Burgas or Sibiu?

There is no real contest here. Burgas has a long town beach of soft, dark sand below the Sea Garden. Locals prefer Sarafovo or Kraimorie, away from the port, and a whole coast of small bays and broad sands from Sozopol to Sunny Beach lies within an hour. The catch is the short season, from late June to mid-September.

Sibiu is landlocked in Transylvania, a long day's travel from any sea. The salt lakes at Ocna Sibiului, about 20km out, make for an unusual summer float, but apart from them, swimming means outdoor pools and mountain reservoirs.

Both cities feed you well and simply rather than ambitiously, and neither has much international range. Where they differ is what goes on the plate. Burgas cooks from the sea, with fried sprats, grilled bluefish, turbot and mussels from the gulf at plain harbourside places, and Pomorie and Thracian wines to go with them.

Sibiu cooks from the hills: sarmale with polenta, bean soup in a bread bowl, smoked pork, and sheep's cheese from the Marginimea villages, served in vaulted cellars around the squares. Go to Burgas for fish and to Sibiu for heartier, meatier cooking.

Sibiu is by far the richer city to explore. In its Saxon Upper Town, the three linked squares, the Gothic Lutheran Cathedral, the Bridge of Lies and the surviving guild towers make the streets the main attraction. The Brukenthal's European paintings and the hundreds of rural buildings at ASTRA add real substance.

Burgas is a younger port city whose sights are a few small regional museums and the sculptures of the Sea Garden. Its best heritage lies on the edges, at the Roman and Ottoman baths of Aquae Calidae and on St Anastasia Island, and two days covers it.

Burgas has more to offer after dark, but mostly in summer. From June to September the seafront and the pedestrian centre stay up late, and for anyone who wants to dance until dawn, the resort clubs of Sunny Beach are about forty minutes up the coast. It is a seasonal scene, though. Once the visitors leave, an evening out usually means a quiet drink or dinner in a mehana.

Sibiu's nights are smaller but less tied to the weather. Its students keep the vaulted cellar bars and craft beer pubs of the old town going through the academic year, not just in summer. It is good for a drink after dinner under old brick ceilings, but there is no equivalent of Sunny Beach to escalate to.

Sibiu has the grander landscape. The Southern Carpathians fill its horizon, with easy hiking around Paltinis, the Fagaras ridge rising above 2,500m and the hairpins of the Transfagarasan road climbing to Balea Lake. Brown bears live in the forests.

Burgas is flat but distinctive. Its four lakes and lagoons lie on the Via Pontica, where storks, pelicans and flamingos gather in late summer and autumn. The Poda reserve, the wooded hills of Strandzha and windy shallows for kitesurfing add to it, but there are no mountains within reach.

From Burgas, the outings follow the coast and are mostly old seaside towns. The UNESCO-listed peninsula of Nessebar, with its medieval churches, and the wooden old quarter of Sozopol are each about forty minutes away by regional bus. Pomorie, with its salt museum and Thracian tomb, is closer still. The Strandzha villages lie inland to the south, and Varna, just under two hours north, is the longest trip that makes sense in a day.

Sibiu has the longer list and more variety. Within reach are walled Sighisoara, Biertan and the other fortified Saxon churches, the star-shaped Habsburg citadel at Alba Iulia and the Gothic Corvin Castle at Hunedoara, and the Marginimea shepherd villages fill an easy half day. The trains are slow, so most of these trips need a car or a tour.

Burgas suits young children better in summer, mainly because of the sea: water that shelves gently, soft sand, and the shaded playgrounds of the Sea Garden right beside it. The centre is flat and easy with a pushchair, and the water parks are up the coast. Out of season, though, there is little to do.

Sibiu has fewer draws but they work all year: the windmills and farmhouses of ASTRA, the small zoo in Dumbrava park and the Natural History Museum for wet days. Its stairways between the Upper and Lower Town are hard work with a pushchair.

Both centres are compact and walkable, and both cities have an airport close to town. Burgas is flat from the station to the Sea Garden and easy to cycle, while Sibiu means climbing steep lanes and stairways between the Upper and Lower Town.

Further out, Burgas is easier without a car, as coastal buses reach Sozopol, Nessebar and Pomorie, though they fill up in high summer. From Sibiu, slow and infrequent trains leave the mountains and fortified churches to drivers and tours.

Neither city is worth a trip for shopping, and both cover the basics with high-street chains and malls. What you take home differs. From Burgas it is mostly edible or practical: local wine, rose oil, honey and salt from Pomorie.

Sibiu has the better crafts, with painted ceramics, embroidered blouses, wooden toys and icons on glass along Nicolae Balcescu Street. Its Christmas market and summer pottery fair on the Large Square are the highlights of its year.

Both are cheap by European standards, with inexpensive meals, local wine and beer, cheap transport and modest museum entry. Prices rise at different times. In Burgas it is the July and August peak, when coastal rooms fill up. In Sibiu it is the June theatre festival and the Christmas market season. Outside those weeks, either is easy on a budget.

Sibiu is the stronger city for the stage. The Radu Stanca National Theatre is known well beyond Romania. Each June the International Theatre Festival, one of the largest anywhere, fills the halls, churches and squares for over a week, and there is also a jazz festival and a regular philharmonic season.

Burgas relies on the State Opera, whose opera and ballet are easier for foreign visitors to follow than spoken drama, and on summer festivals on open-air stages by the sea. Out in the Strandzha villages, folk music and fire-dancing survive as living customs.

Burgas makes more of its spa heritage. Hot springs have been used here since Roman times, and the black, salty mud of the Atanasovsko and Pomorie lakes is used for wraps in sanatoria. Plenty of visitors simply smear it on at the shore and let it dry in the sun. The more polished spa hotels are in Pomorie.

Sibiu's own offer is a few hotel wellness areas, so relaxation comes from the slow pace of the old town, floating in the salt lakes at Ocna Sibiului and the clean mountain air of Paltinis.