Belgrade or Kotor?

Neither is a beach town, but Kotor is on the sea and Belgrade is not. In Belgrade, swimming means Ada Ciganlija, a lake on the Sava with long gravel shores and lifeguards, plus the sandier, wilder Lido on Great War Island. Locals go there after work in summer, but it is not a reason to travel.

Kotor's own shore has only jetties and pebble strips in the calm, slightly cloudy inner bay. The Adriatic beaches of the Budva riviera, though, are a short drive away, from the sand at Jaz to the pink pebbles near Sveti Stefan. That gives a choice of real seaside days that Belgrade cannot match.

Belgrade is the better place to eat. Its grill and kafana tradition runs deep and the range is wider: ćevapi with kajmak in Skadarlija, burek for breakfast, two good produce markets, and fruit brandies and Fruška Gora wines taken seriously.

Kotor's strength is seafood from the bay, such as mussels and black cuttlefish risotto, with Njegusi ham and Vranac wine from the hills. But the old town's terraces repeat the same menus at uneven quality, and the better konobas are out along the shore in Dobrota, Prcanj and Perast. In both places, vegetarians and anyone after fine dining will find little.

The two are broadly level here, but different in kind. Kotor is one intact, UNESCO-listed townscape: marble lanes, St Tryphon's Cathedral, the palazzi of seafaring families, and walls zigzagging up to the fortress of St John. It is seen in a day or two and has few museums.

Belgrade is patchier after being destroyed and rebuilt many times, but it covers more ground. There are Kalemegdan's layered walls, the vast Temple of Saint Sava and the Museum of Yugoslavia with Tito's mausoleum, and the architecture runs from Habsburg Zemun to the socialist blocks of New Belgrade.

This is where the two differ most. In Belgrade the nights are a draw in themselves. In summer the splavs moored on the rivers fill up, and in winter the action moves to basement and warehouse clubs. The streets around Strahinjića Bana are packed with bars, and the bigger clubs serve tables by the bottle.

Kotor goes to bed early by comparison. A late drink on a square under the lit walls and a few bars inside the old town in summer is about the extent of it. Anyone wanting a club goes down the coast to Budva.

Kotor's surroundings are on another scale. Limestone walls rise over 1,000m from a fjord-like bay, and the Ladder of Kotor and the fortress path both start at the gates. A hairpin road climbs into the beech woods of Lovcen National Park, and kayaks follow the shore below. Spring and autumn are the times to hike.

Belgrade's outdoors is gentler and flatter, built around its two rivers. There are long promenades for cycling, the heron-filled wetland of Great War Island, the wooded parks of Košutnjak and Topčider, and easy vineyard walks on Fruška Gora an hour north.

From Kotor the outings are closer and more varied. Perast and its island church are twenty minutes away, Herceg Novi and Budva's walled old town are along the coast, and Cetinje lies over Lovcen. Dubrovnik is a long but doable day, so a week can mix sea, mountain and history.

Belgrade has fewer standouts, but one strong day out: Novi Sad and the Petrovaradin fortress, under an hour by fast train, with Sremski Karlovci and the Fruška Gora monasteries nearby for wine and churches. Smederevo and Viminacium add to the list, though most outings need a car or a tour.

Neither is built around children, but Belgrade gives families a bit more to fill the days. Kalemegdan has ramparts to climb, tanks outside the military museum and a small zoo, and in summer Ada Ciganlija adds shallow water, playgrounds and bike hire. Pushchairs struggle on its crowded, uneven pavements.

Kotor's car-free old town is safe, and children love its street cats. Beyond the boat trip to Our Lady of the Rocks and swimming from jetties in the bay, though, there is little for them, and the fortress climb is steep and hot.

Both have a walkable core, but Belgrade's transport reaches further. Trams, trolleybuses and buses cover the whole city, there is no metro, and plentiful, cheap taxis fill the gaps. Traffic slows everything, and the streets up from the rivers are steep.

Kotor's flat, car-free old town takes minutes to cross. Leaving it is the hard part: regional buses run too rarely and the single road around the bay jams in summer. Most visitors hire a car or a driver to see more.

Belgrade has the edge without being a shopping destination. It has the chains along Knez Mihailova, large malls, young designers in Dorćol and Vračar, and markets for ajvar, honey and rakija. Kotor has souvenirs, silver filigree and lace in the old town lanes, and its best buys are edible ones like Vranac and Njegusi ham. For brands, people head to the Tivat marina.

Belgrade stretches a budget further. Grill meals, terrace coffees, rounds of rakija and taxis are all cheap, and the fortress park costs little or nothing, so central accommodation is the main expense.

Kotor is moderately priced rather than cheap. Inside the walls in July and August, hotels and the terraces on the main squares charge resort rates. Staying in Dobrota or Muo and coming in May, June or September brings the cost down.

Belgrade has a real season. There is opera and ballet at the National Theatre, the Belgrade Philharmonic at Kolarac and musicals at Madlenianum. The BITEF and BEMUS festivals fill the autumn, and tamburica bands play in the kafanas most nights.

Kotor has nothing year-round. Its calendar is summer recitals in churches and squares, plus the carnival and the decorated boats of Boka Night, which are worth seeing if your dates match.

Neither is a place to come for spas. Both have only hotel spas, and Serbia's historic spa towns lie hours from Belgrade. Belgrade does have a few day spas, and its calm moments are lake afternoons and long terrace coffees, though the centre is loud and smoky.

In Kotor, rest comes down to timing: quiet early mornings on the water and long village lunches along the shore, while the old town at a summer midday is crowded.