Brasov or Varna?

Swimming barely features in Brasov. The choice is a hotel pool, the water park or a chilly mountain lake, and a beach means a separate trip to the coast.

In Varna, the beach is the main summer draw. Lifeguarded sand runs right along the city front, wider beaches line the resorts 10km to 20km north, and the shallow water warms well in July and August. Quieter sand lies towards Balchik or past Kamchia.

Neither city is a reason to travel for food on its own, but the cooking is quite different. Brasov serves hearty Transylvanian food shaped by Romanian, Saxon and Hungarian kitchens: sour soups, sarmale with polenta, smoked sausages and papanasi, eaten in cellar dining rooms around Council Square.

Varna eats from the sea. Fried sprats, farmed mussels and turbot come with shopska salad and crisp Black Sea whites. Its best seafront kitchens are a summer affair, whereas Brasov's old-town cellars suit a cold evening.

Brasov offers a whole medieval townscape. The Saxon streets around Council Square, the great Gothic Black Church with its Anatolian carpets, and surviving bastions and gates along the walls make the centre itself the sight. The Schei quarter adds the story of the town's Romanian side.

Varna's highlights are fewer and more scattered. The Necropolis gold in the Archaeological Museum, around six thousand years old, is remarkable, and the Roman Thermae are substantial. Between them, though, the streets are a mix of nineteenth century houses and socialist blocks. Either city takes a day or two to see.

Varna has the bigger night out, but only in summer. From June to September, beach clubs below the Sea Garden run DJ terraces until dawn, and Golden Sands adds a louder party strip a short taxi ride north.

Brasov is low-key all year. It has cellar bars, craft beer pubs and terraces around Republicii Street, a few student clubs and some après-ski noise in winter. Out of season, the two towns are much alike for an easy drink.

Brasov is a mountain town. Tampa hill rises straight from the walls, Poiana Brasov sits about 12km up the road for skiing or summer biking, and the Bucegi and Piatra Craiului ranges are within an hour, with plateaus above 2,000m. Its forests hold a large brown bear population that you can watch from hides.

Varna's outdoors is gentler. It has shaded paths in the Sea Garden, the odd stone columns of Pobiti Kamani and the floodplain forest of the Kamchia. Its finest scenery is the red cliffs of Cape Kaliakra, where dolphins are often seen, but there is nothing for serious hikers.

Brasov has the richer choice, and much of it is close. Bran Castle and the peasant fortress at Rasnov make an easy pairing about half an hour away, and the fortified churches of Prejmer and Harman sit just outside the city. Peles Castle at Sinaia is about an hour over the mountains. Sighisoara's walled citadel, around two hours away, fills a full day, and the UNESCO-listed village of Viscri, further out still, is a longer outing for its fortified church and painted farmhouses.

Varna has fewer outings, and they are more spread out. Balchik's palace and terraced gardens are about 40 minutes north, Nessebar's peninsula of medieval churches is an hour and a half south, and the Madara Rider, Pliska and Preslav make an inland day into Bulgaria's early history. In both regions, the villages and smaller sites are far easier by car or with a tour.

Both are easy, small-scale places for children, but the days look different. In Brasov, families take the cable car up Tampa, try the forest rope park, visit castles and the bear sanctuary near Zarnesti, and go sledging in winter, though the cobbles are hard work with a pushchair.

Varna puts everything in the Sea Garden: the zoo, aquarium, planetarium and playgrounds are all a stroll from lifeguarded beaches. The flat promenade makes pushchairs easy.

Both centres take about a quarter of an hour to cross on foot, so a city stay needs little transport in either. The difference is getting out. Brasov's buses run up to Poiana Brasov and its trains reach Sinaia and Sighisoara.

In Varna, the buses to the northern resorts are crowded in summer and signed in Cyrillic, so most visitors use the cheap taxis instead.

Shopping is plain in both cities, with high-street chains on a pedestrian main street and malls further out. What you bring home differs. Brasov's markets have sheep's cheese, plum brandy, honey and embroidered blouses, while Varna sells rose oil cosmetics, linens and Bulgarian wine and rakia.

Both are cheap by European standards, and a stay goes a long way in either. The costly moments come at different times. In Brasov, prices rise on Council Square and for ski passes in peak winter. In Varna, room rates jump in July and August, so June or September gives better value.

Varna has slightly more to offer, mainly in summer. The Varna Opera fills a grand theatre on the main square, the Varna Summer festival brings classical music, theatre and jazz, and the long-running International Ballet Competition comes to the city in some years.

Brasov's highlight is an organ recital in the Black Church, which feels special in that setting. Beyond that, it has a philharmonic, a small opera company and open-air concerts on Council Square.

Brasov offers comfort rather than a cure. Its spa time happens in hotels, many of them up at Poiana Brasov, where a sauna and pool make a natural end to a day on the slopes or the trails, and the water park in town has pools and saunas for a wet afternoon. For mineral water you would have to go deeper into the Carpathians, to Romania's older spa towns.

Varna has what Brasov lacks, which is thermal water under the city itself. The springs that once fed the Roman baths still supply the resorts just north, so a treatment day at St Konstantin and Elena, about 10km out, or at Golden Sands is a short ride rather than an excursion. Even on the seafront, people stop at taps that run with warm mineral water.