Bratislava or Karlovy Vary?

Neither city is a place to swim, but Bratislava has the slightly better option. Zlate piesky has a sandy shore you can reach by tram and warm water in July and August, and the bigger Senec lakes are half an hour away. In Karlovy Vary the nearest real lake is Lake Medard, a flooded mine near Sokolov, so most swims there are in the warm, spring-fed outdoor pool.

Bratislava eats and drinks better, mostly because of its wine. The Small Carpathian vineyards begin at the edge of the city, and local Veltliner, Riesling and Frankovka come with sheep's-cheese dumplings, roast duck with lokse and beer from small breweries that brew on the premises.

Karlovy Vary's cooking is narrower: Czech roasts and dumplings in the pubs, and international menus aimed at hotel guests on the promenade. What it does have is warm spa wafers from the colonnade stalls, Becherovka distilled in town and a good café-and-cake habit.

Karlovy Vary has the stronger sight, because the whole town is the attraction. Pastel tiers of Belle Époque hotels and bathhouses fill the Teplá valley, the colonnades frame the springs and the Vřídlo throws hot water several metres into the air. Its museums are small and specialised.

Bratislava offers history on a national scale instead. St Martin's Cathedral, where Hungarian kings were crowned, the castle museum, the Primate's Palace, the Slovak National Gallery and the ruins of Devin above the rivers tell a longer story, though the setting is less of a piece. Each takes a day or two.

For a night out, Bratislava is far ahead. On Fridays and Saturdays the Old Town's pubs, wine bars and cocktail bars stay loud and full until late, helped by students and visiting groups, though it is a pub crawl rather than a club scene.

Karlovy Vary goes to bed early. A hotel bar, a casino or a quiet glass of wine is the usual evening, and the only time the valley really parties is the week of the film festival.

The two are close here, with green, gentle country rather than drama. Bratislava's outdoors is shaped by the river. There are floodplain forests, the flat Danube cycle route into Austria and whitewater rafting at Cunovo, and beech-wood trails climb the Little Carpathians towards Kamzik.

Karlovy Vary's forest starts right at the edge of the spa quarter, with graded old paths up to the Diana tower and on into the Slavkov Forest moors. It also has the edge in winter, with skiing around Klínovec in the Ore Mountains, while the Ohře gives easy canoeing in summer.

Bratislava is the better base. Vienna is about an hour away by train or boat, and Austria, Hungary and Moravia are all close, from Carnuntum's Roman ruins to the chateaux of Lednice-Valtice. Wine towns such as Modra and Pezinok are closer still.

Karlovy Vary's outings are more local but good. Loket's castle in its river loop is twenty minutes away, the sister spa towns of Mariánské and Františkovy Lázně are about an hour, and Plzeň and Cheb are within reach. Prague, though, is a long day of about two hours each way by coach.

Both are safe and calm, and both run short of things for children after a few days. Bratislava's are more ordinary family outings: the hillside zoo, playgrounds and a chairlift around Kamzik, bronze statues to spot in the Old Town and the water park at Senec.

Karlovy Vary's appeal for children is novelty: watching the geyser, sipping warm spring water from spouted cups, and riding the funicular to the Diana lookout and its animal enclosure. Its steep valley sides are harder going with a pushchair.

Both centres are easy to explore on foot. They differ in shape. Bratislava's sights lie within about twenty minutes of each other, trams and trolleybuses reach Devin and the lakes, and the lack of a metro only slows longer trips across the river.

Karlovy Vary is a long, narrow strip along the river, with steep climbs that buses and the funicular help with. Its links to the outside are weaker, with slow regional trains and coaches to Prague, while Bratislava has direct trains to Vienna.

Karlovy Vary has more worth buying. Moser crystal comes from the firm's own showroom, Karlovy Vary porcelain from the factories nearby, and Bohemian garnets and jewellers and boutiques line Stará louka for wealthy spa guests.

Bratislava's best finds are Small Carpathian wine and genuine folk craft such as Modra majolica and blue-print cloth from the state craft centre. Beyond those it is mostly chain stores in riverside malls, and serious fashion shopping means a train to Vienna.

Costs are much the same in both, and the advice is the same too: eat a street back from the showpiece spots. In Bratislava the main squares and the riverside glass complexes cost more, while beer, transport and museums elsewhere stay cheap.

Karlovy Vary costs more than ordinary Czech towns, and the colonnade restaurants and grand spa hotels charge for the setting. Strolling the colonnades and tasting the springs costs nothing, and staying outside summer and festival week keeps rooms affordable.

Bratislava offers the fuller evening. The Slovak National Theatre stages opera and ballet in its ornate house on Hviezdoslav Square, the Slovak Philharmonic plays in the Reduta, and tickets are easy to get. An autumn music festival and a long-running jazz festival add to the season.

Karlovy Vary has the charm of the old spa orchestras. Its symphony orchestra plays light classical programmes, sometimes outdoors on the colonnades, and the Fellner and Helmer theatre hosts operetta and touring drama. It makes a pleasant evening rather than a programme to plan a trip around.

This is where Karlovy Vary is in a different league. Thirteen springs feed the colonnades for the centuries-old drinking cure, and sanatoria offer carbonated baths, peat wraps, massages and medical consultations, several with pools of warm spring water. Booking a proper spa stay is the way to get the full experience.

Bratislava has no thermal baths of its own, only hotel spas and quiet riverside cafés. A soak means a trip out to Senec or the spa town of Piestany.