Budapest or Zadar?

Zadar has the sea, and Budapest does not. On the Zadar Riviera, a summer day naturally includes a swim, whether off the stone promenade, at Kolovare or under the pines at Borik. Pale sand is a short drive or ferry ride away at Nin and Sakarun. The city beaches themselves are pebble and concrete, and they fill up.

Budapest offers a different kind of summer water. Its big open-air lidos, Palatinus on Margaret Island above all, have lawns and several pools. Shallow Lake Velence is under an hour away. Balaton takes a long day or an overnight stay, and none of it replaces a coast.

Budapest is the better place to eat and drink. Paprika-rich Hungarian dishes, the Great Market Hall, layered cakes in the old coffee houses and a serious modern restaurant scene give it range. Its wine bars pour Tokaji, Eger reds and Balaton whites.

Zadar's strength is simple Dalmatian cooking: grilled fish, black risotto, lamb from under the peka bell, Pag cheese and a glass of local Maraschino. It is a pleasure for a few nights, but the konoba menus repeat themselves and there is little beyond them.

Budapest needs several days. The Danube panorama links Parliament, the Royal Palace and the Fishermen's Bastion, Andrássy Avenue runs out to Heroes' Square, and there are major collections in the Museum of Fine Arts and the National Gallery. The Dohány Street Synagogue, Art Nouveau buildings and Memento Park add more layers.

Zadar packs a lot of history into a small walled peninsula: the open Roman forum, round St Donatus, the Venetian gates and walls, and fine small museums of glass and archaeology. It is rewarding, but two full days see it all.

The two differ hugely in scale. In Budapest, a whole district goes out. The ruin bars of District VII fill tumbledown courtyards, and Kazinczy and Király streets stay loud until the small hours at weekends. In summer the party moves to garden bars and boats on the Danube. Groups can make the centre rowdy, so quieter drinkers head to the wine bars of District V.

Zadar's evenings start at sunset by the Sea Organ and drift on to café-bars along Kalelarga. It is pleasant, but small. Real clubbing means the trip to Zrće on Pag in high summer, and out of season the town is quiet.

Zadar is far the stronger base for the outdoors. Within an hour you can reach the gorges and climbing walls of Paklenica below the Velebit, boat trips to the stark Kornati and the cliffs of Telašćica, and the falls of Krka. Sea kayaking and island cycling are easy to arrange.

Budapest's outdoors is gentler. There is beech and oak forest in the Buda Hills, reached by cogwheel railway or chairlift, and caves under the city. Further out are the wooded ridges and riverside cycle path of the Danube Bend. It makes for good walking, but nothing on Velebit's scale.

The two are about level for day trips, but they work in different ways. From Budapest, suburban trains take you to Szentendre, Gödöllő and the Danube Bend castles at Visegrád and Esztergom. Eger, Hollókő and Pannonhalma are about two hours out, so the outings are mostly historic towns and abbeys.

From Zadar, the trips are about coast and islands. Šibenik's cathedral, tiny royal Nin, Split and Trogir lie along the shore, and ferries reach Ugljan, Pašman and car-free Silba. A car or an organised excursion makes most of it far easier.

Budapest has more made for children. There is the old zoo in City Park with its boating lake, the Children's Railway run by uniformed schoolchildren, the Palace of Wonders science centre and the summer lidos with wave pools and slides. Metro stairs and the noisy weekend streets of District VII need some planning.

Zadar is easier going but has fewer attractions: no zoo or aquarium. The car-free old town, the waterfront tiles that light up after dark and Nin's shallow sand make for simple seaside days. June and September spare families the worst heat.

Budapest is easy without a car. Flat central Pest is good walking, tram 2 along the embankment doubles as a sightseeing ride, and the short metro includes the little yellow carriages of Line 1. River ferries and cheap taxis fill the gaps.

In Zadar, the pedestrian peninsula takes a quarter of an hour to cross, and the island ferries leave from its edge. Beyond that the buses are basic, so the national parks and the coast really need a hire car or a tour.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Budapest gives more to browse. There is Herend and Zsolnay porcelain, small Hungarian design boutiques in Districts V and VII, the Ecseri flea market for communist-era finds and the Great Market Hall for paprika and Tokaji.

Zadar's buys are mostly edible or handmade: Maraschino, Pag cheese, figs and Pag lace. These are best found at the market by the walls, since Kalelarga is mainly jewellers and souvenirs.

Budapest goes further for the money. Transport, wine and ordinary coffee houses are cheap, central mid-range rooms are easy to find, and lunch menus in residential districts keep meals light. Only the streets around Váci utca and the Basilica charge more than they should.

Zadar runs closer to mid-range Western European costs. Apartments are good value outside July and August, but rooms on the peninsula climb in high summer, and boat trips and national park entry add up.

Budapest is one of Europe's great cities for music. There is opera at the State Opera House and the Erkel, orchestral and chamber concerts in the Liszt Academy's Art Nouveau hall and at Müpa, as well as operetta and the national folk ensembles. Tickets are easy to get, though spoken theatre is in Hungarian.

Zadar has one memorable fixture, the summer Musical Evenings of early music inside St Donatus. Add klapa singing in the squares in July and August, and there is little else, especially out of season.

This is where the two differ most. Budapest sits on more than a hundred hot springs, and bathing is part of everyday life. You can soak outdoors at the Széchenyi in the snow, under mosaics at the Gellért, or beneath the star-lit Ottoman domes of Rudas and Király.

Zadar has no bathing tradition, just hotel spas at Borik and the mineral mud of Nin's lagoon. Rest there means a slow café morning and the sunset from the Sea Organ steps.