Gdansk or Riga?

On the shore the two are close matches: fine pale sand, gently shelving water that suits small children, and a Baltic that only reaches about 18 to 20°C in high summer. Either way, a beach day is a summer extra rather than the point of the trip.

The difference is how the beach fits into the stay. In Gdansk, Brzeźno and Jelitkowo are on the tram line and the sand runs on towards Sopot, with pine-backed Stogi and the Hel Peninsula for quieter water. Riga's beach is Jurmala, a separate resort of wooden villas and dunes half an hour away by train, so going to the sea there is more of an outing.

Neither city is a food destination, and both have historic centres full of restaurants aimed at visitors. The cooking does differ in character. Gdansk serves Polish comfort food, with pierogi, żurek, herring and Kashubian potato dishes, and its old milk bars serve canteen food very cheaply. Goldwasser and flavoured vodkas are the local drinks.

Riga's best food experience is a place rather than a dish: the Central Market in its zeppelin hangars, with smoked eel, sprats, rye bread and pickles. The Quiet Centre adds restaurants built around foraged ingredients, and Black Balsam is the bitter local liqueur to try.

Both are rebuilt or preserved Hanseatic ports with merchant houses and great brick churches, and both reward two or three days. Gdansk's real strength is the twentieth century. The Museum of the Second World War, Westerplatte and the Solidarity story at the shipyard give it a weight of history that few cities match, set against the Royal Way and the huge bulk of St Mary's.

Riga's distinction is architectural. Beyond its UNESCO-listed Old Town, the streets around Alberta iela are lined with hundreds of carved Art Nouveau facades, best enjoyed on a slow walk. The open-air ethnographic museum in the pine forest adds rural Latvia.

Both offer a decent night out without being a reason to travel, but the layout differs. In Gdansk, going out is spread along the coast: quiet bars in the Main Town, student bars in Wrzeszcz, warehouse club nights in the shipyard, and in summer the clubs of Sopot, with late trains running back.

Riga keeps it compact, with cellar bars and late clubs packed into the Old Town, which can turn loud with weekend groups. The calmer local evenings are found around Miera iela and on summer canal terraces.

Gdansk's outdoors faces the sea. The wooded ravines of the Tricity Landscape Park climb straight up behind Oliwa and Sopot, the Kashubian lakes lie an hour inland, and the Bay of Puck behind Hel is one of the region's best waters for kitesurfing and windsurfing.

Riga looks inland instead, to rivers and bogs. The Gauja valley at Sigulda has red sandstone cliffs, caves and canoeing, at their best in autumn colour, and Kemeri's boardwalks cross a raised bog that is most atmospheric in early-morning mist. Neither has hills of any height, so in both this is walking, cycling and paddling country.

Each has one grand excursion. From Gdansk it is Malbork, the vast Teutonic castle just over half an hour away by train. From Riga it is Rundale, a Baroque Rastrelli palace with French gardens that is best reached by road. Gdansk's options are a little easier without a car, with Gothic Torun, Copernicus's Frombork and summer boats to Hel.

Riga answers with Turaida castle at Sigulda and the small medieval town of Cesis. Beyond about two hours, its list of easy days out runs thin.

Gdansk is better set up for children. Beyond the shallow beaches, it has a large zoo in the hills at Oliwa, an aquarium on the Gdynia pier, a hands-on science centre and the Hevelianum in its hilltop fort. River and pier boat trips are simple treats, and the pedestrian Main Town is flat and easy with a pushchair.

Riga is safe and calm too, with a zoo in the Mezaparks forest, farmsteads to explore at the open-air museum and an indoor water park in Jurmala. But the Old Town cobbles are hard work with small wheels, and little in the city is designed with children in mind.

Both centres are easily walkable, and neither needs a car except for the deep countryside. Gdansk spreads further, with the three Tricity towns strung along some 30km of coast, but the SKM commuter railway turns that into one simple line. A rail link also reaches the airport.

Riga's sights sit closer together, linked by the canal parks. Beyond them you rely on a mix of trams, trolleybuses and buses that takes some working out, and in winter the icy cobbles slow you down.

Amber is the shared souvenir, and neither city is a fashion destination. Gdansk focuses on amber, with centuries-old workshops along Mariacka Street, and in summer it has St Dominic's Fair, a market dating back to the Middle Ages.

Riga's craft offer is broader. Look for linen, patterned knitted mittens, ceramics and wooden kitchenware, and Black Balsam to take home. Its best shopping event is the June craft fair at the open-air museum.

Gdansk is the cheaper of the two day to day. Milk bars, proper restaurants, beer and coffee all cost well below Western levels, and so does public transport. The main thing to watch is rooms in July and August, especially in Sopot, when Poles head for the coast and hotels fill.

Riga is moderate overall, but its Old Town squares charge close to Western European prices for food and drink. Staying and eating a few streets beyond the walls brings costs down, and its opera seats are a real bargain.

Music is where Riga pulls clearly ahead. The Latvian National Opera and Ballet plays most nights from autumn to spring, with seats that are easy to get, the national orchestra performs in the Great Guild hall, and the Dom Cathedral's organ is heard often. Behind it all is a choral tradition that peaks in the Song and Dance Festival every five years.

Gdansk has a respectable season but lighter depth. It has the Baltic Opera, a philharmonic in a converted power station and a Shakespeare festival in a theatre with an opening roof. Organ recitals at Oliwa and Gdynia's large summer rock and pop festival round it out.

Riga has the real spa culture. Jurmala's sulphur springs, peat mud treatments and pine-set spa hotels are half an hour away, and the Latvian pirts offers steam, birch-branch whisking and cold plunges at countryside sauna houses.

Gdansk can manage a pampering afternoon in Sopot's grand old seafront hotels, but there is no bathing tradition behind it. The one local custom is morsowanie, wading into the icy Baltic on winter mornings, which is bracing rather than restful.