Belgrade or Bratislava?

Neither is a beach destination, but in Belgrade summer swimming is a real part of city life. The gravel shores of Ada Ciganlija, a lake formed from the Sava, stretch for kilometres with lifeguards and shallow warm water. The sandy Lido on Great War Island, reached by boat, is a wilder option.

Bratislava cannot match that, because the Danube there is too fast and too busy with barges to swim in. Bathing means the sandy lake at Zlate piesky, which you can reach by tram, or the Senec lakes half an hour away. Both are fine on a hot afternoon but crowded at weekends.

Belgrade gives a food-minded traveller more to work with. The grill culture of ćevapi and pljeskavica with kajmak and ajvar, kafanas with long menus and live bands, burek for breakfast and mornings at the Kalenić market make eating a central part of the stay.

Bratislava's cooking is simpler farm food: bryndzove halusky, roast duck with lokse and the old Bratislava rolls, and the central squares lean towards tourist menus. Its strength is in the glass, with Small Carpathian Veltliner and Frankovka in the wine bars and beer from small breweries. Vegetarians will find the choice thin in both.

Belgrade has the slightly deeper set of sights, though it is a city of layers rather than a polished old centre. Kalemegdan fortress holds walls from Roman to Austrian times above the meeting of the rivers, and the Temple of Saint Sava is vast. The Museum of Yugoslavia, with Tito's mausoleum, tells a story that Bratislava has nothing to match.

Bratislava's centre is more intact and more compact. You can walk the baroque Old Town, St Martin's coronation cathedral and the castle above them in a day, and the cliff-top ruins of Devin make a short outing. It is prettier street by street, but there is less to see.

This is the widest gap between the two. In Belgrade the nights are a reason to go. In summer, splavs moored along the Sava and Danube play everything from turbo-folk to house until dawn, in winter the action moves into basements and old industrial spaces, and all year the bars of Dorćol spill onto the pavements. At the big clubs people book a table and order by the bottle, so dress up.

In Bratislava, going out means a handful of Old Town streets of pubs, wine bars and cocktail bars. They are loud at weekends with students and stag groups and quiet midweek. It makes a good pub crawl, but there is hardly any club scene.

The two are close here, and the difference is rivers against hills. Belgrade's outdoors is flat and watery: long promenades on the Sava and Danube, the protected wetland of Great War Island with its herons, and rowing and wakeboarding at Ada Ciganlija. Fruška Gora's gentle vineyard walks are about an hour north.

Bratislava has woodland on its doorstep. Trails climb from Koliba through beech forest to Kamzik and on along the Little Carpathian ridge, Devinska Kobyla has steppe meadows and wide views, and the flat Danube cycle route runs into Austria. The whitewater course at Cunovo adds rafting, which Belgrade does not have.

Bratislava has the stronger set of excursions, mainly because Vienna is about an hour away by train or a pleasant boat ride. Add the wine route through Svaty Jur, Pezinok and Modra, the churches of Trnava, and Carnuntum, Lednice-Valtice and Pannonhalma across three borders, and you could fill a week of days out.

Belgrade's best outing is Novi Sad and its Petrovaradin fortress, under an hour by fast train, which combines well with Sremski Karlovci and the Fruška Gora monasteries. Smederevo, Viminacium and Oplenac are rewarding too, but most of them need a car or a tour.

Neither city is built around children, and the two come out about even, with different strengths. Belgrade has more to do: ramparts, tanks and a small zoo at Kalemegdan, and an easy summer day in the shallow water at Ada Ciganlija. But heavy traffic and pavements crowded with parked cars make it hard work with a pushchair.

Bratislava is smaller and quieter. The Old Town is mostly pedestrian, with bronze statues to spot, and there are the chairlift and playgrounds at Kamzik, a hillside zoo and the Senec water park. Its options run out sooner, but it is easier with toddlers.

Bratislava is the easier city to get around. Almost everything a visitor wants is within a twenty-minute walk, and one ticket covers the trams, trolleybuses and buses out to Kamzik, the zoo and Devin.

Belgrade's centre is walkable too, but the streets climb steeply from the rivers, and Zemun and New Belgrade lie across the Sava. Its trams and buses are crowded, slowed by traffic and hard for a visitor to work out, so most people rely on cheap taxis and ride-hailing. Neither city has a metro.

Belgrade's best buys are local rather than branded. Young designers keep small boutiques in Dorćol and Vračar, the Kalenić and Zeleni Venac markets sell honey, ajvar, rakija and cheese to carry home, and the shops around Kalemegdan stock opanci leather shoes and embroidered textiles. Knez Mihailova and the big malls cover the familiar chains.

Bratislava gives a browser less, mostly Old Town souvenir shops and riverside malls. Its one real find is the state folk-craft centre, with genuine Modra majolica, lace and blue-print cloth, and a bottle of Small Carpathian wine makes the best gift. Luxury fashion is thin in both, so neither city works as a shopping trip.

Belgrade makes a budget go further. Grill meals, coffee on a terrace and rounds of rakija are cheap, taxis can be used freely and the fortress park costs little or nothing, so only central rooms and the smarter river clubs push spending up.

Bratislava is also good value by Western standards, with cheap beer, public transport and weekday pub lunches. But restaurants on the main Old Town squares and in the riverside complexes charge closer to Western prices, and rooms get dearer on busy summer weekends.

Both capitals have a national theatre staging opera and ballet and a philharmonic in a historic hall, but Belgrade has more on and more character. Besides the National Theatre and the Kolarac hall, the Madlenianum in Zemun adds musicals, the BITEF and BEMUS festivals fill the autumn, and kafana bands play tamburica at the tables.

Bratislava offers a polished evening at the Slovak National Theatre on Hviezdoslav Square or at the Reduta, with tickets easy to get, best from autumn to spring. Music in bars is small-scale, and for a major international programme visitors go to Vienna.

For unwinding, Bratislava is the gentler choice. It moves at an unhurried pace for a capital, and the beech-forest paths above town are quiet on weekdays. Neither city has thermal baths of its own, but from Bratislava they are easy to reach: the Senec water park is half an hour away, and the mud and sulphur-water cures of Piestany are about an hour by train.

Belgrade asks for energy rather than giving you rest. The centre is loud, nights run late, smoking is common indoors, and the historic spa towns are several hours to the south. Its calm comes in smaller doses, from long coffees on a terrace or a slow afternoon by the lake on Ada Ciganlija or along the Danube promenade.