Venice or Zadar?

Zadar is the better place to swim. The water is clear, people swim straight off the stone promenade, and Nin's shallow sand and the pale beach at Sakarun on Dugi Otok are easy to reach. The city beaches themselves are pebble and concrete.

Venice's sea is at the Lido, with kilometres of fine sand and shallow, warm water. But the water is greenish and much of the beach is set out in rows of cabanas. It works for a hot afternoon with children, not for a beach vacation.

Venice eats better, as long as you avoid the picture menus around San Marco. Cicchetti and a spritz at a bacaro counter, then cuttlefish risotto or bigoli in salsa made with produce from the Rialto market, give more variety than anything in Zadar.

Zadar's Dalmatian cooking is good and honest: grilled fish, octopus or lamb cooked under the peka, Pag cheese and a glass of Maraschino. The trouble is that most konobas serve the same menu, so after a week the dinners start to repeat.

This is where the two cities differ most. All of Venice is palaces and churches on water. It has the Basilica of San Marco, the Doge's Palace and the Accademia, Titian in the Frari and Tintoretto at San Rocco, plus the Biennale, and a week does not exhaust it.

Zadar has a fine, compact old town, with the Roman forum, the round church of St Donatus and the Sea Organ, and good small museums such as the Museum of Ancient Glass. It makes a rewarding two days, but it adds interest to a coastal stay rather than filling one.

Neither city is for a big night out, but Zadar stays out later. In summer, evenings start at sunset by the Sea Organ and move on to terrace bars on the walls, and the clubs at Zrće on Pag are about an hour away.

Venice is liveliest at aperitivo time, in the bacari around the Rialto and along the Fondamenta della Misericordia, and Campo Santa Margherita keeps a few students out later. By midnight the canals are silent, which is lovely for a walk but not for much else.

Zadar wins easily. Paklenica's limestone gorges and climbing walls are about 45 minutes away, boats go out to the Kornati and Telašćica, and Krka's waterfalls and Plitvice Lakes make day trips inland.

In Venice the outdoors means the lagoon. You can kayak or row among the marshes around Torcello to watch egrets and flamingos, and cycle the sea walls of Pellestrina. It is gentle and flat, and the mountains are a long way off.

Venice is the better base for day trips, mainly because of the trains. Padua, Vicenza and Verona are each an easy day out without a car, and Murano, Burano and Torcello are a short boat ride away.

Zadar has good choices too: Šibenik's cathedral, medieval Nin and the islands by ferry, with Split and Trogir further off. Most of them, though, are much easier with a hire car or an organised excursion.

Zadar is easier with children. The old town is flat, the waterfront promenade suits pushchairs and scooters, the Greeting to the Sun lights up at dusk, and Nin's shallow sandy beaches are ideal for small children.

Children love Venice's boats and the absence of cars, and the glass furnaces on Murano and the beach at the Lido help. But the stepped bridges, packed summer alleys and lack of parks make it harder work, and it is best as a short stay with older children.

Neither centre has cars and both are walkable, but Venice has the fuller transport network. Vaporetti run along the Grand Canal and out to the Lido and the islands, and trains arrive right in the city at Santa Lucia. The many stepped bridges make luggage and pushchairs hard going.

You can walk across Zadar's flat peninsula in a quarter of an hour, and the island ferries leave from its edge. Beyond that the buses are basic, so for the national parks and nearby towns you really need a car or an organised tour.

Venice has much more to buy. Its crafts go back centuries: Murano glass, Burano lace, papier-mâché masks, marbled paper and furlane slippers. The big fashion names line Calle Larga XXII Marzo, but the main routes are full of cheap imitations to avoid.

In Zadar, shopping means Kalelarga and the market by the walls. The best things to take home are food and drink, such as Pag cheese, figs, olive oil and Maraschino, and Pag lace is the one craft worth looking for.

A stay in Venice costs far more than one in Zadar. Rooms in the historic centre are expensive, especially in summer and at carnival, the water buses are priced for visitors and most churches and sights charge for entry. Cicchetti at a bar counter and a bed in Mestre or a quieter sestiere bring costs down, but not to Zadar's level.

In Zadar the usual stay is a private apartment, which is good value outside July and August. Konoba meals are fair, and ferries and local buses cost little. The extras are what add up: national park tickets and boat trips out to the islands.

Venice has a full season of performances. La Fenice, where Verdi and Rossini premiered works, stages opera, ballet and concerts, the Biennale adds festivals of contemporary music, theatre and dance, and church concerts of Vivaldi run most evenings.

Zadar's highlight is the summer series of Musical Evenings in St Donatus, with early music in a ninth-century church, and in July and August you may hear klapa singing in the squares. Outside summer there is little on.

Neither city has a bathing tradition of its own, so both rely on hotel spas, in grand palazzi in Venice and in the resort area at Borik in Zadar. The alternatives differ. From Venice, the thermal pools and hot mud of Abano Terme are about an hour away, while Zadar has the mud lagoon at Nin.

The calm is different too. In Venice it means quiet early mornings in Castello or on Giudecca, away from the crowds. In Zadar it means a slow day with a siesta and the sunset from the steps of the Sea Organ.