Mostar or Naples?

Neither city is a beach base, but Naples at least has the sea at the door. People swim off the rocks below the Lungomare and at the Posillipo lidos, and clear coves on Procida, Ischia, Capri and the Sorrento peninsula are a boat ride away.

Mostar is landlocked. The Neretva is too cold for more than a quick plunge, so swimming means the pool under the Kravica falls, about 40km away, or a drive of over an hour to the coast at Neum.

Mostar feeds you well but within a narrow range: charcoal-grilled ćevapi in somun, burek, stuffed peppers and slow stews, with Žilavka and Blatina from the local vineyards and a long Bosnian coffee to finish. It is satisfying home cooking, and the honest places are a few streets back from the bridge.

Naples is one of Europe's great food cities. It has the original pizza, fried pizza and seafood eaten on the street, ragù and genovese in the trattorias, and pastry shops and markets like the Pignasecca behind it all. Both cities are short of international food, but in Naples eating could be the main reason for the trip.

Mostar's sights centre on one great monument, the rebuilt Stari Most with its divers. Around it are the Kujundžiluk bazaar, the minaret of Koski Mehmed Pasha and a few Ottoman houses. The war-scarred old front line gives it a recent history Naples has nothing like, and the whole set fits into a day or two.

Naples works on a different scale. Its Greek-planned centre is lined with Gothic and Baroque churches, the Archaeological Museum holds the treasures of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and below the streets are tunnels and catacombs. Add the Royal Palace, San Martino and Capodimonte, and a week is easily filled.

In Mostar the evening is dinner and a drink on a terrace facing the floodlit bridge. After that the old town goes quiet, apart from a few cocktail bars and student clubs at summer weekends.

Naples has a far bigger night out, though most of it happens in the open air rather than in clubs. Students drink on the steps of Piazza Bellini, and a smarter crowd fills the alleys of Chiaia well past midnight. Those after serious clubbing will be disappointed in both cities.

Mostar's outdoors are wild karst country. Bare limestone ranges like Prenj and Velež surround the city, there is rafting in the Neretva canyons, and the Blidinje plateau and Hutovo Blato wetland are within reach. Most of it needs a car, and the valley is too hot in summer for much walking.

Naples has more variety close at hand. You can walk to the crater rim of Vesuvius, explore the old craters of the Phlegraean Fields and snorkel at Gaiola. Further out are the Path of the Gods above Amalfi and the island peaks of Capri and Ischia, and the sea is never far away.

Mostar's day trips are small, characterful places in the Herzegovina valleys. There is the dervish tekke at Blagaj, hillside Počitelj, the stećci tombstones at Stolac and Tito's bunker at Konjic, with Sarajevo a long day away by train. Most of them need a car or a tour.

Naples has some of the best day trips anywhere. Pompeii and Herculaneum are each under an hour away by train, Caserta is close, ferries leave for Capri, Ischia and Procida, and Sorrento opens up the Amalfi Coast and Paestum. You could spend a whole trip on excursions and still leave some out.

Neither city is easy with small children. Both have hard lanes for pushchairs and fierce summers, and both are warm towards children at the table. In Mostar the bridge divers, a minaret climb and a swim at Kravica make a good day or two, but there is little more.

Naples has more to offer older children: the funiculars, the tunnels under the city, a ferry ride, Pompeii, the zoo and the science museum at Bagnoli. Many families stay in Sorrento or on an island and come into the city for the day.

Both have centres best seen on foot. Mostar's is a short stroll along the river on slippery cobbles, but buses are of little use to visitors, so Blagaj, Počitelj and Kravica mean a car, taxi or tour.

Naples is harder work in its scooter-filled lanes, but it has a network behind it. Metro Line 1 and four funiculars climb to Vomero, and the Circumvesuviana, crowded as it is, runs to Pompeii and Sorrento, so a car is never needed.

Mostar's shopping is a single street, the Kujundžiluk. Hand-hammered copper coffee sets and kilims are the things to buy there, but you need to find the craftsmen working among the imported souvenir stock.

Naples has much more to offer. Chiaia workshops make suits, shirts and ties to measure, and Via Toledo, the Galleria Umberto I and Via dei Mille cover fashion. San Gregorio Armeno sells nativity figures, and Torre del Greco is known for coral and cameos.

Mostar is the cheaper of the two by some way. Guesthouse rooms, grilled meat, local wine and coffee all cost little, and only the bridge-view terraces and old-town rooms in midsummer cost noticeably more.

Naples is good value for a Western European city if you stay in the centre and eat pizza and street food. The trouble is that its best trips take you to resort prices on Capri and the Amalfi Coast, and the archaeological sites charge entry.

In Mostar the stage plays little part in a visit. The national theatre and youth theatre perform in local languages, and outside the summer open-air concerts, live music means a band in a café bar.

Naples has the Teatro di San Carlo, the oldest working opera house in Europe, with a full season of opera, ballet and concerts. It also has concerts at the San Pietro a Majella conservatory, chamber music in churches and Neapolitan song in the trattorias. Spoken theatre is mostly in Italian or dialect.

Mostar has no working baths, and the old hammam near the bridge is a monument rather than a bath. Relaxing there means shaded coffee and the quiet old town early and late in the day.

Naples itself is too intense to unwind in, but the volcanic ground around it gives real thermal water. There is the spa at Agnano on the city's edge, and Ischia, an hour away by hydrofoil, has terraced thermal gardens above the sea. That is something Mostar has nothing to match.