Sarajevo or Sorrento?

On this point there is no contest. Sarajevo is an inland mountain city, and in summer the swimming means cold rivers, the lake at Jablanica and pools. Anyone who wants the sea has to add days on the Croatian or Montenegrin coast.

Sorrento has no sandy beach of its own either, but the sea is right below the cliff. You swim from the lido piers at Marina Piccola and Marina Grande or from the rocks at the Bagni della Regina Giovanna, and pebble coves are a bus or boat ride away. It gets crowded in high summer, and much of the shore belongs to the paid lidos.

The two are equally strong for food, but in different ways. Sarajevo's cooking is narrow and hearty: ćevapi grilled in Baščaršija, burek sold by weight, lamb cooked under a metal lid, and the long ritual of Bosnian coffee with rahat lokum.

Sorrento has the wider range, from gnocchi alla sorrentina and fish cooked all'acqua pazza to dairy cheeses from the hills, Neapolitan pizza and celebrated fine dining in the peninsula villages. You have to skip the tourist menus around Piazza Tasso to eat well there, while in Sarajevo even the simplest grill is usually reliable.

Sarajevo gives far more to see in town. In a few walkable streets you pass the Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque, the Orthodox and Catholic cathedrals, the Old Synagogue, the Latin Bridge of 1914 and the striped City Hall. The Tunnel of Hope and the War Childhood Museum add the weight of the 1990s siege.

Sorrento's old grid of lanes, its cathedral, the cloister of San Francesco and the Museo Correale make a pleasant day or two. The region's great culture, Pompeii and Naples, lies beyond the town itself.

Sarajevo is the livelier place after dark. Café-bars around Ferhadija fill from the afternoon, and students keep cellar bars and small clubs going past midnight at weekends, with drinks cheap throughout. It is sociable rather than wild, though.

Sorrento's evenings are a passeggiata on Corso Italia, a terrace drink over the bay and perhaps a piano bar, and most of the year the town goes quiet early. With the last trains and ferries leaving in the evening, a big night in Naples or on Capri means staying over.

Both are excellent for the outdoors, one in the mountains and one on the coast. From Sarajevo, the cable car climbs Trebević past the old Olympic bobsleigh track, and Jahorina and Bjelašnica offer winter skiing and summer ridge hiking, with the shepherds' village of Lukomir above the Rakitnica canyon.

Sorrento has limestone terraces dropping into the sea, the trail to Punta Campanella facing Capri, the Path of the Gods and the crater rim of Vesuvius, plus kayaks and boats among the grottoes. Choose Sarajevo for snow and wild uplands, and Sorrento for coastal walking with the sea always in view.

Sorrento is one of the best bases anywhere for excursions. Pompeii and Herculaneum are a short train ride away, Capri is under an hour by ferry, and Positano, Amalfi, Ravello and Naples's archaeological museum are all easy to reach, often by sea.

Sarajevo has one outstanding trip, the scenic train down the Neretva gorge to Mostar, with Konjic, Blagaj and Počitelj along the way, plus Travnik and the bridge at Višegrad. The roads are slow and winding, so most of these trips need a car or a tour.

Neither is built around children, and both make up for it with warm locals and a flat centre that is easy with a pushchair. In Sarajevo, the outings are the Trebević cable car, carriage rides to the streams of Vrelo Bosne, the small zoo and gentle winter skiing, but the war-themed sights, steep hillsides and winter smog work against it.

Sorrento's draws are boat trips to Capri, Pompeii and gelato, but the swimming is into deep water from piers and rocks, and the outlying hotels sit on lanes without pavements. Families with small children usually pick a hotel with a pool.

Both have compact centres that are easy to cover on foot. The difference shows when you leave them. Sarajevo's old tram runs along the valley floor from Baščaršija to Ilidža, and cheap taxis cover the steep slopes and the airport.

From Sorrento you rely on the crowded Circumvesuviana train, buses that crawl along the Amalfi hairpins and ferries, which are often the most comfortable choice. A car is more of a hindrance than a help in either place for the town itself.

Neither is a shopping destination, and both rest on crafts. Sarajevo has the coppersmiths hammering coffee sets on Kazandžiluk, plus kilims, slippers and filigree in the Bezistan.

Sorrento offers intarsia boxes, sandals made to measure and cameos among a lot of lemon-themed souvenirs, and Capri's boutiques are close if you want fashion.

Sarajevo costs far less. Street food, coffee, museums, trams and central hotels are all well below Western European levels, and prices only climb a little in the Old Town and during the summer film festival.

Sorrento is a resort on a coveted coast, and sea-view rooms, lido sunbeds and boat trips are expensive in summer. Cheap trains and fair-priced trattorias help, and going in spring or late autumn cuts hotel costs a good deal.

Sarajevo has more on stage. The National Theatre stages drama, opera and ballet, the Philharmonic plays regularly, MESS brings international theatre in autumn and a jazz festival comes in November. In small venues you can hear sevdah, the city's melancholy love songs.

Sorrento mostly offers Neapolitan song and tarantella shows for visitors and summer concerts in the San Francesco cloister. For real opera you make the trip to the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples.

Sorrento is slightly the more restful of the two, thanks to cliff-top hotel spas, pools over the bay and quiet villa gardens, with Ischia's seaside thermal gardens an hour away by ferry. It is best in spring and autumn, away from the summer crowds.

Sarajevo has real thermal water at Ilidža, at the end of the tram line, and calm walks at Vrelo Bosne. Its historic hammam no longer works as a bath, though, and winter smog takes the edge off a relaxing stay.