Bratislava or Zadar?

Bratislava has no sea, and the Danube is no place to swim. Summer bathing means the sandy lake shore at Zlate piesky, on the tram line, or the Senec lakes half an hour out. Both are packed at weekends and only warm in July and August.

In Zadar, swimming is part of every summer day. You can step into clear water from the stone promenade on the peninsula or walk to Kolovare or Borik, though both are pebble and concrete. For sand, go to Nin's shallow beaches about 20km north, or take the ferry for a day at Sakarun on Dugi Otok.

The two kitchens are on a similar level. Both are regional with a narrow range, and both have tourist menus on their most central streets, so the difference is in what you eat. Bratislava serves inland comfort food, such as sheep's cheese dumplings and roast duck with lokse, and its real strength is the drink: brewpubs, and wine bars pouring Veltliner and Frankovka from vineyards at the city's edge.

Zadar eats from the sea: grilled fish, black risotto, and octopus or lamb cooked under the peka, with Pag cheese and pršut to start and Maraschino to finish. Its morning market by the walls is the better food outing of the two.

Both old towns are compact and can be seen in a day or two, but Zadar's has more depth. Its walled peninsula holds an open Roman forum, the round ninth-century St Donatus, a Romanesque bell tower you can climb and UNESCO-listed Venetian walls. The Museum of Ancient Glass and the Sea Organ add things you will not find anywhere else.

Bratislava's appeal lies in the coronation history of St Martin's Cathedral, its baroque palaces and the Art Nouveau Blue Church, with the communist-era Most SNP bridge and the cliff-top ruins of Devin for contrast. It is attractive and well kept, but it does not have three thousand years of history on show.

Neither city is a reason to travel for going out, but the evenings feel quite different. Bratislava's nightlife is a crawl through pubs and wine bars along a few Old Town streets. It gets loud on Friday and Saturday with students and weekend groups from abroad, stag parties included, and it runs all year.

Zadar's evening starts at sunset by the Sea Organ and moves on to café-bars on Kalelarga and terraces on the walls, relaxed rather than rowdy. It is a summer scene, with clubbing at Zrće on Pag about an hour away, and from October the town goes quiet.

Bratislava has easy green escapes. Beech-wood trails climb from Koliba up to Kamzik, Devinska Kobyla has steppe meadows, floodplain forest lines the Danube, a flat cycle route runs into Austria, and there is whitewater rafting at Cunovo. The hills are gentle, best for a half-day out.

Zadar is in another league for the outdoors. Paklenica's limestone gorges offer serious hiking and rock climbing less than an hour away, the Kornati and Telašćica are reached by boat, and Krka's waterfalls and Plitvice Lakes each make a full day out. Sea kayaking and island cycling fill in the rest, though midsummer heat rules out walks on high ground.

Bratislava has the wider choice, with three neighbouring countries within easy reach: Austria, the Czech Republic and Hungary. Vienna is about an hour by train, or a slower trip up the Danube by boat. Roman Carnuntum, the Lake Neusiedl villages, the chateaux of Lednice-Valtice and the hilltop abbey at Pannonhalma all lie just over the borders. Closer to home, trains reach Trnava's churches, and the wine towns of Svaty Jur, Pezinok and Modra sit below Cerveny Kamen castle.

Zadar's outings are fewer but varied. Šibenik's old town climbs a hillside to its UNESCO-listed cathedral, the tiny royal town of Nin has its salt pans, and ferries cross to Ugljan or car-free Silba. Split and Trogir are rewarding but make a long day, and most trips beyond the ferries need a car or an organised excursion.

Zadar is the easier base for a family because the sea fills the days. There is shallow sand at Nin for small children, short ferry rides feel like an adventure, and the tiles of the Greeting to the Sun light up after dark, all within a flat, car-free old town.

Bratislava is safe and calm, with a hillside zoo, the Kamzik forest park and chairlift, bronze statues to spot and the thermal water park at Senec. Even so, children run out of things to do there after two or three days.

Bratislava is the easier city to get about. Its main sights lie within a twenty-minute walk, one ticket covers the trams, trolleybuses and buses out to Kamzik, the zoo and Devin, and trains run to Vienna and the wine towns.

Zadar's flat peninsula is just as easy on foot, and island ferries leave from its edge, but local buses go little further than the suburbs. For the national parks and the coast you need a hire car or an excursion, and parking near the old town is tight in summer.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Bratislava has a little more. The state folk-craft centre sells Modra majolica, lace and blue-print cloth, there are large riverside malls, and Vienna's boutique streets are an hour away by train.

Zadar's marble Kalelarga has jewellers and chain stores, but the real pleasure here is food and local craft: Maraschino, Pag cheese, olive oil and figs from the market by the walls, and the fine lace made on Pag.

Bratislava is the cheaper of the two, and its costs stay fairly even through the year. What you pay depends more on where you sit than on when you come. Tables on the main Old Town squares and in the glass complexes by the river are priced like a Western city, but a few streets back the bill falls again. Rooms only climb on the busiest summer weekends and around big events.

In Zadar the calendar matters most. A stay on the peninsula in July or August costs far more than the same apartment in June or September. The outings that make the trip, the national parks and the islands by boat, are where the money goes. Everyday eating at konobas and bakeries stays fair, and ferry and bus fares are low.

Bratislava is the clear choice for an evening performance. The Slovak National Theatre stages opera and ballet in its ornate house on Hviezdoslav Square, the Slovak Philharmonic plays in the Reduta, and tickets are easy to get from autumn to spring.

Zadar's great draw is the summer series of early and chamber music inside St Donatus, and you may hear klapa singing in the squares in July and August. Outside summer there is little on.

Neither city has baths of its own, so in both, unwinding means hotel spas and a slow pace. Bratislava's calm comes from quiet forest paths and long afternoons in cafés, with the thermal park at Senec and the spa town of Piestany each worth a day out.

Zadar's version centres on the sea: café mornings, an afternoon siesta, sunset from the Sea Organ steps, and the long-standing local habit of coating yourself in mud at Nin's lagoon.