Bled or Pula?

At the height of summer the water is about equally warm in both places, but Pula has far more of it and a longer season. In Bled you swim from grassy lidos and wooden piers on one small lake, or in the colder water of Lake Bohinj, and the season is over by early September.

Pula has clear Adriatic water off rocks, concrete platforms and pebble coves on Verudela and Stoja, wild inlets all around Cape Kamenjak, and shallow bays at Medulin for small children. Neither has sand, and at Pula you will want water shoes because of the sea urchins.

In Bled the food highlight is kremšnita on a lakeside terrace, and there is not much more. Apart from trout, žlikrofi and hotel dining rooms, the better cooking is in the farm inns out in the valleys or in Ljubljana.

Pula is in Istria, which has one of the most distinctive kitchens on the Adriatic: fuži with truffle, scampi buzara, pršut, Malvazija and Teran from nearby estates, and a market hall to browse. The tables by the Arena lean towards tourist menus too, but a traveller who cares about food has far more to work with here, especially in the family taverns inland.

Pula has far more history to see. Its Arena still stands to its full three storeys and the Temple of Augustus survives on the Forum, while Venetian and Austro-Hungarian buildings and forts add later chapters. It takes a day or two to do justice.

Bled has one lovely set piece rather than a whole city: the cliff-top castle with its small museum, the baroque church on the island reached by pletna boat, and the old spa villas along the shore. It is memorable, but most visitors have seen it all within a day.

Neither is a party destination, but Pula at least has a summer night out: drinks on the terraces around the Forum, beach bars on Verudela and at Medulin, and a few small clubs on warm weekends. Bled has hotel bars and a drink by the lake, goes quiet well before midnight, and sends anyone who wants more to Ljubljana.

This is Bled's great strength. It sits at the gateway to Triglav National Park, with the Vintgar Gorge, the climbs to Ojstrica and Osojnica, Lake Bohinj and the Savica waterfall close by, along with rafting, canyoning, paragliding and winter skiing.

Pula's outdoors is coastal and gentler: cliff paths and dinosaur footprints at Kamenjak, kayaking among the islets, windsurfing at Premantura and diving on wrecks. The nearest real mountains, the Učka range, are about an hour and a half away, and the summer heat makes walking hard in the middle of the day.

Bled makes a handy base for a small country. Ljubljana's old town and Plečnik architecture are under an hour away, and Radovljica, with its medieval centre and beekeeping museum, is just down the road, as are Škofja Loka and the old forging village of Kropa. Longer days take you to the Postojna cave and cliff-hung Predjama Castle, or through the Karawanks tunnel to Villach and the Wörthersee.

Pula has more within easy reach. In about an hour you can be in Rovinj, at the Euphrasian Basilica in Poreč, in the hill towns of Motovun and Hum with their truffle and wine estates, or on a boat to the Brijuni islands. Piran is about two hours by car from either city, the one outing they share, but from Pula you will want a car for most of these.

Both are safe and relaxed with children, but they suit different kinds of family. Bled is about being active outdoors: rowing to the island, ringing the bell, the toboggan run and rope park on Straža, and easy gorge walks. A rainy day there is hard to fill.

Pula is a seaside family trip. It has the shallow bays at Medulin, an aquarium inside an old fort, the Arena's underground passages, and water and dinosaur parks within an hour. The downside is rocky shores, summer heat and more time in the car.

Both have a small centre you can walk, and both need a car for the best of the country around them. Bled is a little better connected, with buses to Ljubljana, Radovljica and Bohinj and two railway stations, one of them on the scenic Bohinj line. The Alpine trailheads and the Vršič pass are still thinly served.

In Pula, city buses reach Verudela and Premantura, but regional buses are infrequent and the inland railway is of little use. Kamenjak and the hill towns really need a car or a scooter.

Bled's shopping amounts to a few lakeside stalls selling honey, lace and painted beehive panels, and anything more means a trip to Ljubljana. Pula is no shopping city either, but you will go home with better things: Istrian olive oil, truffle products, wine, rakija and pršut from the market hall and from producers inland. There is also a pedestrian street of everyday chains.

The two cost much the same, and both are at their most expensive in July and August. Bled charges a premium as Slovenia's best-known resort. You can avoid some of it by staying in Radovljica, Bohinj or at the lakeside campsite, and its main pleasures, the lake path, the viewpoints and the trails, are free.

Pula is better value in spring and autumn, when private apartments and simple konobas keep the cost of a stay down. Car hire and boat trips add up quickly, though.

Pula has one remarkable stage. On summer nights the Arena hosts touring bands, classical galas and the Pula Film Festival under its Roman arches, and the Istrian National Theatre performs year-round in Croatian. Bled has no venue at all, only the odd concert in the castle or a church and folk evenings put on for visitors, so live music there means an evening in Ljubljana.

Bled was made for this. It began as a nineteenth-century health resort under Arnold Rikli, and its large hotels have spas and indoor pools fed by mild springs, which visitors staying elsewhere can sometimes use. A slow walk around the still lake early in the morning does the rest.

Pula has no spa tradition of its own, just the spa areas of the hotels on Verudela and in Medulin. Its restful side is long coffees on the Forum and evening walks on pine-shaded coastal paths, pleasant but not a reason to come in itself.