Portofino or Rovinj?

Neither town has a proper sandy beach, but Rovinj gives you far more room to swim. Several kilometres of limestone ledges, pebble coves and concrete bathing platforms run south into the Golden Cape park. Taxi boats go to quieter coves on St Catherine and Red Island.

Portofino's swimming is lovely but cramped. You climb down ladders off the rocks towards the lighthouse, Paraggi's small bay is mostly given over to paid beach clubs, and the pebbles under the abbey at San Fruttuoso are reached by boat or on foot. The water is very clear in both places. In Rovinj, bring water shoes against the urchins.

Rovinj eats better and with more local character. Fuži with truffle, scampi buzara, Malvazija and Teran wines from the hinterland and slow-cooked meat in countryside konobas add up to a week of good meals, even though the harbour menus are written for passing visitors.

Portofino's Ligurian dishes are worth trying: trofie with pesto, pansoti in walnut sauce and Recco's cheese-filled focaccia. The problem is that the harbour terraces charge for the yachts, and the cooking rarely lives up to the view. People who care about food go over to Camogli or up to the trattorie in the hills.

Both towns are places to look at rather than tour, but Rovinj gives you more. Its old town fills a former island and climbs through Venetian lanes and the Balbi Arch to St Euphemia, whose bell tower you can climb. The Batana House tells the story of the town's flat-bottomed fishing boats and the songs that went with them.

In Portofino, the main sight is the horseshoe of painted houses around the harbour. Above it are San Giorgio and Castello Brown, and the medieval abbey of San Fruttuoso is a hike or a boat ride away. A day covers the lot.

In Portofino the evening is a dressed-up aperitivo facing the yachts and a long dinner, and then it is over. For anything later you have to go along the coast to Santa Margherita or Rapallo, or into Genoa.

Rovinj keeps going a little longer. After dinner people take a drink down to the rocks below the old town as the sun sets over the sea. The cocktail and wine bars on the waterfront stay busy, and in high season a couple of places stay open late for dancing. Even so, most of the old town is quiet by midnight.

Portofino has the more dramatic outdoors. The headland is protected as a regional park on land and a marine reserve offshore. Trails climb over Monte di Portofino, and cliff paths, some with chains, drop to San Fruttuoso and Punta Chiappa. Divers come for the red coral and the bronze Christ of the Abyss statue.

Rovinj's nature is flatter and gentler. The Golden Cape park has gravel paths for walking and cycling, the low islands are good for kayaking and diving, and boats run up the Lim Fjord to the mussel farms. It makes for easy, pleasant days rather than a challenge.

Portofino has the richer run of outings, and you can do them without a car. Boats and buses reach Camogli, Santa Margherita and San Fruttuoso, trains run to Sestri Levante and the Cinque Terre, and the summer ferries make getting there part of the fun. Genoa, with its medieval centre and the palaces of the Strade Nuove, is under an hour away.

Rovinj's region has plenty to see too: Pula's Roman amphitheatre, the sixth-century mosaics of the Euphrasian Basilica in Porec, and the hill towns of Motovun and Groznjan. Most of it, though, needs a hire car. It is Roman sites and wine country on one side against the Riviera by boat on the other.

Rovinj is the better bet with children. Its resorts and campsites are built for families, with pools and playgrounds, and the flat, shaded paths of the Golden Cape suit pushchairs and bikes. The rocky shore does mean water shoes and close watching.

Portofino is safe and calm, and children like the boats and the walk to the castle. Even so, steep steps, no playgrounds and paid beach clubs make it hard work. Families usually stay in Santa Margherita or Rapallo and make a trip to the aquarium in Genoa.

In both towns you walk everywhere, and a car is more trouble than it is worth once you have arrived, though the lanes are steep in each. The difference is how you get in and out.

Portofino hangs on a single narrow coast road that jams in summer. Buses link it to the train at Santa Margherita, and from spring to autumn ferries run along the coast. Rovinj's old town is closed to cars, and a flat promenade leads into the forest park, but there is no railway at all, so intercity buses are your only public transport out.

Neither is somewhere to go for shopping, and you can see what each has in an afternoon or less. What differs is what they sell. Portofino's few lanes behind the harbour hold boutiques from big fashion and jewellery houses, along with resort wear for people coming off the yachts.

Rovinj leans towards things to take home from the region, such as truffle products, olive oil, wine and lavender, plus the artists' studios and galleries along Grisia. For markets or a longer browse, Portofino sends you to Chiavari or Genoa, while from Rovinj you have to drive to a larger town.

There is a big gap in cost between the two. Portofino is one of the most expensive places to sleep in Italy, with only a handful of hotels, nearly all of them luxury. The view is built into the price of every drink on the piazzetta, every lounger at Paraggi and every boat you hire. Most visitors sleep in Santa Margherita, Rapallo or Camogli and come over for the day.

Rovinj is expensive for the Croatian coast, and in July and August, rooms near the old town cost what you would pay at any popular Mediterranean resort. Fish is sold by weight, so dinners add up quickly. Still, you can stay in the town itself on a modest budget: rent a private apartment or stay at one of the campsites, buy lunch at a bakery, and come in late spring or September, when it is noticeably cheaper.

There is little live performance in either town, but Rovinj has a bit more of its own. In summer there are classical concerts in St Euphemia and open-air music on the squares, and the bitinada, the local unaccompanied singing linked to the batana boats, is sometimes performed for visitors.

Portofino has only occasional summer events in the piazzetta or at the castle. Its advantage is being close to Genoa, where the Teatro Carlo Felice runs a full season. From Rovinj, the big nights out are the summer concerts in Pula's Roman arena.

The two are very alike here. Neither has a bathing tradition, spas are found only in hotels, and to find calm you have to avoid the crowded middle of the day in high summer.

The difference is in where you find it. In Portofino, the spas belong to a few luxury hotels on the hillside, and the real rest comes from shaded paths and long lunches above the water. Along the Golden Cape, Rovinj's resort hotels have well-equipped pools, saunas and treatment rooms that outside guests can use, and late swims off the rocks in May, June or September set an easy pace.