Mostar or Venice?

Neither is a beach destination, but Venice has sand on its doorstep and Mostar has none. In Venice, a short vaporetto ride takes you to the Lido's long Adriatic shore, where the water is shallow and warm in summer. Pellestrina is quieter if you want more space.

In Mostar, swimming means a cold plunge into the Neretva or a trip to the pool under the Kravica waterfalls, about 40km away. The sea at Neum is more than an hour's drive, which makes it a day trip rather than something to fit into an afternoon.

Venice has more variety and a clearer local style. You can stand at a bacaro counter in Cannaregio with cicchetti and a spritz, or sit down to cuttlefish risotto made with fish from the Rialto market. The trap is the many tourist menus around San Marco.

Mostar's cooking is simpler and heartier: charcoal-grilled ćevapi, burek and stuffed peppers, with Žilavka and Blatina wines from the surrounding valleys and Bosnian coffee served slowly. You get honest food, but not much beyond it.

This is where the gap between the two cities is widest. Venice is a whole city of palaces and churches with no cars, and its art fills the Accademia, the Frari, the Scuola Grande di San Rocco and the modern collections at the Guggenheim and Punta della Dogana. It rewards a week.

Mostar has one world-famous sight, the rebuilt Ottoman bridge with divers leaping from its crown, plus the Kujundžiluk, a mosque minaret you can climb and old merchant houses. The war-scarred façades along the former front line add a weight Venice does not have, but the whole set fits into a day or two.

Both cities go quiet early, and neither is worth choosing for nights out. Venice's high point is the early-evening aperitivo at the bacari on the Fondamenta della Misericordia, with student bars around Campo Santa Margherita lasting later. In Mostar the evening means dinner on a terrace facing the lit bridge, with a few cocktail bars and student clubs busy at summer weekends.

Mostar is set in much wilder country. Bare limestone ranges rise right around the karst basin, the Neretva canyons offer rafting, and Blidinje and the Hutovo Blato wetland are within easy reach. The catch is the summer heat, which pushes serious walking into spring and autumn.

Venice's outdoors is gentler and mostly on water: kayaking or rowing through the salt marshes near Torcello, where herons and flamingos feed, and cycling along the Pellestrina sea walls. Real mountains are a long way off.

Venice has the richer list and makes it easier. Fast trains reach Padua, Vicenza and Verona, and Murano, Burano and Torcello are just a boat ride across the lagoon, so you don't need a car.

Mostar's outings are smaller but full of character: the dervish tekke at Blagaj, the hillside village of Počitelj and the medieval tombstones at Stolac. Most need a car or a tour. Sarajevo, about two hours away by train through the Neretva gorge, is the one big city in reach.

Venice works a little better with children. Riding the vaporetto, watching glass-blowing on Murano and paddling at the Lido all appeal, and there are no cars to worry about. The many stepped bridges, though, defeat pushchairs.

Mostar is fine for a short stop, with the bridge divers and the Kravica falls as the highlights. But its steep, polished lanes and fierce summer heat are hard on small children, and there is little else built for them.

Both historic centres are best on foot, but Venice adds a transport network that Mostar lacks. Vaporetti cover the Grand Canal and the islands, and trains and buses arrive at the edge of the centre. The bridges and crowded boats are tiring.

In Mostar, the old town and the Austro-Hungarian quarter are a short stroll apart. Getting to Blagaj, Počitelj or Kravica, though, means a car, taxi or tour, because the local buses are not run with visitors in mind.

Mostar's shopping comes down to one street, the Kujundžiluk. A few coppersmiths there still hammer coffee sets and plates by hand, among stalls of kilims, lamps and imported souvenirs. Beyond it there is little fashion or design.

The Venetian crafts run much deeper, and much of what is sold is made in the city: Murano glass, Burano lace, papier-mâché masks, marbled paper and furlane slippers from workshops in Dorsoduro and Castello. The big fashion labels line the Mercerie. Venice's main routes share Mostar's problem of imported stock sold as local, so in both cities it pays to buy from someone you can see working.

Mostar costs a fraction of Venice. Family guesthouses, grilled meat and local wine are cheap, and only the rooms and terraces closest to the bridge charge more in summer.

Venice is costly at almost every turn: hotels in the centre, water transport, church entry fees and a seat in a café on the piazza. Staying in Mestre and eating standing at a bar counter helps, but only so far.

In Mostar, an evening at the theatre is hard to enjoy unless you speak the language, because both the national theatre and the youth theatre play mainly in local languages. Summer brings concerts out into the open air. For the rest of the year, music after dinner usually means a band playing in a café bar.

Venice has the opposite problem: there is more on most nights than you can fit in, and much of it needs no translation. Opera, ballet and orchestral evenings run through the year at the city's great opera house and at the smaller Malibran. Most evenings a church or scuola grande also hosts a baroque concert, usually Vivaldi in his home city, though the quality varies. Only the drama at the Goldoni needs Italian, and there is little for anyone who wants jazz or rock.

Neither city has its own bathing tradition, but Venice has more to offer. There are hotel spas in palazzi and on the Lido and Giudecca, and the thermal pools of Abano Terme are about an hour away.

Mostar's hammam is a monument rather than a working bath, so relaxing there means long coffees in the shade and the quiet old town once the day visitors have gone.