hot springs at Sciacca and the mud pools of Vulcano are curiosities rather than a bathing culture. The island relaxes you through long lunches at a farmhouse among olive groves or slow days on Salina.