Cluj-Napoca or Zakopane?

Neither town is anywhere near the sea, so a beach trip rules both out equally. What differs is the kind of swim. Cluj has summer dips in the outdoor salt lakes at Turda and at lidos on the edge of the city. Zakopane's mountain lakes are off limits, but its outdoor thermal pools stay warm through the snow, so it is the better place for a swim in winter.

Cluj-Napoca has the wider table. Romanian and Hungarian cooking meet in dishes such as varză à la Cluj, sour ciorbă and papanași. The student crowd supports a serious coffee scene around Piața Unirii and Piața Muzeului, and Târnave valley whites are on most wine lists.

Zakopane's highland cooking is narrower but memorable: grilled oscypek with cranberry jam, kwaśnica and lamb in timber inns with fiddlers by the fire. Many places on Krupówki serve the same menu, though, so the best meals are in the family inns on the side streets.

Cluj-Napoca gives you more to see. Its sights fill a day or two: the baroque palaces ringing Piața Unirii, the art collection in the Bánffy Palace, the Tailors' Bastion and the old Jewish and Hungarian quarters. The open-air ethnographic museum in the Hoia hills is the highlight.

Zakopane's heritage is smaller and more specialised. It centres on the steep-roofed timber villas of the Zakopane style, the Tatra Museum and the carved grave markers of Pęksowy Brzyzek. It is distinctive and worth seeing, but one unhurried day covers it.

After dark Cluj-Napoca is clearly the livelier of the two. Students fill the cellar bars and terraces around Piața Muzeului late into the night, and a few clubs play electronic music in old industrial courtyards until morning, especially in term time.

Zakopane's evenings are more limited. They run along Krupówki in pubs and rowdy inns, and come alive mainly for après-ski on winter weekends and at New Year. Outside those times most visitors are hikers who go to bed early.

Zakopane is in another league for the outdoors. The Tatras are true alpine country, and the trails begin at the edge of town. You can walk the long road to Morskie Oko, climb Rysy at 2,499m, take the cable car up Kasprowy Wierch or ski in winter, and the Dunajec gorge is close enough for rafting.

Cluj-Napoca's landscape is gentler: rolling forest in Făget and Hoia, a half-day hike through Turda Gorge, and the caves and karst plateaus of the Apuseni, which you really need a car to reach. It is pleasant hill walking rather than mountain drama.

The two are about level for days out, and each has a great salt mine within reach: Turda for Cluj-Napoca, and Wieliczka on the road to Kraków for Zakopane. Cluj's outings stay inside Transylvania and are mostly about history in stone. You can see the Habsburg citadel and coronation cathedral at Alba Iulia, the Bánffy country seat at Bonțida, the Saxon spire of Bistrița and the Art Nouveau palace in Târgu Mureș. Most are an hour or two by road, and they feel like a slow tour of one region's past.

Zakopane's outings are more varied in scale. One day can be spent in a major city, with Kraków's old town and royal castle. Another can be quieter: the painted interior of the wooden church at Dębno, half an hour away, or the street of pale log houses in Chochołów. Crossing into Slovakia for Spiš Castle and walled Levoča also adds a second country to a short stay, which Cluj cannot offer.

Zakopane is the easier choice with children. Gubałówka has a funicular and a toboggan run, Kościeliska valley is flat enough for small legs, and winter brings sledging and ski schools. The thermal water parks rescue wet days.

Cluj-Napoca is safe and calm but has fewer attractions for children. There are rowing boats in Central Park and the Botanical Garden, and the Turda Salt Mine, with its underground lake and Ferris wheel, is the big hit. After that, families tend to move on around Transylvania.

Both centres are easy on foot, and neither is hard to manage. Cluj-Napoca is a proper city, with buses, trolleybuses, a tram and an airport close by, but slow trains mean you need a car for the gorge, the mountains and the villages.

Zakopane is the other way round. Minibuses run cheaply to every trailhead and valley, so you can manage without a car once you arrive. The weak point is getting there, on a road that jams at peak times or a winding rail line from Kraków.

Neither is a shopping destination, and the best buys in both are local crafts. In Cluj-Napoca that means embroidered blouses, painted ceramics and woodwork from folk-art fairs and the ethnographic museum shop, plus the usual chains in the malls. Zakopane's market at the foot of Gubałówka is better for practical souvenirs: sheep's-wool sweaters, sheepskins, felt slippers and wheels of oscypek, with outdoor gear on Krupówki.

Cluj-Napoca is a little easier on the budget. It is expensive for Romania, but rooms, lunch menus and opera seats still cost well below Western European levels, though prices jump during the big summer festivals.

Zakopane is cheap compared with Western alpine resorts, but it is a resort, and rooms cost noticeably more at Christmas, New Year, in the school breaks and on long summer weekends. Spring and autumn are the cheapest times to go.

Cluj-Napoca has far more on stage. Romanian and Hungarian opera, theatre and ballet companies perform in separate houses, the philharmonic runs a regular season, and tickets are easy to get. In summer some of Eastern Europe's largest music festivals take over the stadium area and a nearby castle estate.

Zakopane's live culture is smaller and more rooted in the place. It has the Witkacy Theatre, highland string bands playing in the inns and the August folklore festival, with only occasional concerts beyond that.

Zakopane is far better for unwinding. It grew up as a mountain health resort, and geothermal water feeds big outdoor pool complexes in Chochołów, Białka Tatrzańska, Bukowina and Szaflary, where you can soak with the Tatras in view. A guesthouse on the quieter slopes avoids the noise of the centre.

Cluj-Napoca has no bathing tradition of its own. There are hotel spas, the salt air of the Turda mine and the summer salt lakes, and the Botanical Garden is a quiet place for an afternoon.