Brno or Warsaw?

Neither city is a swimming destination, and both send people to reservoirs on hot days. In Brno that means the Brno Reservoir, reached by tram and river boat, with grassy banks and small beaches but a risk of algae in heatwaves, or the Nove Mlyny lakes an hour south.

Warsaw's river is the bigger summer scene. People sunbathe and drink on the sandy Vistula banks but do not swim there, and go to the Zegrze reservoir or outdoor pools for that.

Warsaw eats better and with more range. Its kitchens run from milk-bar pierogi and żurek at canteen counters to tasting menus built on forest mushrooms, game and fermented vegetables, with food halls in old industrial buildings and vodka served alongside herring and pickles.

Brno's plates are mostly beer-hall Czech classics such as svickova and roast pork with dumplings, and fine dining is thin. Its strength is the glass: specialty coffee, serious cocktails and Moravian whites and Frankovka from vineyards less than an hour away.

Warsaw has more to see, and it hits harder. The Old Town and Royal Castle, rebuilt from paintings after 1944, the Warsaw Rising Museum and POLIN make history the centre of a stay, with Łazienki and Wilanów adding royal palaces.

Brno's appeal is narrower but distinctive: Mies van der Rohe's Villa Tugendhat and a rare spread of functionalist buildings, plus Spilberk Castle, the Capuchin Crypt's mummified monks and the abbey where Mendel founded genetics. It is covered in a couple of days, where Warsaw's museums alone can take longer.

Warsaw is the place for a big night. Its weekends fill Mazowiecka Street and Nowy Świat, the pavilions hide dozens of tiny bars open until morning, and Praga's courtyards and factories host techno and alternative nights. In summer the scene moves out onto the Vistula boulevards.

Brno is better at a long evening than a late one. Its cocktail bars behind unmarked doors and cellar steps are the best part, alongside wine bars and student pubs, but clubs are few and the city goes quiet in July and August when the students leave.

Brno has the more varied countryside on its doorstep. The Moravian Karst, half an hour north, has caves, the boat ride under the 138m Macocha Abyss and wooded trails, while the Palava limestone ridge and the Dyje valley in Podyji National Park lie to the south.

Warsaw's landscape is flatter, but it has wild places very close. Kampinos National Park, with dunes, marshes and elk, starts at the edge of the suburbs, and the untamed eastern bank of the Vistula brings birdlife right up to the city.

This is where Brno pulls far ahead. The UNESCO-listed chateaux and parkland of Lednice-Valtice are about forty-five minutes away, and Telc's Renaissance square, the palace gardens at Kromeriz, Trebic's Jewish quarter and the church at Zelena Hora, all also on the UNESCO list, are within an hour or two. Closer still is the Austerlitz battlefield at Slavkov. Olomouc and the wine towns of Mikulov and Znojmo add more options, and Vienna and Bratislava are both easy days out by train.

From Warsaw the choice runs out sooner. Łódź, Lublin, Chopin's birthplace at Żelazowa Wola and the Nieborów palace all work as day trips, but Kraków and Toruń really need an overnight stay.

Warsaw does more for children. The Copernicus Science Centre on the riverbank can fill a whole day on its own, and summer fountain shows on the boulevards and indoor water parks in winter cover both seasons. The heavy history museums are the part to skip with young children.

Brno is calm and safe but has less aimed at children: the VIDA science centre, the hillside zoo and the Anthropos mammoths. Its standout is outside the city, the underground boat ride in the Punkva Caves.

Both are easy to manage, in different ways. Brno's small, mostly pedestrian centre can be crossed on foot in a quarter of an hour, and one ticket covers trams and regional trains, which suits all those day trips.

Warsaw is spread out along wide post-war avenues, so you will ride more often, but two metro lines, trams, good cycle lanes and a direct airport train make that simple.

Warsaw is the better bet for shopping. It has large modern malls, Polish designer labels along Mokotowska Street, and weekend flea markets selling communist-era posters, with amber, stoneware and linen to take home.

Brno has little beyond high-street chains on Ceska and a few independent shops. The best things to buy there are Moravian wine straight from the cellars and produce from the Zelny trh market.

Both are cheap by European standards, so the difference is in where the money goes. Brno undercuts most capitals across the board, with weekday pub lunch menus, cheap beer and wine and low-cost museums.

In Warsaw, eating and drinking stay cheap, but central hotels cost more on weekdays because of business travel, so a weekend stay makes most sense. Both cities fill up during big trade fairs.

Both have a strong musical life, each centred on its own composer. Brno's revolves around Janacek, with his operas at the core of the modernist Janacek Theatre's programme, and the tiny Reduta where the young Mozart played.

Warsaw's is larger and more varied. Opera and ballet are staged at the Grand Theatre, Chopin recitals in palaces run all year, free summer Sunday concerts are held at his monument in Łazienki, and there are cellar jazz clubs. Theatre in both cities is mostly in the local language.

Neither has thermal springs, but Warsaw offers a little more for unwinding. It has the leafy spa town of Konstancin-Jeziorna with its saltwater graduation tower, and the Polish sauna ritual of towel-waving taken seriously at its water parks.

Brno's wellness is limited to pools with saunas and a few spas. What it does offer is a slower everyday pace and quiet corners like Luzanky park, which suit relaxing better than brisk Warsaw.