Bratislava or Cesky Krumlov?

Neither town is a swimming destination, but Cesky Krumlov has the better lake within reach. Lipno is a large reservoir in the Bohemian Forest with grassy and sandy shores, roughly half an hour's drive south, though its water stays cool even in midsummer.

Bratislava's Zlate piesky is smaller and gets crowded at weekends. On the other hand, a tram goes there and the water is warmer in high summer, so it is the easier choice for a quick swim without a car.

Bratislava eats better, mainly because of its wine. Small Carpathian Riesling and Frankovka are poured in Old Town wine bars, and brewpubs serve halusky with sheep's cheese and roast duck with lokse, with poppy-seed rolls from old bakeries to follow.

Cesky Krumlov's South Bohemian roasts, trout and game taste good in a vaulted cellar, and the local beer has been brewed in town for centuries. The choice is narrower, though, and more of it is aimed at day-trippers.

Cesky Krumlov is the stronger sight. The whole town is the attraction: painted Renaissance facades in a tight bend of the river, a huge castle with the three-tiered Cloak Bridge, and a rare working Baroque theatre. The Egon Schiele centre in the old brewery adds modern art.

Bratislava's Old Town is just as easy to cover on foot, but it holds fewer sights and is a smaller historic core inside a larger modern city, so the old lanes soon give way to newer streets. Its best story is the coronation route from St Martin's Cathedral, and its twentieth-century layer, the Most SNP bridge and the Slovak National Gallery, is something Krumlov does not have.

This is one of the sharpest differences between the two. Bratislava's Old Town turns loud and late on Friday and Saturday, with pubs, wine and cocktail bars side by side, a few clubs and summer terraces by the Danube. Stag groups are part of the weekend crowd.

Cesky Krumlov has no clubs at all. A few cellar bars and riverside terraces keep going after dinner in summer, and out of season the lanes are empty early.

Cesky Krumlov puts you closer to proper countryside. A canoe trip down the Vltava starts in town, the Bohemian Forest's spruce woods and peat bogs begin half an hour away, and in winter there is cross-country skiing.

Bratislava's outdoors is more of a city's back garden. Beech-wood trails climb from Koliba to Kamzik, steppe meadows cover Devinska Kobyla, and the flat Danube cycle route runs through floodplain forest, with whitewater rafting at Cunovo for something livelier.

Bratislava has the better list of excursions, and Vienna alone, an hour by train or a boat ride up the Danube, makes the difference. Add the wine and majolica villages of Modra and Pezinok, Roman Carnuntum, Lednice-Valtice and Pannonhalma, and three countries are within easy reach.

Cesky Krumlov's trips are good but stay closer to home: arcaded Ceske Budejovice and its Budvar brewery, Hluboka's white castle, Holasovice and the fish-pond spa town of Trebon. Most are much easier with a car.

Both towns are safe, small and easy for a few days with children, but they appeal in different ways. Bratislava has more to do: a zoo, the chairlift and playgrounds at Kamzik, statue-spotting in the pedestrian Old Town and the thermal water park at Senec.

Cesky Krumlov feels more like a storybook, with bears in the castle moat, a tower to climb and a gentle family raft trip. Its steep cobbled lanes are hard going with a pushchair.

Bratislava is easier to get around. The sights are within a twenty-minute walk, and one ticket covers the trams, trolleybuses and buses out to Devin, the zoo and the lakes. Frequent trains reach Vienna and the Slovak towns. Without a metro, though, longer trips across the river take time.

Cesky Krumlov's old town takes a quarter of an hour to cross on foot, over cobbles and uphill. Beyond Ceske Budejovice, public transport thins out, so the forest and the smaller castles usually mean hiring a car or joining a tour.

Bratislava has a little more range. The state folk-craft centre sells genuine Modra majolica, lace and blue-print cloth, the riverside malls cover everyday needs, and Small Carpathian wine is the best thing to take home.

Cesky Krumlov is almost all souvenirs: Bohemian glass, garnets, marionettes and green moldavite, plus a few ceramics workshops. It has no fashion streets and no department stores.

The two cost about the same, and both are good value by Western European standards, with cheap local beer and moderately priced hearty meals. The extra costs fall in different places. In Bratislava, the restaurants on the main squares and in the glass complexes by the Danube charge more.

In Cesky Krumlov, the extra cost comes from rooms with castle views, restaurants on the main lanes and paying separately for each castle tour. Staying off-centre or coming outside summer helps.

Bratislava has the deeper programme. From autumn to spring the Slovak National Theatre stages opera and ballet in its old house on Hviezdoslav Square and its modern hall by the river, and the Philharmonic plays in the Reduta, with tickets easy to come by. The autumn music festival and a long-running jazz festival add highlights. In summer the main stages are quieter and live music shrinks to small bar gigs.

Cesky Krumlov is the reverse. Its performances happen mainly in summer, with plays and opera in the revolving open-air theatre in the castle garden and a long-running festival of classical concerts in the castle and churches. From autumn to spring there is very little to attend.

Neither town has thermal baths of its own, but Bratislava is closer to good ones. The Senec water park is half an hour away and the historic mud and sulphur cures of Piestany are an hour by train. In town, the Danube embankment and quiet forest paths offer an unhurried pace.

Cesky Krumlov offers a few hotel wellness rooms and beer baths, with Trebon's peat baths as a day out. Its real draw for relaxing is the stillness of the old town after dark.