Bratislava or Pula?

Here the two barely compete. Bratislava is inland, and the Danube is off limits for swimming. Summer bathing means lake shores such as Zlate piesky on the tram line or the Senec lakes, which are fine for a hot afternoon but nothing to plan a trip around.

Pula sits on the Adriatic with very clear water, though you swim from rock and pebble rather than sand. The coves around Verudela and Stoja are close to town, and Cape Kamenjak, about 10km south, has dozens of wild inlets. Medulin's sheltered bays have shallow water for small children.

Pula has the more interesting food. Istrian cooking means truffle pasta, scampi buzara, grilled fish and pršut, with Malvazija and Teran from estates just inland, and the best meals are in hinterland konobas and harbour taverns.

Bratislava's cooking is heartier and narrower: dumplings with sheep's cheese, roast duck and poppy-seed rolls. Its wine bars pouring Small Carpathian Veltliner and Riesling are a real pleasure, though. In both cities the most central squares lean towards tourist menus.

Both take a day or two to see, but Pula's sights carry more weight. The Arena is one of the best preserved Roman amphitheatres anywhere. With the intact Temple of Augustus, the Arch of the Sergii and mosaics tucked into the backstreets, you can still trace the Roman town as you walk.

Bratislava offers a neat baroque Old Town, the coronation history of St Martin's Cathedral, the white castle and the Blue Church, plus a communist-era layer in the Most SNP bridge. It is pleasant and well kept rather than remarkable.

Neither city is worth the journey for its nightlife, but the evenings feel different. In Bratislava, going out happens along a few Old Town streets of pubs, wine bars and cocktail bars. They are loud on Friday and Saturday nights all year, thanks to students and weekend groups from abroad, stag parties included.

Pula is a summer place. Evenings start with drinks on terraces around the Forum and move on to beach bars on Verudela and around Medulin, with a few small clubs busy on warm weekends. Out of season most nights end early.

Pula's outdoors is coastal and more varied. Kamenjak is a car-free headland of cliffs and wild flowers, good for walking and cycling, and you can also go sea kayaking, windsurf in Premantura bay or dive on old naval wrecks. The Učka range offers proper hiking further off.

Bratislava has forest trails from Koliba up to Kamzik and along the Little Carpathian ridge, plus floodplain woods along the Danube, the flat cycle route into Austria and whitewater rafting at Cunovo. It is gentle country, good for a half day, but less striking.

Both are excellent bases, in different ways. From Bratislava the train does the work: Vienna is about an hour away, and Trnava, Trencin and the wine towns of Svaty Jur, Pezinok and Modra are easy to reach, with Austria, Hungary and Czech sights all close by.

Pula's day trips are Istrian: Rovinj, the mosaics of Poreč, hill towns such as Motovun and Hum, and the Brijuni islands by boat from Fažana. Buses are infrequent, so here a car is close to essential.

Pula is the easier choice with children, because the sea fills the days. There are shallow bays at Medulin and Premantura, the aquarium in a Verudela fort and the Arena's underground passages to explore, with a dinosaur park and a water park within an hour.

Bratislava is safe and calm. Children can hunt for the bronze statues, ride the chairlift in the Kamzik forest park, visit the zoo or spend a day at the Senec water park, but the options run out after two or three days.

Bratislava is the simpler place to manage without a car. The sights are within a twenty-minute walk, and one ticket covers the trams, trolleybuses and buses out to Kamzik, the zoo and Devin. Trains handle most day trips. Only the lack of a metro slows longer journeys.

Pula's centre is just as compact and flat, and city buses reach Verudela. Beyond that, regional buses are infrequent and the rail line is of little use. Kamenjak, the hill towns and the wider coast are far easier with a car or scooter.

Neither city is a reason to bring an empty suitcase, but the souvenirs differ in kind. Bratislava's are crafted or bottled: Modra majolica and handmade lace from the folk-craft centre, and Small Carpathian whites that seldom reach shops abroad. Its malls hold little you could not find at home, yet serious fashion is only an hour away by train in Vienna, a big-city fallback Pula has nothing close to.

Pula, by contrast, is a place to shop for the kitchen rather than the shelf. Its olive oil, truffle paste and cured ham are worth carrying home, and they are best bought at the market hall or from farms inland. The old-town streets offer little beyond chain clothing and trinkets, so leave room in your luggage for jars and bottles, not clothes.

Bratislava makes a budget go further. Beer, wine, transport and museums are cheap, ordinary pubs serve weekday lunch menus for little, and rooms stay reasonable for most of the year. Only the main squares and the riverside complexes charge Western prices.

Pula is mid-priced and best value in spring and autumn. In July and August rooms cost about as much as on the Western European coasts. Car hire and boat trips, which a stay here tends to rely on, add up quickly.

For a regular programme, Bratislava is clearly ahead. The Slovak National Theatre stages opera and ballet on Hviezdoslav Square and the Slovak Philharmonic plays in the Reduta, with tickets easy to find from autumn to spring. An autumn music festival and a long-running jazz festival add highlights.

Pula's moment is summer, when the Arena hosts touring pop and rock acts, classical galas and Pula Film Festival screenings under the Roman arches. The rest of the year offers little beyond Croatian-language theatre.

Bratislava has the edge because Slovakia's bathing culture is within easy reach. The Senec thermal water park is half an hour away, and the historic spa town of Piestany, known for its mud and sulphur-water cures, is about an hour by train. In town, unwinding means hotel spas, slow afternoons in cafés and the forest paths above the city, which are quiet on weekdays.

Pula has no spa tradition of its own, so relaxing means the resort hotel spas on Verudela and in Medulin, long coffees on the Forum and evening walks along pine-shaded coastal paths. The pace is at its gentlest outside high summer.