Mostar or Sorrento?

Mostar has no beach of its own. A swim means a cold plunge into the Neretva below the old town or a trip to the pool beneath the Kravica waterfalls, about 40km south. The Adriatic at Neum or along the Makarska Riviera only works as a day out.

Sorrento has no sand either, but the sea is at the foot of the town. The lidos on piers at Marina Piccola and Marina Grande and the rocky inlet of the Bagni della Regina Giovanna give clear, deep water a short walk or a lift ride away. Pebble coves at Marina del Cantone and around Capri are a bus or boat ride further.

Mostar's cooking is hearty and narrow: ćevapi in somun bread, burek, stuffed peppers and slow stews, with Žilavka and Blatina wines from the Herzegovina valleys and a long ritual of Bosnian coffee. It is satisfying for a few days, but there is little variety beyond it.

Sorrento has the richer table. Gnocchi alla sorrentina, fish cooked all'acqua pazza, mozzarella and provolone from the hill dairies and lemons in everything give it much more range. The hill villages above the town also hold serious fine dining. In both places the best meals are found a few lanes back from the main sight.

Mostar has the stronger sights within the town. The rebuilt sixteenth-century arch of Stari Most and its divers, the Kujundžiluk, the minaret of Koski Mehmed Pasha and the carpeted Ottoman houses fill a day or two. The shell-marked buildings of the old front line add a sobering second layer.

Sorrento's own sights are gentler and smaller: the Roman street grid, the cloister of San Francesco, the Museo Correale and the sunken ruined mill of the Vallone dei Mulini. The area's great classical sites, Pompeii and Herculaneum, are outside the town and are covered under day trips.

Neither town is a place for a big night out, and they are quiet in different ways. In Mostar the evening means a terrace facing the floodlit bridge, with a few student clubs and cocktail bars busy at weekends. The crowd there is younger and more local.

Sorrento's evening is the passeggiata along Corso Italia, then wine bars, pubs for British visitors and piano bars playing Neapolitan songs to an older crowd. For anything livelier you would stay overnight in Naples or on Capri.

Mostar's landscape is wilder and drier: a karst basin beneath Velež and the jagged Prenj range, rafting in the Neretva canyons, the Blidinje plateau and the birdlife of Hutovo Blato. Most of it takes a car to reach.

Sorrento combines mountain and sea, which gives it the edge. You can walk to Punta Campanella and the protected bay of Ieranto straight from the peninsula. The Path of the Gods, Monte Faito and the crater of Vesuvius are close by, and you can hire boats and kayaks to explore the grottoes and coves.

Mostar's day trips are small and full of character: the dervish tekke at Blagaj under its cliff, walled Počitelj, the stećci tombstones near Stolac, and Konjic with Tito's bunker. Sarajevo makes a long day by train through the Neretva gorge. Most of the rest need a car or a tour.

Sorrento is one of the best bases in Europe for day trips. Pompeii is about half an hour away by train, and you can do Herculaneum and Vesuvius on the same day out. Ferries reach Capri in under an hour, and Positano, Amalfi, Ravello and Naples with its archaeological museum are all easy to reach without a car.

Both places welcome children warmly, but neither has much built for them. Sorrento is the easier of the two: its flat, mostly pedestrian centre suits a pushchair, and boat rides to Capri, the train to Pompeii and plenty of gelato keep children busy. The catch is that swimming is in deep water off piers and rocks.

Mostar is harder work with small children. The steep, polished cobbles are slippery, and the summer heat in the valley is tiring. The bridge divers and the swim at Kravica make good outings for a day or two.

In both towns you can walk to the sights. In Mostar the old town, the bridge and the Austro-Hungarian centre are a short stroll along the river. Beyond that, Blagaj, Počitelj and Kravica mean a car, taxi or tour, because the local buses serve residents.

Sorrento has the better links. The Circumvesuviana runs straight to Pompeii and Naples, and ferries go to Capri and along the coast, so you never need a car. The train is crowded and the summer buses crawl round the hairpins, but every major outing is reachable.

Mostar's bazaar and Sorrento's craft lanes are both good for a browse, and Sorrento has a little more that is actually made there. In Mostar, shopping means the Kujundžiluk. Among the stalls of imported souvenirs, look for the few coppersmiths still hammering coffee sets by hand in their doorways, along with kilims and embroidered textiles. Beyond the bazaar there are only ordinary malls.

Sorrento has plenty of lemon-themed souvenirs, but it also has genuine local crafts: intarsia boxes and trays, leather sandals made to measure while you wait, and linen, coral and cameo jewellery. Neither town is good for fashion, but from Sorrento the boutiques of Naples and Capri are an easy trip.

Mostar is far cheaper. Family-run guesthouses, plates of ćevapi and bottles of local wine all cost little, and prices drop again a few streets away from the bridge.

Sorrento charges resort prices, especially in summer, for sea-view rooms, lido sunbeds and private boats. You can bring the cost down by using the cheap trains and buses, eating in back-lane trattorias and travelling in spring or late autumn.

Neither town has much on stage, so this should not decide your trip. Mostar's national theatre and youth theatre perform mostly in local languages, and summer adds open-air concerts.

Sorrento's offer is aimed more at visitors: evenings of Neapolitan song and tarantella, and summer chamber music in the cloister of San Francesco. For opera, the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples is about an hour away.

Mostar has no working bathing tradition, because its old hammam survives only as a monument, and there are few spas. The restful part of a stay is the slow coffee and the hush of the river once the day visitors leave.

Sorrento gives you more ways to unwind. The cliff-top hotels have spas and pools above the bay, and the old villa gardens are calm places to spend an afternoon. The thermal gardens of Ischia are a ferry ride away.