Belgrade or Vienna?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Belgrade offers the better summer swim. Ada Ciganlija has about 7km of gravel beaches on a shallow, lifeguarded lake, with cafés and sports courts, and locals pour in after work. The sandy Lido on Great War Island, reached by boat, is the wilder alternative.

Vienna's swimming is spread along the Danube Island's grassy banks and the old lidos of the Alte Donau, which make a pleasant afternoon and are easy to reach by U-Bahn. The reedy Neusiedler See, an hour away, adds sailing rather than a better beach.

Belgrade eats generously and simply, around the grill. You get ćevapi and pljeskavica with kajmak and ajvar, burek for breakfast, long kafana menus in Skadarlija and Zemun, and fruit brandies taken seriously. The range thins quickly for vegetarians or anyone after refined cooking.

Vienna has the deeper and more distinctive table. Schnitzel and Tafelspitz come in wood-panelled Beisl taverns, there is a whole pastry tradition, the grand coffee houses are an institution, and Heuriger taverns pour wine grown inside the city. Neither city is strong on international or street food.

Belgrade's sights are worth seeing but limited. Kalemegdan's layered fortress above the meeting of the rivers is the highlight. Beyond it there are the gold-mosaic Temple of Saint Sava, the Museum of Yugoslavia with Tito's mausoleum, and a patchwork of Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman and socialist streets left by repeated rebuilding.

Vienna is a different scale altogether. It has the intact imperial capital of the Hofburg, Schönbrunn and the Ringstrasse, a UNESCO-listed old town around St Stephen's, and collections such as the Kunsthistorisches Museum's Bruegels and Klimt's The Kiss at the Belvedere. Jugendstil adds a second great period. Vienna easily fills a week, while Belgrade is done in two or three days.

This is Belgrade's strongest card. Nights start late and end at dawn, on splavs moored along the rivers in summer and in basement clubs and old industrial spaces in winter. Dorćol's bar streets spill onto the pavement, and a kafana night of rakija rounds at a long table is an outing in itself. Bottle service and sharp dress are normal at the bigger clubs.

Vienna goes out more quietly. There are bars under the Gürtel railway arches, the Bermuda Triangle in the old town, deckchair bars on the Danube Canal and slow evenings at a Heuriger. Its one unique offer is the winter ball season in the palaces, which is formal rather than wild.

Belgrade's outdoors is shaped by its two rivers. Promenades follow the Sava and Danube for kilometres and are good for a long walk or a bike ride. Great War Island is a protected wetland where herons and cormorants feed within sight of the fortress. For woodland there are the parks of Košutnjak and Topčider and the hill at Avala, and Fruška Gora, about an hour north, has gentle hiking among vineyards. Serbia's grander scenery, such as the Iron Gates gorge, is too far away for a comfortable day.

Vienna has wilder and more varied country on its doorstep. The beech-covered Vienna Woods begin at the city's edge, with marked trails climbing through vineyards to the Kahlenberg for views over the Danube. The Donau-Auen national park protects floodplain forest that you can explore by boat or on foot. Cyclists have the classic ride along the Wachau, and the Rax and Schneeberg put real Alpine plateaus within about 90 minutes.

Belgrade's best outing is Novi Sad and its Petrovaradin fortress, under an hour by fast train. You can pair it with baroque Sremski Karlovci and the Fruška Gora monasteries for a day of churches and wine. Smederevo's medieval fortress and Roman Viminacium lie down the Danube, but most of these need a car or a tour.

Vienna offers more choice and makes it easier. Bratislava is about an hour away by train or boat, and the Wachau valley has the abbey at Melk and the ruins at Dürnstein. Closer in are Klosterneuburg, Heiligenkreuz, the spa town of Baden and Haydn's Eisenstadt, nearly all reachable by rail.

Belgrade welcomes children warmly, and families eat out late together without fuss. Kalemegdan's ramparts, tanks and small zoo make a good afternoon, and Ada Ciganlija's shallow water works in summer. Beyond that little is built for children, and heavy traffic and crowded pavements make pushchairs hard work.

Vienna is far better set up. It has Schönbrunn Zoo beside a maze and a children's museum, the Prater's Ferris wheel and rides, the Haus des Meeres aquarium, and the Natural History and Technical Museums plus ZOOM for rainy days. Its trams are easy to use with prams.

In both cities the main sights are within walking distance, but Vienna's compact, largely pedestrian old town is flat, while Belgrade climbs steeply up from the rivers. Beyond the centre the gap widens. Belgrade relies on crowded trams, trolleybuses and buses with no metro, so most visitors fall back on cheap taxis, agreeing a metered fare first.

Vienna's five U-Bahn lines, dense tram network and single ticket take you to Schönbrunn, the Danube Island and even the vineyard villages, with trains through the night at weekends.

Belgrade is a city for browsing rather than a shopping trip. Knez Mihailova and the riverside malls cover the chains, and the better finds are young designers in Dorćol and Vračar and food gifts such as honey, ajvar and rakija from Kalenić market.

Vienna offers more, and at a higher quality. Luxury houses line the Graben and Kohlmarkt, Mariahilfer Strasse handles everyday fashion, and Neubau's side streets have independent designers. Its crafts, from Augarten porcelain and crystal to Loden coats, make lasting gifts, and the Christmas markets add a seasonal reason to come.

Belgrade is much the cheaper city, and you notice it most in the small spending that fills a day. A long kafana dinner, burek from a bakery or an afternoon of terrace coffees costs far less than it would further west, so the daily total stays low. The gap closes at bedtime. A room in Dorćol or near Knez Mihailova costs about what it would in a Central European city, not what it would elsewhere in Serbia, and the clubs on the river and the international kitchens are the dearer end of a night out.

Vienna is dearer for almost everything, but rooms are the smaller jump. For a city of its standing they are fair, as long as you avoid the winter balls and the Christmas market weeks. It gives some of that back in other ways: one pass covers the U-Bahn and trams for a whole stay, and the parks, palace gardens and church interiors cost nothing to enter.

Belgrade has a respectable calendar. The National Theatre stages opera and ballet, the Philharmonic plays at Kolarac, and the BITEF and BEMUS festivals fill the autumn. Its most characterful music is the tamburica bands playing at the kafana tables in Skadarlija and Zemun.

Vienna is one of the world's music capitals. The State Opera stages a different work on most nights, with cheap standing places, and the Vienna Philharmonic plays in the Musikverein's Golden Hall. Add the Konzerthaus, the Volksoper, the Burgtheater and the Boys' Choir, and the city where Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert worked can fill every evening of a stay.

Belgrade is a city to enjoy with energy rather than to rest in. It has no bathing culture, only hotel spas, and the centre is loud, smoky indoors and up late. Its calm moments are long terrace coffees and an afternoon by the lake at Ada Ciganlija.

Vienna slows you down without effort. There are unhurried coffee-house afternoons and walks in the palace gardens, and thermal water is easy to reach: the pools of Therme Wien, the Art Deco Amalienbad and the sulphur springs of Baden about half an hour out.