Marmaris or Antalya?

Swimming is a main reason to visit both places, and neither falls short. The difference is choice. Antalya gives you two contrasting city beaches: Konyaaltı's long pebble shore under the mountains, with water that deepens quickly, and Lara's sand to the east. You can also swim off the rocks below Kaleiçi or head out to the sandy resort shores of Belek and Kemer.

Marmaris has one long sand-and-shingle strip in a calm, enclosed bay. Its best water is reached by boat, at coves around the bay, the pebble inlets of Bozburun and the fine sand of Sedir Island.

Antalya gives you more to look for. It has dishes of its own, such as piyaz in tahini dressing beside grilled köfte and slow-cooked tandır lamb. There are fish from the Gulf, and the köfte houses in the modern city show how locals eat.

In Marmaris, the seafront is mostly given over to steaks, pizza and full breakfasts. You have to seek out a lokanta or the harbour fish restaurants to eat Turkish food well. Its best food is the weekly market and the local pine honey.

This is where the two differ most. Antalya has a proper historic quarter. You enter Kaleiçi through Hadrian's Gate and walk past restored Ottoman houses, the fluted Yivli Minare and the Hıdırlık Tower. The Antalya Museum's Roman marbles alone are worth a morning.

Marmaris offers its hilltop castle with a small museum, an hour in the whitewashed stepped lanes and a caravanserai turned bazaar. Anyone curious about history will spend their days on excursions.

Marmaris is the stronger choice for a big night out, because it is all in one place. Bar Street runs end to end with clubs, lasers and foam parties, and it fills after midnight with a young, mostly British crowd. Calmer cocktail bars line the marina.

Antalya's going out is more varied but more spread out. There are courtyard bars in Kaleiçi, beach clubs on Konyaaltı and Lara, and resort discos, often a taxi ride apart. In winter a few bars stay open for locals and students, while Marmaris largely shuts from November to April.

Antalya has the grander setting, with the Taurus mountains rising from the sea. You can take the cable car up Tahtalı Dağı, walk the first stretches of the Lycian Way, raft in Köprülü Canyon and see the Düden falls drop straight into the sea. Saklıkent even has winter skiing.

Marmaris is sea-led rather than mountain-led. Its pine-wrapped bay opens onto the barely built Bozburun and Datça peninsulas, among the finest sailing waters on the Turkish coast. Gulet cruises and the Carian Trail are the ways in.

Antalya is surrounded by ancient cities. Perge is close by, and Aspendos has its great theatre. Termessos sits high on its peak, and the longer days out reach Side, Myra and the sunken city at Kekova. You could fill a week without repeating a theme.

Marmaris has fewer outings but one that Antalya can't match: an hour's ferry to medieval Rhodes. On the Turkish side are Dalyan's river boats beneath the Lycian rock tombs, the harbour villages of Selimiye and Bozburun, and the long drive out to Knidos.

Antalya has more for children beyond the pool. Lara's shallow sandy water suits toddlers, Belek has a large theme and water park, and the city aquarium's walk-through tunnel helps on the hottest afternoons. Kaleiçi's steep lanes are the main hassle with a pushchair.

Marmaris does the beach-and-pool vacation well, with calm bay water, a water park and boat trips with swimming stops. Families usually stay in Icmeler, away from the noise of Bar Street, and find little else aimed at children.

Getting around is about equally easy in both, but in different ways. Antalya is a city with a tram linking the airport, bus station, old town and Konyaaltı, though its resorts stretch for tens of kilometres along the coast. Marmaris is a flat promenade with constant dolmuş minibuses and water taxis to Icmeler and Turunç.

In both, the excursions call for a hire car or a tour. Marmaris also has a longer road journey from the airport.

Neither is a shopping destination, though Antalya has slightly more range. It has Kaleiçi's carpets and ceramics, several large air-conditioned malls and neighbourhood markets good for spices and dried fruit.

Marmaris has its covered bazaar, heavy on leather and copied designer goods. The things most worth taking home are pine honey, natural sponges and cotton peshtemal towels.

Costs work out about the same, and in both the gap is between local and tourist spending. Antalya's köfte houses, markets and tram are cheap, while Kaleiçi restaurants, beach clubs and seaside rooms in summer are not.

In Marmaris the dolmuş and simple lokanta meals are cheap, while Bar Street, seafront dining and organised boat trips are where money goes. All-inclusive packages are good value in both, and both are cheaper outside July and August.

Antalya has the only real stage of the two. A state opera, ballet and theatre perform through the winter. In summer, the Aspendos festival puts opera and ballet on a Roman stage, an evening worth planning a trip around.

In Marmaris, live performance means Turkish nights staged for tourists, cover bands in bars and the odd summer concert in the open-air amphitheatre.

Antalya offers the more authentic bathing. Kaleiçi's old hammams give you the scrub and foam massage on warm marble, and the big resorts in Belek and Lara have some extensive spas.

The hammams in Marmaris are modern places run for visitors. Its route to rest is distance instead, in the slow villages of Turunç, Selimiye and Bozburun, plus a half-day soaking in the mud baths near Dalyan.