Positano or Zadar?

Both towns live by the sea from June to September, and the water is clear and similarly warm in both. In Positano the beach is right under the town: Spiaggia Grande is a steep curve of dark sand and pebbles lined with loungers, Fornillo is a cliff walk away, and boats run to coves along the coast.

Zadar's town swimming is plainer: stone promenade, concrete platforms and pebbles at Kolovare and Borik. Its best sand lies further out, at Nin's shallow beaches and Sakarun on Dugi Otok. So Positano gives you the beach on your doorstep, while in Zadar the best swims take a short trip.

Neither town is a destination for food, and both serve a short list of coastal dishes. Positano's meals are about the setting: clams, scialatielli and lemon desserts on a terrace over the sea, with a few hotel dining rooms aiming higher, though many kitchens shut over winter.

Zadar has more everyday eating. There is the fish and produce market by the walls, lamb or octopus cooked under the peka, Pag cheese and pršut, and Maraschino, the cherry liqueur the city made famous.

Here Zadar is well ahead. In Positano the sight is the town itself, its houses stacked up the ravine around the majolica dome of Santa Maria Assunta, plus the painted Roman villa beneath the church. A morning covers it all.

Zadar fills two days. Its walled peninsula has the Roman forum, the round Church of St Donatus, the UNESCO-listed Venetian fortifications and the Land Gate. Small but good museums of ancient glass and archaeology add to that, as do the Sea Organ and the Greeting to the Sun on the waterfront.

Zadar offers more after dark, though neither is a party town. Positano's evenings are aperitivo with a view and a long dinner. A few bars near the beach and a dressy club in a cave at the end of Spiaggia Grande make up most of the scene, and it fades once the season ends.

Zadar's summer nights begin at sunset by the Sea Organ and move on to café-bars along Kalelarga and terrace bars on the walls. For real clubbing, Zrće on Pag is about an hour away.

Both are excellent for the outdoors, but in different ways. Positano's landscape is the more concentrated drama. The Lattari mountains fall straight into the sea, the Path of the Gods runs past the town's own upper hamlet, and kayaks follow the cliffs to grottoes and the Li Galli islets.

Zadar is a base for a much wider spread of landscapes: Paklenica's gorges and climbing routes, sailing among the bare Kornati islands, Telašćica's salt lake, and the waterfalls of Krka and Plitvice. Most of these need a car or a boat to reach.

Positano has the stronger list. Amalfi, Ravello and Capri are all a ferry ride away, Pompeii and Herculaneum can be reached via Sorrento, and the temples at Paestum make a longer outing. Ferries mostly stop out of season, though, and the coast road is slow.

Zadar's outings are good but more spread out. Šibenik's hillside old town is about an hour away, Nin is close by, and Split and Trogir make long days. Most of these trips work best with a hire car or an organised excursion.

Zadar is much the easier town with children. Positano is built of stairs, so pushchairs are no use, and its beaches shelve quickly. There is nothing for children beyond the sea and boat trips, which suits older children better than toddlers.

Zadar's old town is flat and car-free, and its promenade suits scooters. Children love the Sea Organ and the tiles that light up after dark, and Nin's shallow sandy beaches are ideal for small swimmers.

Getting about takes far less effort in Zadar. In Positano every short walk means hundreds of steps, one local bus loops the upper road, coast buses crawl in summer, and ferries from the main beach, mostly in season, are the easiest way out.

You can walk across Zadar's peninsula in a quarter of an hour on level paving, and ferries to the islands leave from its edge. Only the national parks and the wider coast really call for a car or an organised excursion.

Positano wins here because it has a style of its own. Its lanes sell moda Positano linen and printed resort wear, sandals made to measure, ceramics and lemon soaps, though it is all one look.

Zadar's shopping is mostly about local products: Maraschino, Pag cheese and lace, olive oil and figs from the market by the walls. Kalelarga has jewellers and chain stores for everything else.

The gap is widest in where you sleep. In high summer a sea-view room in Positano costs more than in most European capitals. In Zadar a private apartment is good value outside July and August, although rooms on the peninsula climb steeply in high season. Eating follows the same split: every terrace in Positano charges for the view, while Zadar's konobas and bakeries stay fair and only the main old town streets push prices up.

The ways to save also differ. In Positano you sleep somewhere else, in Praiano or Sorrento, come in by bus or ferry, and aim for May or October. In Zadar you can stay in town and simply avoid the peak months, and cheap ferries and buses keep getting around inexpensive. In both places boat trips are where the bill grows, and in Zadar national park entry adds to it.

Neither town offers much, but Zadar has more on its own doorstep. Positano has only occasional summer concerts in churches and squares. For more, you travel to Ravello's terrace festival or to Naples for opera.

Zadar's Musical Evenings in St Donatus bring early and chamber music to the ninth-century church each summer. Add klapa singing in the squares and a small national theatre staging Croatian drama.

Positano is the more pampering place to unwind. Its upscale hotels have spas and pools cut into the cliff, and a slow terrace afternoon over the sea is a restorative pleasure in itself, though the crowds and stairs of high summer wear on you.

Zadar's spas are mostly hotel ones at Borik, plus the mud of the lagoon at Nin. Its calm comes instead from long café mornings and the sunset ritual on the Sea Organ steps.