Bucharest or Burgas?

Bucharest has no sea, and its city lakes are not for swimming. In the summer heat the options are a hotel pool, the large pool complexes on the city's edge or Lake Snagov to the north. The Black Sea around Constanta is a separate journey.

Burgas has a beach of dark, soft sand in its centre, below the Sea Garden, with shallow water that suits paddling. Locals often prefer Sarafovo or Kraimorie, away from the port, and Sozopol's coves and the broad sands of Sunny Beach are within an hour. The catch is a short season, from late June to mid-September.

Bucharest has more range. There are hearty taverns serving ciorba, sarmale and mici, the cheese and pickle stalls of Piata Obor, and a good layer of modern bistros, specialty coffee and Dealu Mare wine bars around Dorobanti and Piata Romana. The best meals are usually just outside the touristy Old Town.

Burgas cooking is plainer and built around the sea. Expect fried sprats, grilled bluefish and gulf mussels at simple harbourside places, with cheap Pomorie wines on the side. Beyond fish the choice narrows quickly, and upscale or international cooking is hard to find.

Bucharest has much more to see. Calea Victoriei is lined with Belle Epoque mansions, and Stavropoleos church sits among the lanes of Lipscani. Add the vast Palace of the Parliament, the National Museum of Art in the former royal palace and the open-air Village Museum, and you have two or three full days.

Burgas is a modern port with modest sights: the cathedral, a few small regional museums and the monuments of the Sea Garden. Its most interesting places are on the edges of the city, a boat trip to St Anastasia Island and the Roman and Ottoman baths of Aquae Calidae.

Bucharest stays out late all year. The Old Town has crowded, loud terraces, and there are courtyard garden bars in old villas, student bars near the university and a well-regarded techno and minimal scene that plays until after sunrise.

Burgas is calmer and depends on the season. Beach bars in the Sea Garden and bars on Aleksandrovska and Bogoridi streets stay busy on summer nights, then the city goes quiet. Anyone who wants to party until dawn takes the forty-minute ride up the coast to Sunny Beach.

Burgas has the more distinctive outdoors. Its four lakes and lagoons lie on the Via Pontica migration route, where storks, pelicans and flamingos pass overhead or feed, and the Poda reserve has hides. You also get flat cycling, kitesurfing and the oak and beech hills of Strandzha an hour to the south.

Bucharest's green spaces are city parks: the lake at Herastrau, the old garden of Cismigiu and the reedy wetland of Vacaresti. Its one real advantage is the Carpathians. The Bucegi mountains, with hiking trails and winter skiing, are about two hours away, which flat Burgas cannot match.

Burgas has the easier and more varied outings. Medieval Nessebar and the wooden old quarter of Sozopol are each about forty minutes away. Pomorie, with its salt museum and Thracian tomb, is even closer, and Varna is possible in a day.

Bucharest has one excellent day out, Peles Castle above Sinaia, plus the palace at Mogosoaia and the island monastery at Snagov close to the city. Beyond those the choice runs out quickly, because Brasov and Bran really need an overnight stay.

Both work well for children, but in different ways. Bucharest offers the Antipa natural history museum, the Village Museum, boat hire on the park lakes and a large thermal water park with slides that works in any weather. The downsides are heavy traffic, broken pavements and hot summers.

Burgas is a summer seaside choice. The water shelves gently and is warm, the sand is soft, and the shaded Sea Garden runs beside the beach. The flat centre is easy with a pushchair. Water parks are up the coast, and out of season there is little to keep children busy.

Burgas is far simpler to get around. The station, the pedestrian streets and the beach are all within walking distance in a small, flat centre, the airport is close to town and buses run along the coast. Those buses fill up in high summer, and the lakes and Strandzha villages are much easier with a car.

In Bucharest you mix walking, a cheap metro that misses parts of the centre, trams and buses held up in traffic, and ride-hailing apps. Rush-hour congestion is among the worst in Europe.

Neither city is a shopping destination, but Bucharest offers more. It has large malls full of international chains, luxury labels around Calea Victoriei and a few Romanian designers in the old villa districts. Embroidered blouses and ceramics are sold at the Village Museum shop and the craft fairs in the parks.

Burgas has high-street chains on Aleksandrovska and Bogoridi streets, and its best buys are things to eat or use: local wine, honey, rose oil and Pomorie sea salt.

Both are inexpensive by Western European standards, and Burgas is a little cheaper. Rooms in the city cost little outside summer, and grilled fish with local wine is good everyday value. In the peak weeks of July and August, coastal rooms fill up and prices rise, so book ahead.

Bucharest is a cheap capital for the metro, ride-hailing, tavern meals and museums. The smart restaurants and cocktail bars in the north of the city, though, charge close to Western European prices.

Bucharest is the clear choice for a night of music. The George Enescu Philharmonic plays under the frescoed dome of the Athenaeum, the National Opera stages opera and ballet, and there are jazz clubs in the centre. In alternate years the Enescu Festival brings leading orchestras to the city in late summer and early autumn.

Burgas has a State Opera, a philharmonic and open-air summer stages in the Sea Garden, which is respectable for its size but regional. Its most memorable tradition is outside town: in the Strandzha villages, folk music and nestinari fire-dancing survive as living customs.

The two are close, but they offer different kinds of rest. Bucharest's main draw is a day at the huge thermal complex just north of the city, with warm pools under a glass dome and saunas. The city itself is loud, and calm comes from a slow morning by the lake at Herastrau.

Burgas relies on older traditions: mineral springs used since Roman times, and the black, salty mud of the Atanasovsko and Pomorie lakes. Sanatoria use it for wraps, and many visitors simply smear it on at the shore. The slow pace outside summer and evening walks in the Sea Garden help too.