Dubrovnik or Trieste?

Neither city has much sand, but Dubrovnik is the better place to swim. People swim from the rocks below the walls, at Banje and in the Lapad coves, and better water lies a short boat ride away on Lokrum, around the Elafiti islands and at the sandy cove of Sunj on Lopud. The beaches fill early in high season.

Trieste's swimming is more an urban routine than a scenic draw. Locals lay their towels on the stepped concrete and the lawns of Barcola, and some old bathing establishments still have changing cabins. The pebble coves at Sistiana, Duino and Grignano are prettier, but they lack the island-hopping that makes Dubrovnik special.

Trieste is the more rewarding city to eat in. Its buffets carve boiled pork and sausages with horseradish and sauerkraut, jota and sardoni share the menus, and the coffee culture has a language all its own. The osmize on the Karst add farmhouse wine and cured meats.

Dubrovnik's cooking is good but narrower: grilled fish, black risotto, Ston oysters and Peljesac reds. The trouble is that the Old Town is full of restaurants aimed at day visitors, so eating well means going out to Lapad, Gruz or the villages of Konavle.

Dubrovnik has the stronger single sight. It is an intact walled town with almost 2km of ramparts to walk, and the Stradun, the Rector's Palace, the Franciscan and Dominican monasteries and Fort Lovrijenac are all packed into a few minutes' walk. It is compact enough to see in two or three days, though summer crowds take some of the pleasure away.

Trieste's heritage is more spread out and more mixed. You find Habsburg grandeur on Piazza Unità and along the Canal Grande, a Roman theatre and the mosaics of San Giusto, and Miramare Castle on the coast. A large synagogue and the Risiera di San Sabba memorial add history from the twentieth century.

Both cities offer a quiet night out rather than a big one, but the evenings feel different. In Dubrovnik the evening is a sunset drink at the bars set into the rocks outside the walls. After that come small cocktail bars off the Stradun and the odd club, one of them inside the Revelin fortress. Much of it shuts between November and March.

Trieste's evenings revolve around the aperitivo, with spritz on Piazza Unità and by the canal. Students keep a few streets of wine bars busy all year, and in summer the crowd moves out to the kiosks along Barcola.

Both have a fine natural setting, but the landscapes differ. Dubrovnik's outdoors is the sea and its islands. You can kayak around the walls, climb Mount Srd for the view across the archipelago, walk the Elafiti islands and visit the saltwater lakes of Mljet.

Trieste looks inland as much as out to sea. The Karst plateau rises right behind the city, with the Strada Napoleonica, the Rilke Path, the Val Rosandra gorge and huge caves such as the Grotta Gigante. The gulf is serious sailing water, and the Julian Alps are close enough for mountain days.

Trieste is the stronger base for day trips. Aquileia, Cividale, star-shaped Palmanova, Grado and the Collio wine country are all about an hour or so away in Friuli. Piran, Ljubljana and the Postojna cave lie across the Slovenian border, and Venice is a realistic day by train.

Dubrovnik's excursions are fewer but memorable: the Bay of Kotor and Perast in Montenegro, Ottoman Trebinje, Ston's long walls and the Elafiti islands by ferry. Border queues in summer can eat into the day.

Neither city is built around children, and families will find both manageable rather than tailored. Dubrovnik's appeal is the sea: boat rides to Lokrum, calm coves at Lapad, the cable car and walking the walls. But it has endless stairs for pushchairs and tiring summer crowds, so families do best staying near the beaches.

Trieste is calmer and suits older children who enjoy caves and castles. The Grotta Gigante, the grounds of Miramare and the science centre are the highlights, while rocky swimming and steep streets make it harder going with toddlers.

Trieste is easier to get around. Its main sights sit on flat ground by the sea, and a dense bus network runs to Barcola, Miramare and up onto the Karst. Boats also cross the bay to Muggia. The steep climb up to San Giusto is the only real effort.

Dubrovnik's car-free Old Town is tiny, but most visitors stay outside it and ride buses to the Pile gate, where the single coast road clogs in summer. The steep terrain between districts makes walking harder than the map suggests.

Shopping is a minor part of a visit to either city, but Trieste offers a little more. It has ordinary Italian clothing shops around Corso Italia, antique and second-hand shops in the old town lanes, and good coffee, Karst honey and presnitz to take home. Dubrovnik is mostly souvenir shops, brightened by Konavle embroidery, filigree jewellery and candied orange peel from the morning market.

Trieste is much the cheaper stay. Rooms are fairly priced for most of the year, buffet meals and coffee at the bar cost little, and the waterfront, the cathedral hill, Barcola and the Karst walks are free.

Dubrovnik is expensive by any Mediterranean measure. Summer rooms near the Old Town cost as much as in a major Western European capital, and the walls, the cable car and the boat trips soon add up. Spring, autumn and a base in Lapad or Cavtat help, but they don't close the gap.

Trieste has the year-round stage. The Teatro Verdi on the waterfront runs a full opera and ballet season, the city keeps alive a Habsburg fondness for operetta that is rare in Italy, and the Politeama Rossetti and a Slovenian-language theatre widen the programme.

Dubrovnik's performing life is concentrated in the Summer Festival. In July and August its plays and concerts fill Fort Lovrijenac and the Rector's Palace atrium, which is a wonderful setting, but for the rest of the year there is little to see.

Neither city has thermal baths, and spas mean hotel spas in both. Trieste is the more restful of the two because of its pace. Long sittings in old coffee houses and evening walks on the Molo Audace are part of everyday life there. In Dubrovnik, calm means leaving the summer Old Town for the Elafiti islands or Cavtat, or coming in spring or autumn.