Sardinia or Tuscany?

Sardinia has the stronger and more varied coast. Pale granite coves in the northeast, white pebble bays under the Orosei cliffs and the shallow, wadeable water at La Pelosa and Chia give it many more first-rate beaches. The swimming season also lasts a little longer into autumn.

Tuscany's best swimming is on Elba and along the pine-backed Maremma shore at Cala Violina and Feniglia. Versilia is mostly long sand covered in rows of beach-club umbrellas. If you stay in Florence or the hill towns, the beach becomes a day out rather than the point of the trip.

Both kitchens are rooted in the land, but Tuscany gives a food lover more to work with. Wine is the big draw: Chianti Classico, Brunello in Montalcino and Vino Nobile in Montepulciano, with cellar visits and estate lunches along the way. Florence adds lampredotto from street carts, the San Lorenzo and Sant'Ambrogio markets and classic Oltrarno trattorias.

Sardinia's cooking is the more unusual of the two. It is shepherd food, such as suckling pig roasted over myrtle wood, pane carasau and culurgiones, and it is best at the long set menus of agriturismi in the hills. Outside Cagliari's Marina quarter the choice soon thins, and the resort strips serve a lot of generic food.

Tuscany has one of Europe's great collections of art and architecture. Compact Florence holds the Uffizi, the David and Brunelleschi's dome. Siena's Campo, Pisa's cathedral square, Lucca's walls and the towers of San Gimignano are all close, and a week barely scratches the surface.

Sardinia's heritage is older and stranger. It has Bronze Age nuraghi such as Su Nuraxi, the Mont'e Prama stone giants in Cagliari's archaeological museum and the seaside ruins of Nora and Tharros. It is worth the effort for curious travellers, but the sites are scattered and you need a car to link them.

Neither is a place to travel for nightlife, and in both the summer action moves to the coast. Sardinia's big nights are at the dressy, expensive beach clubs around Porto Cervo in July and August. Cagliari's Marina quarter and Alghero's ramparts are better for a quieter drink.

Tuscany's version is the long-running dance halls and beach clubs of Versilia near Viareggio. Florence adds a year-round student crowd on the Santo Spirito steps and in Oltrarno wine bars, which makes it the easier place of the two for a night out in a city.

Both are excellent outdoors, in very different ways. Sardinia is wilder and more rugged, with the limestone Supramonte, the Gorropu gorge, sea-cliff climbing and kayaking from Cala Gonone, and diving in the Maddalena marine park.

Tuscany's best-known landscape is farmland: cypress-lined lanes, vineyards and the rolling Val d'Orcia, ideal for gentle cycling and walking from one hill town to the next. For harder walking, the Apuan Alps and the Casentino forests are there in the north.

Tuscany is made for day trips. From Florence or Chianti, Siena, Pisa, Lucca and San Gimignano are all easy to reach. Bologna, the Cinque Terre, and Assisi and Orvieto in Umbria are just over the border.

In Sardinia, what you can reach depends on where you stay, and the drives are slow. The ferry to Bonifacio in Corsica, a loop through Alghero and Bosa, and the Barbagia villages all make good days. The places are small, though, and no single base covers them all.

Both work well for families, but the trips look different. Sardinia is the simpler beach vacation. Chia, Costa Rei and La Pelosa have shallow, sandy water, and resort villages come with pools and children's clubs. The days revolve almost entirely around the sea.

Tuscany suits a split stay: a farmhouse with animals and a pool, then a lifeguarded lido on the Versilia or Maremma coast. It also has more for children on land, from the Pinocchio park at Collodi to cycling on Lucca's walls, though Florence's galleries test young children's patience.

Tuscany is the easier of the two without a car. Florence is walkable, and regional trains link it to Pisa, Lucca, Arezzo and Viareggio. Chianti, the Val d'Orcia and the Maremma still need a car.

In Sardinia you need a hire car almost everywhere. Trains are few, buses rarely reach the beaches, and the mountain and coastal roads take longer than the map suggests. Many of the Orosei coves and the Maddalena islands can only be reached by boat, and flying into the airport nearest your base saves hours.

Tuscany offers far more for shoppers. In Florence there are leather workshops around Santa Croce, goldsmiths on the Ponte Vecchio, bookbinders in Oltrarno and the luxury houses of Via de' Tornabuoni. Volterra adds alabaster and Montelupo ceramics.

In Sardinia, shopping mostly means crafts and food to take home: coral from Alghero, Pattada shepherd's knives, filigree gold and bottarga. Porto Cervo's summer boutiques are its only real fashion scene.

Both are expensive in high season, and each has a famously pricey stretch: the Costa Smeralda in Sardinia and Forte dei Marmi in Tuscany. In Sardinia, prices depend most on the month. Car hire, ferries and rooms climb steeply in August, while Alghero, the Ogliastra coast and the inland agriturismi stay moderate.

In Tuscany, central Florence and the villas of Chianti raise the bill from spring to autumn. Trattoria meals and wine bought at the cellar door are reasonable, and Lucca, Arezzo and the Maremma cost noticeably less.

Tuscany has much more to attend. Florence's Maggio Musicale Fiorentino has its own opera house and orchestra, Lucca holds Puccini recitals all year, and his operas are staged outdoors every summer at Torre del Lago. Siena's Accademia Chigiana and Lucca's summer concert series add more in the warmer months.

Sardinia's strength is tradition rather than a full programme. Canto a tenore and launeddas pipes can be heard at village festivals, and there are the Sant'Efisio procession and the Time in Jazz festival at Berchidda. Apart from Cagliari's Teatro Lirico, there is little to book for most of the year.

Tuscany is the better choice for a restful trip, because hot springs run through its countryside. There are the open-air terraced pools at Saturnia, the medieval bath at Bagno Vignoni and the grand spa town of Montecatini Terme. A farmhouse stay in the Val d'Orcia adds the slow days.

Sardinia is restful because of its pace rather than its waters. It has Roman springs at Fordongianus and spa centres at the big resorts, but its real calm is in the quiet agriturismi and the villages of Ogliastra in late spring and September.