Brasov or Burgas?

This is the widest gap between the two cities. Brasov lies in the Carpathians, several hours from the Black Sea, so swimming there means a hotel pool, the water park or a chilly mountain lake.

Burgas has a long beach of dark, iron-rich sand below the Sea Garden, a short walk from the centre, with calmer stretches at Sarafovo and Kraimorie when the port feels too close. Within an hour you can choose between the little bays of Sozopol and the broad sands of Sunny Beach and Nessebar.

Both cities serve honest, filling regional food without giving you a reason to travel for it. Brasov's cooking is Transylvanian and inland: sour soups, sarmale with polenta, smoked sausages, sheep's cheese and papanasi, eaten in cellar rooms beneath the old merchant houses around Council Square.

Burgas cooks with the sea in mind. Fried sprats, bluefish, turbot and mussels from the gulf, served at plain harbourside places, are the dishes to order, with wine from the Pomorie vineyards alongside. International cooking is thin in both cities, and the beach promenade in Burgas leans towards standard menus aimed at summer visitors.

Brasov has the richer historic centre by some way. You can walk through its walled Saxon centre around Council Square and the great Gothic Black Church with its Anatolian carpets. The bastions and towers along Tampa hill still stand, and the Schei quarter keeps the first Romanian-language school. Together they make a coherent old town.

Burgas is a modern port. Its interest lies in the Sea Garden, a few small regional museums and two outlying sites: St Anastasia Island across the bay and the Roman and Ottoman baths of Aquae Calidae. Each city can be seen in a day or two, but you will fill those days more fully in Brasov.

Neither city stays up very late, and the main difference is the season. In Brasov the evenings happen in cellar bars, craft beer pubs and terraces around Council Square. Students fill them at weekends and skiers add some après-ski noise in winter, so the town ticks over all year.

Burgas is livelier in summer, when the beach bars along the Sea Garden fill up and a few clubs stay open into the small hours. Out of season it goes quiet. Its real advantage is Sunny Beach, forty minutes up the coast, for anyone who wants to dance until dawn.

Brasov is the outdoor destination of the two. Forested Tampa hill rises from the old town, Poiana Brasov lies about 12km up the road for skiing and summer hiking, and the Bucegi and Piatra Craiului ranges, with plateaus above 2,000m, are within an hour. Guided bear watching in the Carpathian forests is something Burgas cannot match.

Burgas's nature is flat and coastal. Four lakes and lagoons lie on the Via Pontica migration route, where storks, pelicans and flamingos gather in late summer and autumn. That makes it excellent for birdwatchers, cyclists and kitesurfers, with the low wooded hills of Strandzha to the south, but there are no mountains to climb.

Brasov has a remarkable range of excursions around it. Bran and Rasnov are within half an hour. The fortified Saxon churches lie at Prejmer, Harman and Viscri, Peles Castle is at Sinaia, and the walled citadel of Sighisoara is a full day out. The villages are much easier with a car or a tour.

The outings from Burgas run along the coast, mainly to UNESCO-listed Nessebar and the wooden old quarter of Sozopol, plus Pomorie's salt museum and Thracian tomb. Varna is within reach, but Plovdiv and the other great inland sites are too far, so the choice is narrower.

Both cities suit children at an easy pace, but in different seasons. Brasov offers small adventures all year: the Tampa cable car, a forest rope park, a water park with indoor pools, the castles at Bran and Rasnov, a bear sanctuary near Zarnesti and sledging in winter. Its cobbles and steep lanes are hard going with a pushchair, though.

Burgas is a summer choice. It is built around warm, gently shelving water, soft sand and the shady playgrounds of the Sea Garden, and the flat centre is easy with a pushchair. Outside summer there is little to keep a family busy.

Both centres are small and easy to walk, so the difference lies in the days out. Brasov's old town can be crossed in a quarter of an hour, and buses run up to Poiana Brasov while trains reach Sinaia and Sighisoara. The castles and trailheads depend on slow, infrequent rural buses.

Burgas is flat, easy to cycle along the seafront and has its airport close to town. Coast buses reach the resorts, but in high summer they fill up and the coast road gets congested.

Neither city is worth choosing for its shopping. In Brasov, Republicii Street mixes chains with Dracula trinkets, painted eggs and embroidered blouses, but the best things to bring home are sheep's cheese, plum brandy and honey. Burgas has pedestrian streets and malls for everyday needs, and its best take-home buys are rose oil, rose cosmetics, Pomorie sea salt and local wine.

The extra costs fall in different places. In Brasov they come from the restaurants on Council Square and lift passes at Poiana Brasov in peak winter. Guesthouses, trains and hearty meals stay cheap, and the Transylvanian countryside costs less again than the old town.

In Burgas the expensive weeks are July and August, when rooms on the coast fill up and cost more, so book ahead for those. Grilled fish, local wine and coast buses are inexpensive all year, and a modest budget goes a long way in either city.

The two stage scenes are similar in size, and neither is a reason to travel on its own. In Brasov the evening most worth planning around is an organ recital under the Gothic vaults of the Black Church, which needs no Romanian at all. The philharmonic and the modest opera company, which keeps to familiar works and operetta, are just as easy for a visitor to follow, but plays at the drama theatre are performed in Romanian.

Burgas puts more of its music outdoors. In summer, festivals bring open-air stages to the Sea Garden and the sand, with orchestral evenings on some nights and big rock and pop crowds on others. Its State Opera adds ballet, which works for visitors who speak no Bulgarian, but spoken theatre is harder to follow. Inland in Strandzha, the nestinari still dance barefoot on embers as part of village custom, not as a show put on for visitors.

Brasov has no bathing tradition of its own. Unwinding there means hotel spas up at Poiana Brasov, the saunas at the water park and the slow pace of a small mountain town. Romania's mineral-spring towns are further out in the Carpathians.

Burgas is the better choice for a restorative stay. Hot springs at its northern edge have been used since Roman times, and the black, salty mud of the Atanasovsko and Pomorie lakes goes into sanatorium wraps or is simply smeared on at the shore and left to dry. For polished spa hotels, look to Pomorie and the larger resorts.