Bratislava or Krakow?

Neither city is a swimming destination, and both send bathers to inland water in high summer. Bratislava has a little more of it: the sandy shore at Zlate piesky on a tram line and the larger Senec lakes for a weekend afternoon.

Krakow's version is the Zakrzowek quarry, striking with its turquoise water and cliffs but swimmable only in fenced areas, so most visitors fall back on pools and the indoor water park.

Both cook hearty farm food built on dumplings, cabbage, roast duck and potato pancakes, but Krakow eats better on the whole. Its pierogi, zurek in a bread bowl, cheap milk-bar lunches, street-cart obwarzanek and late-night zapiekanki at Plac Nowy give a visitor more to explore, and a craft beer scene and flavoured vodkas fill out the drinking.

Bratislava's strength is narrower but real: Veltliner, Riesling and Frankovka from vineyards at the city edge, poured in wine bars and rarely found abroad. Beyond bryndzove halusky and the old bakeries' poppy-seed rolls, the choice thins, and finding a good meal takes more effort.

Krakow is in a different league here. Its medieval centre survived the war almost intact, and Wawel, the vast Main Market Square, St Mary's Basilica, Kazimierz, the Schindler Factory museum and Leonardo's Lady with an Ermine add up to two or three full days.

Bratislava's Old Town is attractive but small: the coronation cathedral of St Martin, the Primate's Palace, the Blue Church, the castle museum and the ruins of Devin. It is a pleasant day or two rather than a reason to travel on its own.

Krakow goes out harder and on more nights of the week. Brick cellar bars under the Old Town run past midnight, and Kazimierz adds shabby-chic bars, vodka bars and crowded courtyards with plenty of character.

Bratislava's scene is a handful of Old Town streets of pubs, wine bars and cocktail bars, loud on Fridays and Saturdays but quiet midweek. Both draw stag groups at weekends; in Krakow they are easier to escape by crossing to Kazimierz or Podgorze.

Krakow has the wider reach: Ojcow's limestone pinnacles and caves half an hour north, and real alpine hiking in the Tatras or rafting the Dunajec gorge about two hours away. Close to town, the Planty, Blonia meadow and Wolski Forest are gentle.

Bratislava's outdoors start closer to the door, with beech-wood trails from Koliba up to Kamzik, steppe meadows on Devinska Kobyla, Danube floodplain forests and a flat cycle route into Austria. The hills stay modest and the mountains are far off.

Both are excellent bases, but in different ways. Bratislava's draw is breadth across borders: Vienna about an hour away, the Small Carpathian wine villages and Cerveny Kamen close by, and Carnuntum, Lake Neusiedl, Lednice-Valtice and Pannonhalma in Austria, the Czech Republic and Hungary.

Krakow's is two landmark visits that many people come to Poland for: the Wieliczka salt mine and the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial. Zakopane, Wadowice, Czestochowa and the wooden churches of the countryside add more, all within Poland.

Bratislava's quirky bronze statues on Old Town corners turn a stroll into a spotting game, and the forest park around Kamzik adds playgrounds, a chairlift and a tower. The hillside zoo, the Zlate piesky lake in summer and the Senec water park fill the rest, in a city that is calm and safe but used up within two or three days.

Krakow keeps children busy for longer. Below Wawel a metal dragon breathes fire by the Vistula, the Dragon's Den cave can be explored, and the car-free Main Square has horse carriages and street performers, with an indoor water park open all year. The salt mine suits older children, and Energylandia is about an hour away by car. The drawbacks are cobbles that are hard on pushchairs and several major sights whose subjects are too heavy for younger children.

Both are walkable cities with no metro, where trams do the longer hops. Krakow has the edge: the Old Town, Wawel, Kazimierz and Podgorze link up on foot through a largely traffic-free centre, a train runs to the airport, and the big day trips are easy by public transport.

Bratislava's sights sit within a twenty-minute walk, with a short steep climb to the castle, but trips across the river feel slow, and the wine villages are easier with a car.

Krakow gives a shopper more to do. The medieval Cloth Hall still sells amber, lace and carved boxes, Boleslawiec stoneware makes a classic souvenir, and Kazimierz adds vintage and antique shops and a weekend flea market.

Bratislava's best finds are at the folk-craft centre, with Modra majolica, blue-print cloth and painted eggs, plus a bottle of local wine. Otherwise it means malls, and serious fashion lies in Vienna.

In Bratislava a weekday pub lunch, a glass of local wine, a tram ride and a museum ticket all cost little, so a modest budget covers good meals and a central room. The exceptions are restaurants on the main Old Town squares and in the glass complexes along the Danube, which charge closer to Western prices, and rooms that get dearer on busy summer weekends.

Krakow is cheaper still. Milk-bar canteen lunches, pierogi places, inexpensive beer and vodka, and cheap trams and city museums keep the daily spend lower, and moving a few streets off the Main Square or into Kazimierz and Podgorze brings it down again. Costs climb mainly with organised tours to the salt mine and Auschwitz, which cost much more than going on your own by train or bus.

Krakow offers more evenings of music. Alongside the Philharmonic and the opera there are Chopin recitals in churches and palaces most nights, jazz in brick cellars through the week and klezmer in Kazimierz, though its strong theatre is nearly all in Polish.

Bratislava's offer centres on the Slovak National Theatre's opera and ballet and the Philharmonic in the Reduta, solid and easy to book, with Vienna close by for a bigger programme.

Neither city has thermal baths of its own, so unwinding in both means hotel spas, cafés and riverside walks. The difference is in what lies beyond.

Bratislava has the Senec water park half an hour out and the historic spa town of Piestany about an hour by train. Krakow has salt-air therapy deep in the Wieliczka mine and the naturally hot pools of Podhale, about two hours south.