Bratislava or Prague?

Neither city is a place to plan swimming around, and in both the summer bathing is in fresh water. Bratislava's Zlate piesky has a sandy lakeshore you can reach by tram, and the larger Senec lakes are half an hour out. Prague's equivalents are the Dzban reservoir in the Sarka valley and the wooded Slapy reservoir about an hour south, which feels more like cabin country than a city beach.

Both cities cook hearty Central European food built around beer, but Prague has more to explore. Its pubs pour Pilsner-style lager straight from tanks. Away from the tourist menus of the centre, Vinohrady, Karlin, Letna and Holesovice have good cafés, Moravian wine bars and a modest modern restaurant scene.

Bratislava's range is narrower: bryndzove halusky, duck with lokse and poppy-seed rolls in Old Town pubs. Its strength is wine. Veltliner, Riesling and Frankovka from vineyards at the city's edge rarely leave the country, so the wine bars here pour something you will not easily find at home.

The gap is wide here. Prague's whole centre is a UNESCO site. It takes in the castle and St Vitus, Baroque Mala Strana, the statue-lined Charles Bridge, the Gothic lanes of the Old Town and the synagogues of Josefov, with Art Nouveau and rare Cubist buildings on top, and it needs three or four days.

Bratislava's Old Town is handsome but small. St Martin's coronation cathedral, the Primate's Palace, Michael's Gate and the Blue Church are minutes apart, with the castle above and the ruins of Devin on the edge of town. It fills a day or two and makes a pleasant contrast with Prague rather than a rival.

Nights out in Bratislava are a compact pub crawl along a handful of Old Town streets. They are loud on Fridays and Saturdays and quiet in the week, with only a few clubs and some summer terraces by the river.

Prague's Old Town gets just as rowdy at weekends, but the city has much more beyond it. There are plain local pubs in Zizkov, cocktail and wine bars in Vinohrady, and summer beer gardens on Letna and Riegrovy sady. Holesovice and the converted industrial spaces further out have a circuit of techno and alternative venues that Bratislava cannot match.

Both have gentle green country close by rather than mountains. Bratislava has it right on the doorstep: the Little Carpathian forest trails begin at the city's edge, the Danube floodplain forests and the flat cycle route into Austria are close by, and Cunovo adds whitewater rafting.

Prague is greener inside the city, with Petrin Hill, the old royal park of Stromovka and the rocky Divoka Sarka gorge. Its best walking, among the sandstone towers of Bohemian Switzerland and the Bohemian Paradise, is up to two hours away.

Both are excellent bases, but the outings differ in kind. From Bratislava the draw is crossing borders. Vienna is an hour away by train or a longer trip by boat, and there are Roman Carnuntum and Lake Neusiedl in Austria, Lednice-Valtice in Czechia and Pannonhalma in Hungary, with the Small Carpathian wine villages and Cerveny Kamen closer to home.

Prague's day trips stay mostly within Bohemia and focus on castles and history. There are Kutna Hora's cathedral and bone-decorated ossuary, Karlstejn and Konopiste, and the sobering visit to Terezin. Dresden is two hours down the Elbe, and Cesky Krumlov is better kept for an overnight stay.

Prague gives children more to look forward to. There are the astronomical clock's moving apostles, the knights and armour of the castle, the Petrin funicular and mirror maze, the National Technical Museum and the hillside zoo at Troja, one of the finest in Europe. The downsides are cobbles, long castle stairs and summer crowds.

Bratislava is easier to manage, with a mostly pedestrian Old Town, bronze statues to spot, the Kamzik forest park with its chairlift, and the Senec water park as a treat. After two or three days, though, it runs out of things to do with children.

Both centres are easy to walk, so the difference shows once you leave them. In Prague, the stroll from Old Town Square to Mala Strana is backed by three metro lines and a dense tram network that runs through the night, all on one ticket. The cobbles tire the feet, though, and pickpockets work the busiest tram lines.

Bratislava has trams, trolleybuses and buses but no metro, so trips across the river or out to the suburbs take longer than the distances suggest. The wine villages beyond the train lines are easier to reach by car.

Prague has more to shop for. Parizska has the luxury labels, and Na Prikope and Wenceslas Square have the chains. Bohemian crystal, garnet jewellery and marionettes are the Czech buys, and there are design and vintage shops in Vinohrady and Holesovice and Christmas markets on the old squares.

Shopping in Bratislava is modest. The folk-craft centre sells Modra majolica and blue-print cloth, the malls carry international chains, and a bottle of Small Carpathian wine is the best thing to take home. For serious boutiques, people take the train to Vienna.

Costs come out much the same. Beer, pub lunches and public transport are cheap in both, and both are dearer in the obvious places. In Bratislava those are the main Old Town squares and the glass-fronted complexes along the Danube. In Prague they are the streets around Old Town Square, restaurants with river views, hotels in the historic core and the currency exchange booths, so staying a few tram stops out saves more there.

Classical music is where Prague pulls far ahead. It has three opera stages, including the Estates Theatre where Mozart conducted the premiere of Don Giovanni, the Czech Philharmonic at the Rudolfinum, Smetana Hall in the Municipal House and the Prague Spring festival. Black-light theatre and marionette shows need no Czech.

Bratislava offers a solid evening at the Slovak National Theatre on Hviezdoslav Square or a Slovak Philharmonic concert in the Reduta, with tickets easy to get, plus an autumn music festival. Its programme is smaller, and visitors who want more go to Vienna.

Neither city has thermal baths of its own, so wellness in town means hotel spas, massage studios and slow afternoons in cafés. The real difference is how far you travel for the baths. From Bratislava, the Senec water park is half an hour away and the historic spa town of Piestany about an hour by train. Prague's famous spa towns lie much further off in western Bohemia.

Prague makes up for this with quiet places in town: its grand old coffee houses, the terraced Baroque gardens below the castle, and calm corners on Kampa island and at Vysehrad.