Split or Venice?

Split is much the better place to swim. The water is clear, you can walk from the old town to the shallow sandy bay at Bačvice or the pine-shaded coves around Marjan, and ferries reach longer beaches on Brač and Hvar. Most of the shore is pebble or concrete, though, and the city beaches are crowded in midsummer.

Venice has plenty of sand along the Lido, which faces the open Adriatic, and its shallow water suits small children. But the sea is greenish rather than clear, much of the beach is set out in private cabanas, and most visitors give it a single afternoon.

Both cities cook from the sea, and neither offers much beyond its own regional food, so the difference is in how you eat. In Split the best meals are sit-down dinners in the konobas of Varoš: grilled fish, pašticada, or octopus baked under the peka, with a glass of Plavac Mali or Pošip.

Venice is better for grazing. You move between bacari near the Rialto and in Cannaregio for cicchetti and a spritz, and save cuttlefish risotto and lagoon shellfish for a proper meal. In both cities, skip the menus aimed at visitors around the main sights.

Split has one extraordinary sight in Diocletian's Palace, a Roman complex that people still live in, where the cathedral was once the emperor's mausoleum. The Meštrović Gallery on Marjan is a fine extra, but beyond that two days covers the city.

Venice is on another scale: the whole city is the monument. Inside it are the Accademia, Titian at the Frari, Tintoretto at San Rocco, the Doge's Palace and two collections of modern art. Even after a week, some churches will be left unseen.

In summer, Split gives you a real night out. Bars spill into the palace alleys, and the beach bars and clubs around Bačvice stay open into the early hours, though the scene shrinks sharply from October.

In Venice the evening peaks at aperitivo time along the Fondamenta della Misericordia and around the Rialto, and a few student bars on Campo Santa Margherita stay busy later. After midnight the canals go quiet, which makes for a lovely walk but disappoints anyone who wants to dance.

Split has mountains and open sea close at hand. There are forest trails on Marjan a short walk from the old town, ridge hikes on Mosor and Kozjak, Biokovo above Makarska, rafting in the Cetina canyon, and Krka's waterfalls an hour to the north. Sailing and kayaking among the islands cover the water.

The outdoors in Venice means the lagoon, which is quieter and flat. You can watch herons and flamingos in the marshes around Torcello, take a rowing lesson or cycle along the sea walls of Pellestrina. Real hills are an hour away, and the Dolomites are further still.

Both make strong bases, but Venice has the richer surroundings. Fast trains reach Padua in half an hour and Vicenza and Verona within about an hour and a quarter, and the lagoon islands of Murano, Burano and Torcello need only a vaporetto ride.

Day trips from Split rely on buses and ferries. Trogir and Šibenik have UNESCO-listed centres, Roman Salona and Klis Fortress are close by, and you can spend a day on Hvar, Brač or Vis. These trips are easy in summer but take more planning when the ferries run less often in winter.

Neither city has much built for children, but Split is easier day to day. Bačvice is shallow enough for paddling, Marjan has shade and room to run, and a ferry to one of the islands is often the highlight. The main drawback is the heat in July and August.

Children often love Venice for its boats instead of buses, the glass-blowing on Murano and the sandy shallows of the Lido. Practically, it is harder work, with stepped bridges everywhere for a pushchair, crowded routes and few playgrounds, so short stays with older children work best.

Split's centre is compact, and its transport meets in one place. The palace, the Riva, Varoš and Bačvice are about fifteen minutes' walk apart, and the ferry port, bus station and railway station all sit together on the harbour, so getting to the islands or Trogir is simple. Within the city the local buses are basic, and you will want a car for mountain trailheads and inland trips.

Venice is a larger maze with no roads at all, so you either walk or go by water. The walk can take forty minutes through alleys that end at canals, and the vaporetto is slow on the main lines but reaches the Lido, Murano and Burano. Traghetto gondolas cross the Grand Canal between the bridges. Arriving by train at Santa Lucia is easy, but pulling a suitcase over the stepped bridges is not.

Venice gives you a real reason to shop: Murano glass, Burano lace, papier-mâché masks, marbled paper and furlane slippers from workshops in Dorsoduro and Castello, plus the big fashion names on Calle Larga XXII Marzo. The trick is to avoid the imported imitations sold along the main routes.

Split offers much less, mostly souvenirs, lavender and the chain stores on Marmontova. Its best buys are things to eat and drink: figs, honey, brandy, wine and olive oil from the Pazar market.

Split costs noticeably less. In high summer, rooms near the old town are expensive and fish sold by weight adds up, but bakeries, the market, buses and the palace sights are cheap, and outside July and August the city is modestly priced.

Venice is expensive for most of the year. Central hotels, water buses priced for visitors, entry charges at churches and café tables on Piazza San Marco all push up the bill. You save mainly by eating cicchetti standing at the bar, sleeping in Mestre or coming in winter.

Venice has the stronger stage. La Fenice runs a full season of opera, ballet and concerts, the Biennale adds festivals of contemporary music, theatre and dance, and Vivaldi is played in churches most evenings, though the standard varies.

Split's Croatian National Theatre puts on opera and ballet during the season, and the Summer Festival stages performances in the Peristyle. Its own sound is klapa, unaccompanied harmony singing in the palace vestibule, but outside summer there is little on.

Split's form of rest is fjaka, the Dalmatian habit of unhurried idleness: hour-long coffees on the Riva, an empty old town in the afternoon heat and the pine woods of Marjan. It works best in May, June and September. In midsummer the palace stays loud late into the night, and for real quiet you are better off on one of the islands.

Venice offers a different calm: the hush of a city without traffic, at its best early in the morning in Castello, Cannaregio or on Giudecca. For a real spa day it is better placed. The thermal pools and hot mud of Abano Terme and Montegrotto, used since Roman times, are about an hour away near Padua.