Bratislava or Wroclaw?

Neither city is a place to swim, but Bratislava is the better of the two for a dip on a hot day. Zlate piesky, a sandy lake you can reach by tram, and the larger Senec lakes half an hour away both have warm water in July and August.

Wroclaw's summer beaches along the Oder are places to sit in a deckchair with a drink. They are not for swimming. For a swim there, you would need an outdoor pool or a reservoir out in the countryside.

These are two hearty Central European kitchens, but each has its own way of drinking. Bratislava's strength is wine: Veltliner, Riesling and Frankovka from vineyards at the edge of town, drunk alongside sheep's-cheese dumplings and poppy-seed rolls. Wroclaw is a beer city, with brewpubs in old cellars and plenty of Polish craft taps.

Wroclaw has a slightly wider choice of food. It has cheap milk-bar canteens, and the side streets have modern bistros that cook Polish dishes with a lighter touch. Bratislava's choice thins out faster beyond its own cooking. In both cities, the main squares are where you pay for the view rather than the meal.

Wroclaw has the more substantial old centre. Its huge Market Square, the red-brick churches of Ostrów Tumski, the gilded Aula Leopoldina, the Centennial Hall, which is a UNESCO site, and the National Museum's Silesian art could fill several days. The city was largely rebuilt after the 1945 siege, which adds another layer to its history.

Bratislava's appeal is smaller and quicker to see. It has a tidy baroque Old Town, the coronation route marked by brass crowns in the pavement, the Blue Church, and the castle above the river. Devin's clifftop ruins are worth the trip, but the whole set fits into a day or two.

Wroclaw is the livelier night out. A large student population fills the cellars around the Market Square and the courtyard passage off Ruska Street, where you move from one small bar to the next until after 2am. In summer, the drinking moves out to the islands. The city goes quieter when the students are away between terms.

Bratislava's Old Town gets loud on Fridays and Saturdays, partly because cheap drinks draw groups from abroad, but weeknights are quiet and the scene is smaller. Expect a pub crawl through wine bars and beer halls rather than a choice of places to go.

These are equally good outdoors, but the landscapes differ. Bratislava has wooded hills right on its edge. Beech forests and vineyard ridges in the Little Carpathians start from tram stops, and wild Danube floodplain forest and a cycle route run into Austria.

Wroclaw is flat and green within town, with river channels, islands and the Japanese Garden in Szczytnicki Park. Its hills are further away: Ślęża stands alone within an hour, and the Karkonosze and the sandstone Table Mountains, two hours off, are higher ground than anything near Bratislava, with skiing in winter.

Here Bratislava is clearly ahead, mainly because Vienna is an hour away by train, or a little longer by boat up the Danube. Add the wine cellars and majolica pottery of Modra, Cerveny Kamen castle, Roman Carnuntum and the chateaux of Lednice-Valtice, and you have a different country almost every day.

Wroclaw's outings stay within Lower Silesia. They include Książ castle above its gorge, the wooden Churches of Peace and Krzeszów abbey. They are rewarding, but they are scattered, and seeing several in one day really needs a car.

Wroclaw is the better city for children. Its zoo is one of Poland's largest, with a walk-through shark tunnel in the Afrykarium, and there is a hands-on water science centre and an evening fountain show by the Centennial Hall. Hunting for its hundreds of bronze dwarves can take up a whole afternoon.

Bratislava is safe and gentle but has less designed for children. It has a hillside zoo, the chairlift and playgrounds at Kamzik, and a thermal water park at Senec as the treat. That is enough for a short stay rather than a week.

Both are easy cities to get around on foot, and both have trams for the rest. Wroclaw's centre is flat and largely pedestrian, and riverside bike lanes and a city bike system make cycling an easy option. The larger tram network can be slow at rush hour.

Bratislava is more compact still, though hillier. The castle climb is short and steep, and the station sits on a rise above the Old Town. Without a metro, trips across the river take longer than the distance suggests.

Neither city is worth visiting for its shops. Malls handle the everyday shopping in both, and the best purchases are local crafts. In Bratislava, look for Modra majolica, lace and blue-print cloth from the folk-craft centre, plus a few bottles of Small Carpathian wine. Vienna is close by for luxury fashion.

Wroclaw has a little more character. The ceramic-fronted Renoma department store and the riverside market hall are worth a visit, Nadodrze has a few vintage shops, and you can take home Bolesławiec stoneware and Baltic amber.

Wroclaw is the cheaper of the two. Milk-bar lunches, central hotel rooms, trams and the zoo all cost very little, and a modest budget goes a long way.

Bratislava is still good value by Western standards, with cheap local wine, transport and museums, and filling weekday lunch menus. Prices rise more noticeably on the main squares and in the glass complexes along the Danube.

Wroclaw has more on stage. The National Forum of Music is a large modern hall with excellent acoustics and a full concert season, and the opera house stands by the old moat. The Wratislavia Cantans festival of oratorio and early music draws listeners to the city.

Bratislava offers a reliable, easy night at the opera or ballet in the ornate National Theatre, and the Philharmonic plays in the Reduta. Tickets are easy to get, but for a major international programme people take the train to Vienna. In both cities, theatre is performed in the local language.

Neither city is a wellness destination in itself, so the real difference is where you go for the water. From Bratislava it is a short, easy hop: the thermal park at Senec is close enough for an afternoon, and Piestany, Slovakia's best-known spa town, is a simple train ride for a full day of treatments. Wroclaw's spa country lies in the hills to the south-west, where Szczawno-Zdrój is the nearest and the rest are a longer journey.

In town, Bratislava is the more restful place to spend a slow day, with café terraces by the river and woods above the city for an unhurried walk. Wroclaw gets busier on summer weekends, but it has one thing Bratislava lacks inside the city: a large indoor aquapark with saunas for a wet or cold afternoon.