Budapest or Pula?

Budapest has no sea, and nobody swims in the Danube. Summer swimming means the big lidos such as Palatinus on Margaret Island, or a train to shallow Lake Velence, with Balaton about two hours away.

This is where Pula is strongest. It has no sand, but the rock platforms and pebble coves around Verudela, Stoja and Medulin, and the wild inlets of Cape Kamenjak about 10km south, give clear Adriatic swimming all summer. Bring water shoes for the urchins.

Budapest offers more variety at the table. There is goulash, chicken paprikash and lángos, the Great Market Hall at Fővám tér, coffee houses serving Dobos cake, wine bars pouring Tokaji and Eger reds, and a serious modern restaurant scene, even if most of it stays within Central European cooking.

Pula's Istrian kitchen is the more regional: fuži with truffle, scampi buzara, Malvazija and Teran. The town itself has only a modest choice of restaurants, though, and the best meals usually mean a drive to an inland tavern or a harbour village.

Budapest needs several days. There is the Parliament facing Castle Hill across the Danube, Andrássy Avenue, the old masters at the Museum of Fine Arts, the Dohány Street Synagogue, and a history in layers from Ottoman tombs to the communist statues of Memento Park.

Pula's sights are fewer but remarkable for their Roman remains. The Arena still stands complete above the harbour, the Temple of Augustus survives intact on the Forum, and the Arch of the Sergii leads into the old town. Two days cover it comfortably.

Budapest is a real city for going out. There are ruin bars in the courtyards of District VII, late clubs on Kazinczy and Király streets, and party boats on the Danube in summer. The downside is rowdy weekend crowds and stag groups in the centre.

Pula's nights are much gentler. In summer they mean drinks on terraces near the Forum, beach bars on Verudela and a handful of small clubs. For most of the year the town is quiet by late evening.

Budapest has forest close to the centre. The oak and beech woods of the Buda Hills are reached by cogwheel railway and chairlift, thermal caves run beneath them, and the ridges and riverside cycle path of the Danube Bend are an hour north.

Pula has a little more variety because the sea is part of it. You can walk or cycle the car-free cliffs of Cape Kamenjak, kayak around its islets, windsurf in Premantura bay or dive on naval-era wrecks. The Učka range offers proper hiking about an hour and a half inland.

From Budapest, the Danube Bend is the easy classic. Szentendre, Visegrád and Esztergom's basilica can all be reached by train or river, and Eger and Hollókő are about two hours out.

Pula has more within easy reach. Rovinj is about 45 minutes away, Poreč's Byzantine mosaics about an hour, and the hill towns of Motovun and Hum about an hour too. There are boats to the Brijuni islands, and Piran and Trieste make longer drives. Most of these are much easier with a car than by bus.

Both cities work well with children, but in different ways. In Budapest the days are spent in town: the old zoo in City Park, the Children's Railway through the Buda Hills, the hands-on Palace of Wonders and the lidos with wave pools, all easy to reach by tram.

In Pula the days are spent by the water. The shallow bays at Medulin and Premantura suit small children, and there is an aquarium inside an old fort and the Arena's tunnels to explore. A dinosaur park and a water park are within an hour, although you will need a car to get there.

Budapest is much easier to get around. Central Pest is flat and most of the sights are walkable. The riverside tram along the embankment past Parliament doubles as a sightseeing ride, and the boulevard trams run all night. The short metro is easy to learn and includes continental Europe's oldest underground line, with its little yellow carriages under Andrássy Avenue. Nobody needs a car.

Pula's old centre is compact, and you can walk between the Arena, the Forum and the harbour in a few minutes. City buses go out to Verudela. Beyond that, slow trains and infrequent regional buses mean you will really want a car or scooter for Kamenjak and inland Istria.

Budapest is not a shopping destination, but it gives you more to look for. There is Herend and Zsolnay porcelain, small Hungarian design boutiques in Districts V and VII, weekend design markets in old courtyards, and Ecseri flea market for communist-era finds.

In Pula, the shopping is mostly about food to take home: Istrian olive oil, truffle products, wine, honey and pršut from the market hall or straight from producers. The main street has chain stores and souvenirs.

Budapest is the lighter on the wallet. Public transport, wine and ordinary coffee houses cost little, and good mid-range rooms are easy to find within walking distance of the sights. Costs only build up around Váci utca and the grand cafés.

Pula is mid-priced, and reasonable in spring and autumn. In July and August, though, rooms cost about as much as on Western European coasts, and car hire and boat trips, which are hard to avoid here, add up quickly.

Budapest has music most nights of the year. There is opera at the State Opera House on Andrássy Avenue, chamber and orchestral concerts in the Art Nouveau hall of the Liszt Academy, the national concert hall at Müpa, and operetta and folk dance too.

Pula has one great summer stage: the Arena itself, used for touring concerts and the film festival screenings under the stone arches. Outside summer there is little beyond Croatian-language drama at the Istrian National Theatre.

Budapest is built on hot springs, and its baths are its greatest draw for relaxing. You can sit in the outdoor pools of the Széchenyi in the snow, in the Art Nouveau hall of the Gellért, or under the sixteenth-century Ottoman domes of Rudas and Király, and follow it with a slow coffee house afternoon.

Pula has no tradition of this kind. Wellness there means a hotel spa on Verudela or in Medulin, though walks along the pine-shaded coastal paths and long coffees on the Forum are restful in their own way.