Cluj-Napoca or Sibiu?

Neither city has a beach, and the Black Sea is a long day's travel from both. Summer swimming means salt lakes: the outdoor lakes at Turda, about forty minutes from Cluj, or the lakes at Ocna Sibiului, about 20km from Sibiu, where the water is dense enough to float in and warms up well in high summer. Either one is a pleasant afternoon, not a reason to choose the city.

Both cities cook in the same filling Transylvanian style, with sarmale, sour soups and papanași, so the difference lies at the edges. Cluj goes a little further. Its students support a serious specialty coffee scene around Piața Unirii and Piața Muzeului, and the Mihai Viteazul market sells farm cheese and smoked meats.

Sibiu's strength is the country on its doorstep. The shepherd villages of the Marginimea Sibiului supply sheep's cheese, smoked meats and brandy, and you eat in vaulted cellars around the squares. Neither city has much fine dining or international cooking.

Sibiu is the more rewarding town to look at. The Large Square, Small Square and Huet Square, with the Council Tower, the Lutheran Cathedral, the Bridge of Lies and the attic windows that locals call the eyes of the city, make it one of the best-preserved Saxon centres. The Brukenthal Museum and the ASTRA open-air museum add enough depth for two or three days.

Cluj's centre is handsome, but it feels more like a set of fine pieces than a whole: St Michael's Church and the Matthias Corvinus statue on Piața Unirii, the art museum in the Bánffy Palace and the Tailors' Bastion. Its open-air ethnographic museum in the Hoia hills is a close match for ASTRA, but the whole adds up to a day or two.

Cluj is clearly the place for a night out. Students make up about a fifth of the people who live there, so the cellar bars and terraces around Piața Muzeului and Strada Iuliu Maniu stay full late. A few clubs play electronic music in old industrial and courtyard spaces until morning.

Sibiu has the same mix of student cellar bars and craft beer on a smaller scale. It suits a drink after dinner rather than a night that runs until dawn. In both cities term time is livelier than high summer.

Sibiu has the mountains. The Fagaras range, the highest in Romania at over 2,500m, the hiking and modest skiing at Paltinis and the summer drive up the Transfagarasan to Balea Lake put real Carpathian scenery within easy reach.

Cluj's countryside is gentler. It has the Făget woods for walking and biking, Turda Gorge for a half-day canyon hike, and the karst plateaus and caves of the Apuseni further west. Around both cities you need a car for the best of it.

Sibiu is the better base for the classic Transylvanian outings. Sighisoara is about an hour and a half away and the fortified churches such as Biertan are closer still. Alba Iulia and Corvin Castle are an easy run west on the motorway.

From Cluj, the best-known towns are closer to three hours away and work better with an overnight stay. Its own list is shorter, but it has the outing everyone takes, the Turda Salt Mine, along with the Bánffy Castle at Bonțida and the village of Rimetea below its limestone crag.

Both cities are calm, safe and small enough to manage with children, and neither has much built for them. The difference is the big outing. From Cluj it is the Turda Salt Mine, with its underground lake and a Ferris wheel deep below ground. In Sibiu it is the ASTRA museum, with the zoo and playgrounds of Dumbrava park beside it.

Sibiu's traffic-free squares are easy with small children, but its stairways are hard going with a pushchair.

Both centres are compact and easy to walk, so the difference is in the layout. Cluj is flat around Piața Unirii and has buses, trolleybuses and a tram line for the wider city, though traffic is heavy at rush hour. Sibiu is smaller and largely pedestrianised, but getting between the Upper and Lower Town means steep lanes and steps.

From either city, slow regional trains make a hired car the practical way into the countryside.

Neither city is worth visiting for shopping, and both are best for Transylvanian crafts such as embroidered blouses and painted ceramics. Cluj adds a few independent design shops in its pedestrian streets and the ethnographic museum's shop. Sibiu has craft shops along Nicolae Balcescu Street and a summer pottery fair. Each city's best shopping comes with the Christmas market on its main square.

Both are inexpensive by European standards, with Sibiu a shade cheaper. Cluj's tech and university economy pushes restaurant and room prices above the Romanian norm, though opera and theatre seats are still a bargain. In Sibiu, guesthouses near the old town and hearty meals cost little if you stay away from the terraces on the main square.

Both get more expensive at their peaks: Cluj during its big summer music festivals, and Sibiu during the June theatre festival and the Christmas market season.

Cluj has the fuller year-round calendar. It has two opera companies, one Romanian and one Hungarian, two theatres and the Transylvania State Philharmonic, which means opera, ballet or a concert on most nights. In summer, some of Eastern Europe's largest music festivals fill the stadium area and a castle estate nearby.

Sibiu's stage life is narrower, but it has a bigger peak: the Radu Stanca National Theatre and the International Theatre Festival each June, when performances fill the halls, churches and squares. In both cities, music and dance work better than plays for visitors who don't speak Romanian.

Sibiu is the better choice for slowing down. Ocna Sibiului, about 20km away, has been a spa resort since the 19th century, with salt lakes for floating and mud cures. Paltinis offers clean mountain air for a quiet stay.

Cluj relies on hotel wellness centres and on the salt mine air and outdoor lakes at Turda. Its student crowd makes it less restful, though the Botanical Garden and the lake in Central Park are quiet places to sit for a while.