Tunis or Valletta?

Tunis has the longer sandy strands, at La Marsa and Gammarth out along the TGM line, and they are where local families spend summer weekends. The water near the port and the lagoon is poor, though, and the really good beaches at Hammamet are an hour's drive away.

Valletta gives you cleaner, clearer sea right under the city walls, reached by ladders off flat limestone ledges. Golden Bay, Mellieha Bay and St Peter's Pool are easy bus rides away. The sand is limited and crowded in August, but for simply getting into good water, Malta is better.

The two are close, but they feed you differently. Tunis is about heat and street eating: harissa, brik with its runny egg, lablabi for breakfast and the fish and spice stalls of the Marché Central. Its best sit-down meals are seafood in La Goulette, and alcohol stays on the margins.

Valletta is gentler, with Sicilian and British influences. You get pastizzi at the counter, rabbit stew and lampuki pies in autumn, and wine bars tucked along stepped streets. Tourist menus are common on the main streets, so the better fish is out at Marsaxlokk.

Both cities offer a rich set of sights, but in different forms. Tunis is a city of layers: the UNESCO medina around the Zitouna Mosque, the French boulevards beside it, the Bardo's Roman mosaics and the scattered remains of Carthage, which take some imagination. Seeing it properly takes several days.

Valletta is a single, coherent creation, a Baroque grid built by the Knights after 1565, with Caravaggio in St John's Co-Cathedral and the Three Cities just across the harbour. It is more polished and compact, and two or three unhurried days are enough.

Neither city stays up late in its centre, but Valletta gives you more to do after dark. Strait Street's wine bars and the outdoor tables on the side-street steps make for an easy, mixed evening. Paceville's clubs, half an hour away, run until dawn in summer for anyone who wants noise.

In Tunis, evenings mostly mean coffee and shisha in cafés. The downtown beer bars are mostly male and rough. The relaxed, mixed scene is limited to the summer lounges and beach clubs of La Marsa and Gammarth, and out of season there is very little.

Valletta has the stronger outdoor offer, and almost all of it is in the sea. The clear water around Malta makes diving the main draw, with wrecks and caves close to shore, Gozo's Blue Hole, and boat trips into the Blue Grotto. On land there are only short cliff walks at Dingli.

Tunis has a softer setting of lagoons where flamingos feed and short climbs on Bou Kornine above the bay. Further afield, Ichkeul's wetlands and the slopes of Djebel Zaghouan are worth the trip for birdwatchers and walkers, but trails and outfitters are few.

Both make excellent bases, but the trips differ in scale. From Tunis the outings are longer and more varied: Roman Dougga on its hillside, the holy city of Kairouan, Andalusian Testour and Nabeul's potteries. Several of them take about two hours each way and are easier with a driver or a louage.

From Valletta everything is close. Mdina and Rabat are half an hour away, the prehistoric temples stand above the southern cliffs and Gozo is a ferry ride off. The trips are short and easy, but they all share one island character.

Valletta is the easier place to bring children. English is spoken, distances are short and the aquarium, Popeye Village and the shallow northern bays are all within reach. The noon cannon at the Upper Barrakka Gardens is a reliable hit, although the stepped streets defeat pushchairs.

Tunis is just as welcoming to children in cafés and souks, and Carthage's open ruins and Belvedere Park are fun. The city itself offers little else for them, and heavy traffic and broken pavements wear families down, which is why many choose a coastal hotel instead.

Valletta is far simpler to get around. The walled city is about a kilometre long and easy to cover on foot, a lift and short ferries link it to the harbour towns, and buses from the city gate reach nearly the whole island, though slowly on congested roads.

Tunis does have the one thing Malta lacks, a railway. The TGM crosses the lagoon to Carthage, Sidi Bou Said and La Marsa, and taxis are cheap. Away from those lines, though, chaotic traffic, uneven pavements and summer heat make getting about tiring.

Tunis is the better place to shop, because its medina is a working market. The souks are still partly grouped by trade, with chechia makers, perfumers, kilims and brass, and Nabeul ceramics and Sidi Bou Said birdcages are classic finds. Going deeper into the lanes, and bargaining cheerfully, pays off.

Valletta's Republic and Merchant Streets are mostly high-street chains and jewellers. Silver filigree, Gozo lace and blown glass from Ta' Qali are good souvenirs, but they are a short list rather than a reason to come.

Tunis costs far less. Street food, taxis, train rides, museum entry and restored medina guesthouses are all cheap by Mediterranean standards. Only the smart Gammarth hotels, imported drinks and organised tours approach European rates.

Valletta is mid-priced, and rooms inside the walls cost more than elsewhere on Malta, especially in summer. Pastizzi and buses are cheap, but central restaurants and museum entries add up, and staying in Sliema is the usual way to save.

The two are not far apart, and both rely on festivals, but Valletta has slightly more going on. Its Manoel Theatre, dating from 1731, is worth a visit for the gilded auditorium alone. The Philharmonic, the winter baroque festival, harbour jazz and the rival opera houses on Gozo give it a broader classical calendar.

Tunis offers something Malta cannot. You can hear malouf in Baron d'Erlanger's palace at Sidi Bou Said, and the Carthage International Festival holds summer concerts in the Roman theatre. Between these events, live performance is thin in both cities.

Tunis has a real bathing culture behind it. There is serious thalassotherapy at the Gammarth resorts, plain and steamy neighbourhood hammams in the medina, and the Roman-era hot springs of Korbous on Cap Bon. The city itself is noisy, so the calm is found around its edges.

Valletta has no spa tradition, only pleasant hotel spas. Its restful side is the quiet after the cruise crowds leave, with golden light on the limestone and the Barrakka Gardens above a still harbour.