Bratislava or Piran?

Piran wins easily. It is a swimming town rather than a sand town: you climb down into clear Adriatic water from platforms and rocks around the Punta, there is a pebble cove at Fiesa, and for sunbeds you walk along the shore to Portoroz or the cliff-backed shore at Strunjan.

Bratislava has no sea, and the Danube is too fast and busy with barges for swimming. In high summer locals go to the lake at Zlate piesky or the Senec lakes. These are pleasant for an afternoon but not a reason to come.

The two are evenly matched, and neither is a trip built around food. What differs is the cooking. Bratislava's is hearty inland food: sheep's-cheese dumplings, roast duck with lokse, and poppy-seed rolls, with house-brewed lager and Small Carpathian wines like Frankovka.

Piran eats from the sea: grilled fish, squid and scampi buzara in simple konobas, with Malvazija, Refosk and local salt on the table. In both towns the menus on the main squares and harbour repeat each other, so walk a street or two further for the better meals.

The two are level, and both can be seen properly in a day or two. Bratislava has more layers of history. There is the coronation cathedral of the Hungarian kings, baroque palaces below the castle, the Slovak National Gallery and the saucer-topped bridge from the communist era.

Piran's appeal is the whole town as one piece: a Venetian Gothic peninsula around Tartini Square, with the campanile of St George's and the old walls above the red roofs. Its museums are small, so Piran is a place for wandering, while Bratislava has more to go into.

Bratislava has the livelier evenings. On Friday and Saturday its Old Town streets fill with pub, wine-bar and cocktail crowds until late, helped by students and visiting weekend groups, though weeknights are calm and there are few clubs.

Piran's evening is a glass of wine at sunset on the square or the Punta, and then quiet. Portoroz next door adds a casino and a few summer clubs, but nobody chooses this coast for its nights out.

Both offer gentle outdoors with no high mountains, but the settings differ. From Bratislava you walk forest trails through the beech woods of the Little Carpathians straight from the tram, cycle the flat Danube dykes into Austria, or raft the whitewater course at Cunovo.

Piran's outdoors is coastal. There are cliff-top paths and kayaking at Strunjan, wading birds on the Secovlje salt pans, the Parenzana cycle route through olive groves, and the Karst caves at Skocjan within an hour.

Both make excellent bases near the borders, and both have a great city within easy reach. The difference is how you travel. From Bratislava, Vienna is about an hour by train, and Trnava, Lednice-Valtice and Carnuntum are within reach without a car, though the wine villages are easier to drive to.

From Piran you can reach Trieste, the Istrian hill towns of Motovun and Groznjan, Rovinj and Predjama Castle, but mostly by car. Venice is a summer boat ride across the gulf.

Piran is the easier choice with children. The old town is closed to cars, the sea is warm and calm in summer, there is an aquarium on the harbour, and Portoroz has a shallow sandy beach. The steep lanes and swimming from ledges make it best for a few days with younger children.

Bratislava is safe and calm, with bronze statues to spot, the zoo, a chairlift at Kamzik and the water park at Senec. Children run out of things to do after two or three days, and there is no sea to fall back on.

Bratislava is slightly easier once you look beyond the centre. Its walkable core is backed by trams, trolleybuses and buses reaching Devin, the zoo and Kamzik, and the railway connects it to Vienna and Slovak towns. With no metro, trips across the river are slow.

Piran's car-free peninsula takes a quarter of an hour to cross on foot, and a shuttle runs to Portoroz. With no railway and slow regional buses, exploring the region usually means hiring a car.

Bratislava has more to offer, though neither is a shopping destination. Its folk-craft centre sells genuine majolica, lace and blue-print cloth, the riverside malls carry the international chains, and Vienna's boutique streets are a train ride away.

Piran has a few galleries and souvenir stalls. Its best buys are edible: salt flower from Secovlje, Istrian olive oil and coastal wine.

Bratislava is clearly the cheaper stay. Beer, wine, trams and museum entry cost little, pub lunch menus are generous, and only the main squares and riverside complexes charge Western prices.

Piran is mid-priced and becomes expensive in July and August, when rooms in the old town are scarce and you pay for the harbour view. Staying in Portoroz or coming outside the peak season helps, and swimming off the rocks costs nothing.

Bratislava has a real season. The Slovak National Theatre stages opera and ballet, and the Slovak Philharmonic plays in the Reduta. Tickets are easy to get, and there are autumn music and jazz festivals.

Piran's offering is mostly summer concerts for Tartini, held in churches, the monastery cloister and on the square, plus occasional recitals at the small theatre. Out of season, an evening of music means driving to Ljubljana or Trieste.

Piran is the place to unwind. Portoroz grew up as a spa resort, and its seawater pools and brine baths, the outdoor salt-mud spa among the Secovlje lagoons and the resort at Strunjan are all close by. The car-free lanes do the rest.

In Bratislava, relaxing means hotel spas, slow café afternoons and quiet forest paths. For real bathing you take a day out to Senec or the historic spa town of Piestany.