Nicosia or Paphos?

This is the clearest gap between the two. The sea is the reason to stay in Paphos. The town's own strips of sand and shingle along the promenade are modest, but Coral Bay is about 13km north and has shallow water for a full beach day. There is also the empty Akamas shore at Lara Bay, and the pebble cove at Aphrodite's Rock for its legend.

Nicosia is inland on the Mesaoria plain, so swimming takes a drive of about 45 minutes, either south to Larnaca or north over the hills to Kyrenia. The water is just as warm as at Paphos. In the city itself, though, a pool is the only way to cool off.

Nicosia is the better place to eat, mostly because it has two kitchens a short walk apart. You can have a long meze in a taverna near Faneromeni or Chrysaliniotissa, then cross at Ledra Street for kebab grills, lahmacun and syrupy pastries around the Bandabulya market. Cypriot coffee is a serious habit there too.

Paphos serves the same meze tradition, and it adds fish meze by the sea, but you have to look harder. The cooking around the harbour and the resort strip is aimed at package tourists. The good family tavernas are in Ktima and the hill villages, with Laona and Kathikas wines to go with the food.

Each city needs two or three days, but the history is different in kind. Nicosia is a layered medieval and later city. Inside its Venetian walls are the Byzantine icons of the Archbishop's Palace and, across the line, the Selimiye Mosque and the Büyük Han caravanserai. The Cyprus Museum stands just beyond the walls and holds the island's best antiquities, among them the Ayia Irini terracottas. The appeal is walking through all those periods packed close together, not one great site.

Paphos is about the ancient world: UNESCO-listed Roman villas with the floor mosaics of the House of Dionysus, and the rock-cut Tombs of the Kings by the shore. Once you have seen those, the modern resort town has little else to show.

Neither is a party destination, and their evenings are very different. Nicosia's nights are local and last all year. Students and young professionals fill the pavement bars around Faneromeni Square from about midnight, and a few clubs on the avenues outside the walls stay open later.

Paphos packs its nightlife into Bar Street, where pubs, karaoke bars and clubs fill up in summer with groups on a sun-and-party week, and much of it is shut from November to March. The quieter choice there is a drink by the harbour.

Paphos has much more open country close by. You can walk the roadless Akamas peninsula to sea caves and turtle-nesting beaches, follow Avakas Gorge between limestone walls, look for mouflon in Paphos Forest, and spend time on the water snorkelling, kayaking and diving local wrecks.

Nicosia's plain is flat and turns brown in summer, so its landscape starts at the edge of the city. There are ridge trails along the Kyrenia range, and the Troodos is about an hour away, slightly nearer than from Paphos, with cool pine walks and Mount Olympos.

Being in the middle of the island gives Nicosia the wider range of day trips. North of the hills are Kyrenia harbour, Bellapais Abbey and St Hilarion, while Famagusta and Roman Salamis lie to the east. Lefkara, Choirokoitia, Larnaca and the painted Troodos churches are all reachable to the south.

Paphos covers the west and south coast well, with the Sanctuary of Aphrodite, cliff-top Kourion, Kolossi castle and the Omodos wine villages all within about an hour. Reaching the north and the east, though, means a long drive through Nicosia first.

Paphos is built for this kind of trip. It has gentle shallow sand at Coral Bay, resort hotels with kids' clubs, pushchair-friendly walks along the promenade, a water park and a zoo near Peyia, and older children tend to enjoy the mosaics and tombs.

Nicosia is safe and welcoming, and children eat out late with their parents, but there is little made for them and the beach needs a car. Summer temperatures above 35°C make it hard going with small children, so most families do better to visit it for a day from the coast.

On foot the two are about the same, and in both you will want a car. In Nicosia almost everything worth seeing is inside the Venetian walls, and the Ledra Street crossing puts the northern half within minutes, but the car-built suburbs beyond have patchy pavements and buses that are little use to visitors.

Paphos is more spread out. The flat promenade in Kato Paphos is easy to walk, buses run up the steep hill to Ktima and out to Coral Bay, but the hotels stretch a long way down the coast and the gorges and villages are only practical by car.

Nicosia has the better shopping. Ledra and Onasagorou streets have chain stores and small independents, the avenues just outside the walls carry the international brands, and over the line the Bandabulya market sells spices, textiles and copperware.

Paphos has little beyond the covered market in Ktima and beachwear on the seafront. The better buys there, such as lace, pottery, honey and wine, come from the villages where they are made.

The overall cost is much the same, but you save in different places. In Nicosia the food is the bargain, with meze and coffee costing little and meals cheaper again in the northern half, while the business-oriented hotels sit in the mid range.

Paphos costs swing more with the seasons. Seafront rooms are expensive in July and August and much cheaper in winter and the shoulder months. Both places add the cost of a hire car.

As the capital, Nicosia has the island's regular programme. The Cyprus Symphony Orchestra plays a season, there is theatre year-round (mostly in Greek), live rebetiko, folk and jazz play in the old town bars, and summer concerts are held in the moat.

Paphos has one notable event, the open-air Aphrodite Festival opera in front of the harbour castle in early autumn. For the rest of the year there is little beyond folk dancing at taverna nights.

The two are level here, but the rest they offer is different. Nicosia has a bathing tradition you can still use: steam and massage under the domes of the 16th-century Omeriye Hammam, and the old Büyük Hamam across the line. For cooler air, the Troodos pine villages are close.

Paphos has no such tradition and relies on resort spas with indoor pools. What relaxes people there is the coast itself, with long promenade walks and quiet villages, especially once the summer crowds leave.