Budapest or Graz?

Neither city has a beach, but Budapest makes summer bathing much easier. Its open-air lidos, with Palatinus on Margaret Island as the classic, fill whole days with lawns and several pools. Shallow Lake Velence is under an hour by train, and Lake Balaton can be reached for a long day.

In Graz, swimming means the old gravel-pit lakes south of the city, such as the Schwarzlsee, or Stubenbergsee in the eastern hills. They are pleasant for a hot afternoon, but there is less choice and the water is cooler than at Velence.

The two are on a par for eating, but the flavours are very different. Budapest cooks rich and paprika-red, with goulash, paprikash and lángos. It has the tiled Great Market Hall, Habsburg-era coffee houses serving Dobos cake, a serious modern restaurant scene and a broad wine list that runs from Tokaji to pálinka.

Graz is about the Styrian larder: pumpkin seed oil on everything, even ice cream, cold fried chicken salad, and farmers' markets every morning except Sunday. Its best wine experience is outside town, at the Buschenschank taverns in the southern vineyards. Neither city offers much beyond its own regional cooking.

Budapest is in a different league for sightseeing. The UNESCO-listed river front pairs the Parliament with the Castle District, Andrássy Avenue leads to Heroes' Square, and the Museum of Fine Arts, the National Gallery and the Dohány Street Synagogue need several days on their own.

Graz is more compact and more intimate. Its well-kept old town of arcaded courtyards climbs to the Schlossberg clock tower. The seventeenth-century Landeszeughaus armoury and Schloss Eggenberg are its standouts, with the Kunsthaus adding a modern contrast. Two or three days covers it.

Going out is one of Budapest's big draws. Ruin bars fill crumbling courtyards in District VII, Kazinczy and Király streets stay loud past 2am, and in summer the party moves to garden bars and boats on the Danube. The flip side is rowdy stag groups at weekends.

Graz offers relaxed bar-hopping around the Bermuda Triangle lanes and the artier bars of Lend, powered by its students. There are only a few late clubs, and the town goes quiet during the summer break.

Graz has the better outdoors. Its home mountain, the Schöckl, rises to 1,445m on the edge of town, with a cable car, trails and paragliders. The Bärenschützklamm gorge and the South Styrian wine hills are close, and the limestone peaks of the Gesäuse and Hochschwab offer real alpine hiking within about two hours.

Budapest has the forested Buda Hills, caves carved by thermal water and the ridges of the Danube Bend. These make for good walking and cycling, but the land is low and gentle, with no mountains.

Both cities have plenty of good outings, but they are of different kinds. From Budapest, the Danube Bend towns of Szentendre, Visegrád and Esztergom are easy by suburban train. Further out are Eger's castle and wine cellars, the village of Hollókő and Pannonhalma Abbey, mostly history and Baroque towns reached by rail.

Graz's trips lead into the countryside: the South Styrian Wine Road, Riegersburg castle on its volcanic crag, the Lipizzaner stud at Piber and the vast library at Admont Abbey. Maribor in Slovenia is an hour by train. For most of the rest, a hire car makes life much easier.

Both work about equally well with children, in different ways. Budapest has more big attractions: a historic zoo with Art Nouveau animal houses, the Children's Railway run by schoolchildren, a hands-on science centre and summer lidos with wave pools. The trade-offs are metro stairs, crowded pavements and noisy weekend nights.

Graz is smaller, calmer and simpler to manage. Its highlights sit inside the Schlossberg: a lift up, a long underground slide down and the Märchenbahn fairytale train. There is also a dedicated children's museum in the Augarten. With no zoo or theme park, a longer stay means trips out to Herberstein or Stübing.

Budapest is a city you ride through, while Graz is one you mostly walk. Budapest's sights are spread along two banks of a wide river, so trams and the short metro come into play most days. The tram along the Danube embankment doubles as a sightseeing ride past Parliament. Flat Pest is easy on foot, but the Castle District sits on a steep hill, reached by funicular, bus or a climb.

Graz's centre is small, flat and largely pedestrianised, so you can walk between the Hauptplatz, the cathedral and the Kunsthaus in minutes. The only real climb, the Schlossberg, has a lift and a funicular, and cycling along the Mur is easy. Getting around only gets harder once you leave the city, where buses become sparse.

Neither city is a shopping destination, but Budapest has a bit more to find. Herend and Zsolnay porcelain, small Hungarian design boutiques in Districts V and VII, communist-era finds at the Ecseri flea market and paprika and Tokaji from the Great Market Hall make for better browsing than chain-heavy Váci utca.

Graz has the historic Herrengasse and Sporgasse, plus vintage and design shops in Lend. Its best souvenirs are edible: pumpkin seed oil, Schilcher rosé and regional brandies, along with traditional loden from specialist shops.

Budapest is noticeably cheaper. Public transport, wine and ordinary coffee houses cost little, and good mid-range rooms near the centre are easy to find. Costs only climb in the tourist core around Váci utca and the Basilica.

Graz has normal Austrian prices: fair, but not cheap, especially for sit-down dinners and wine. Thanks to its students, there are still good-value lunch menus and bakeries, and a walkable centre plus combined museum tickets help keep costs down.

Budapest is one of Europe's great music cities. The State Opera House on Andrássy Avenue, the Art Nouveau hall of the Liszt Academy and the national concert hall at Müpa mean there is classical music most nights, along with operetta and folk dance.

Graz does very well for its size. Its opera house is the second largest in Austria, and the Styriarte and steirischer herbst festivals bring early music and avant-garde work. The music university feeds a strong jazz scene. In both cities, spoken theatre is in the local language, so visitors are mostly there for the music.

This is the biggest difference between the two. Budapest sits on more than a hundred hot springs, and bathing is part of daily life. You can soak in Széchenyi's outdoor pools in the snow, under Gellért's mosaics or beneath the sixteenth-century Ottoman domes of Rudas and Király, all a tram ride from your hotel.

Graz has no bathing culture of its own. To get a proper soak, you travel about an hour east to Styria's spa villages, such as Bad Blumau with its Hundertwasser design or Loipersdorf. In town, relaxing means the Stadtpark gardens and the shady Schlossberg paths.