Pula or Sorrento?

Pula has much more coastline to swim from. Its pine-shaded rocks, platforms and pebble coves wrap around the Verudela and Stoja peninsulas, and Kamenjak adds dozens of wild inlets where you can always find a ledge to yourself. Bring water shoes for the urchins.

Sorrento sits on a cliff, so swimming mostly means climbing down a ladder from a wooden lido pier at Marina Piccola or Marina Grande into deep, clear water. Much of the space is paid and crowded in high summer. The rocks at Bagni della Regina Giovanna are the natural alternative, and for a real pebble beach you need a bus or a boat.

The two eat equally well, but they are very different kitchens. Pula's is Istrian: truffle-sauced fuži and pljukanci, scampi buzara, pršut, and Malvazija or Teran from estates just inland. Its best meals tend to be in hinterland village taverns rather than in town.

Sorrento cooks Campanian classics such as gnocchi alla sorrentina, fish all'acqua pazza, fresh fior di latte and pizza from the Naples tradition, with lemons in almost everything. The hill villages on the peninsula also offer some celebrated fine dining, which Pula does not match. Both centres have plenty of tourist menus.

Pula has the bigger draw within the town itself. The Arena still stands with its full three-storey outer ring, the Temple of Augustus survives intact on the Forum, and the Arch of the Sergii, the hilltop fortress and the Habsburg naval forts add further layers. Together they make a solid day or two of sightseeing.

Sorrento's own sights are quieter: the cloister of San Francesco, the Museo Correale's Neapolitan collections and the ruined mill at the bottom of the Vallone dei Mulini. Most of the area's great heritage sites lie outside the town.

Neither is a place for a big night out, but Pula has a little more going on in summer. Beach bars and cocktail bars on Verudela and around Medulin stay open late at weekends, and a few small clubs attract young Croatians.

Sorrento's evenings are older and gentler, with the passeggiata on Corso Italia, a drink on a terrace over the bay and piano bars playing Neapolitan songs. A livelier night in Naples or on Capri means staying over, because the last trains and ferries leave early.

Sorrento's landscape is far more dramatic. The peninsula is a steep limestone ridge of lemon and olive terraces facing Vesuvius, and its trails reach Punta Campanella and the protected bay of Ieranto. The Path of the Gods, the beech woods of Monte Faito and the crater rim of Vesuvius are all within a day out.

Pula's southern Istria is low, stony and gentle. Kamenjak is good for walking and cycling, and it adds windsurfing, kayaking and wreck diving. The nearest proper hiking is in the Učka range, about an hour and a half away.

Both are good touring bases, but Sorrento's surroundings are in another league. Pompeii is about half an hour away on the Circumvesuviana, Capri is under an hour by ferry, and Naples, Herculaneum, Positano, Amalfi and Ravello are all easy to reach without a car.

From Pula the highlights are Venetian Rovinj, the Byzantine mosaics of Poreč, the hill towns of Motovun and Hum, and the Brijuni islands. Because buses are sparse, most of these work best with a car.

Pula is easier with children because the sea suits them. The bays around Medulin are shallow and sheltered, the aquarium sits in a fort on Verudela, and climbing around the Arena makes Roman history fun. Within an hour there are also a dinosaur park and a water park.

In Sorrento the welcome is warm, but swimming is off piers into deep water and many hotels sit on steep lanes without pavements. Boat trips to Capri and Pompeii's ruins appeal to older children more than to toddlers.

Both centres are small and flat enough to walk. Sorrento has the edge once you leave town, because the Circumvesuviana and the ferries let you skip a car altogether, crowded and delay-prone as the trains can be.

In Pula, the city buses cover Verudela and the road towards Premantura, but Kamenjak, the hill towns and most of the coast really call for a car or a scooter.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Sorrento has more local craft to browse. On Via San Cesareo you will find intarsia boxes and trays, sandals made to measure while you wait, linen and cameo jewellery alongside all the limoncello.

Pula's best buys are things to eat and drink: Istrian olive oil, truffle products, honey and rakija from the market hall or straight from the producers. Its main street is otherwise high-street chains and souvenirs.

Pula is the cheaper stay in every season. In July and August its rooms rise towards Western European coastal rates, but Sorrento's summer peak is steeper still, with a sea view, a lido sunbed and a terrace table each adding to the day. Away from midsummer, both towns ease off, and a private apartment and a simple konoba in Pula leave more of the budget free than a quiet-season room in Sorrento.

The two bills also grow in different places. In Pula, car hire and boat trips to Brijuni or round Kamenjak make up much of the spending. In Sorrento, trains and buses are the cheap part, and the money goes on where you sleep, where you lie by the sea and on a private boat to Capri.

Pula has the more memorable stage. In summer the Roman Arena hosts touring concerts, classical galas and the Pula Film Festival screenings, and the Istrian National Theatre carries on through the rest of the year in Croatian.

Sorrento offers tarantella and Neapolitan song shows put on for visitors, plus chamber concerts in the cloister of San Francesco. For opera you go to the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples.

Sorrento is the more restful choice. Clifftop hotel spas look over the bay, lemon groves and villa gardens set a slow pace, and the thermal gardens of Ischia are a ferry ride away.

Pula's options are mostly the spa areas of large resort hotels on Verudela and in Medulin. Its calm comes instead from pine-shaded coastal paths and quiet days in the countryside outside high summer.