Bled or Rovinj?

Rovinj is the better place to swim, simply because it has the sea. Several kilometres of limestone ledges, pebble coves and bathing platforms run south into the Golden Cape, the water is very clear, and boats go to the islands of St Catherine and Red Island. It has no sand, though, and you will want water shoes.

Bled offers lake swimming: grassy lidos below the castle cliff, shallow water at Velika Zaka, and the swim out to the island. The water is pleasant in midsummer, but the season is shorter, and the main alternative is the colder Lake Bohinj.

Rovinj belongs to the Istrian food region, and it shows. There is grilled fish, scampi buzara, fuži with truffle, peppery olive oil and Teran wine, plus country konobas worth the drive. Harbour menus can be touristy, but a week of good meals is easy.

Bled is much thinner. The custard kremšnita by the lake is the one famous dish, and beyond that it is mostly hotel dining rooms, pizzerias and inns serving trout and žlikrofi. For the best meals you head out to the valley farm inns.

Neither town is a museum destination, but Rovinj gives you more to look at. Its whole old town is the sight: pastel Venetian houses climbing a former island to St Euphemia's bell tower, with the lanes of Grisia and the Balbi Arch along the way. The Batana House adds a local maritime story.

Bled has a handful of memorable set pieces: the cliff-top castle with its small museum and printing workshop, the pletna boat to the island church and its wishing bell, and the old spa villas along the shore. Most people have seen it all in a day.

Rovinj at least gives you an evening out. There are sunset drinks on the rocks, cocktail and wine bars along the waterfront, and a couple of places to dance in high summer, though it goes quiet out of season. Bled has a terrace drink and a walk along the lit shore, no clubs at all, and anyone after more has to go to Ljubljana.

This is Bled's great strength. It has the Osojnica viewpoint over the island, the green river in the Vintgar Gorge, the Savica waterfall, the Pokljuka pastures and multi-day hut routes in Triglav National Park, with rafting on the Sava, paragliding, and cross-country and downhill skiing in winter.

Rovinj's outdoors is gentler and centred on the sea. You can cycle the gravel paths of the Golden Cape, kayak or dive around the archipelago, take a boat up the Lim Fjord, and ride quiet roads through vineyards and red earth. It is pleasant, but there are no peaks and no real wilderness.

Both towns make good bases, but the trips you take from each are quite different. From Bled you can reach a whole small country: Ljubljana in under an hour, medieval Radovljica, the Postojna cave and Predjama Castle, and Austrian lakeside towns through the Karawanks tunnel.

From Rovinj the trips are Roman and Venetian. You have Pula's amphitheatre, the mosaics of the Euphrasian Basilica in Poreč, the hill towns of Motovun and Grožnjan among the truffle woods, and the Brijuni islands. Both can reach Piran, but most of Istria needs a car.

Bled has the edge with children who enjoy being active. They can row out to the island and ring the bell, swim from the shallow lidos, ride the toboggan and try the rope park on Straža, and the flat lake path suits pushchairs. Wet days are hard to fill, though.

Rovinj has big resort campsites with pools and the shady Golden Cape, but the shore is sharp rock and the cobbled old town is steep, which is tiring with small children.

Getting around is much the same in both: easy on foot in town, harder beyond it. Bled has the advantage of rail, with Lesce-Bled on the main line, the scenic Bohinj line, and buses to Ljubljana, but the trailheads and passes really need a car.

Rovinj's old town is closed to cars and taxi boats run to the islands, but there is no railway, so you rely on buses or a car for the hill towns and wineries.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Rovinj gives you more to browse. Artists' studios and small galleries line Grisia, and there are truffle products, olive oil, wine and lavender to take home. In Bled you will find little more than a few lakeside stalls selling honey, lace and painted beehive panels.

Both are the expensive resort of their country, but Bled is the easier of the two on the wallet. Many of its best things, such as the lake path, the viewpoints and the trails, cost nothing, and staying in Radovljica or Bohinj cuts costs further.

Rovinj charges Mediterranean resort prices in July and August, and fish sold by weight adds up quickly. Apartments, campsites and a trip in late spring or September help.

Live performance is scarce in both, and Rovinj has slightly more. In summer there are classical concerts in St Euphemia, music on the harbour, and the local bitinada singing, and Pula's Roman arena hosts big concerts close by. Bled offers only occasional castle or church concerts and folk evenings, so for opera or theatre you go to Ljubljana.

Bled has the longer tradition of rest. It grew up as a nineteenth-century health resort around Arnold Rikli's air and sun cures, and lakeside hotels warm their pools with mild springs. Early walks around still water add to the calm.

Rovinj relies on its resort hotel spas and a slow rhythm of long lunches and late swims in the pines, which is at its best in May, June and September. In high summer the crowded centre makes calm harder to find.