Gdansk or Warsaw?

This is the biggest gap between the two. Gdansk has real Baltic beaches within the city: fine sand from Brzeźno to Sopot, quieter Stogi backed by pines, and the Hel Peninsula further out. The sea stays cool, but in summer an afternoon on the shore fits easily into a city stay.

Warsaw has no coast within easy reach. Its summer beaches are the sandbanks of the Vistula, which are for lounging and drinks rather than swimming. A real swim means the Zegrze reservoir or an outdoor pool.

Both cities serve the same Polish basics, from pierogi and żurek to cheap milk-bar lunches, but Warsaw takes the cooking further. Its chefs build tasting menus from game, forest mushrooms and fermented vegetables, and the converted factories and market halls hold food courts and wine bars.

Gdansk has its strength in the sea. Smoked and fried fish, herring and Kashubian country cooking are the things to order, and Goldwasser is the local liqueur. Skip the restaurants along Długa, which mostly serve visitors, and eat in Wrzeszcz, the shipyard area or Sopot.

The two are closely matched, and both tell the story of a city rebuilt after 1945. In Gdansk the attraction is a merchant port. You walk the Royal Way past Artus Court and the Neptune Fountain to the medieval crane, with the vast brick bulk of St Mary's above. The twentieth century is told on the spot: the war began at Westerplatte, and Solidarity started in the shipyard.

Warsaw has the grander, royal side. There is the UNESCO-listed rebuilt Old Town and Royal Castle, and the Royal Route runs on to Łazienki and Wilanów. It also has more of the great museums, with the Warsaw Rising Museum and POLIN alongside the National Museum and the Chopin Museum.

Warsaw is the stronger city for going out, and it keeps going all year. Weekends fill Mazowiecka Street and the streets around Nowy Świat, the pavilion bars run cheap drinks until morning, and the courtyards and factories of Praga host techno nights.

Gdansk spreads its evenings across the Tricity. There are quiet pubs in the Main Town, student bars in Wrzeszcz and warehouse nights at the shipyard. It only really comes alive in summer, when the clubs on Sopot's Monte Cassino street fill up.

Gdansk has more variety. Wooded hills rise straight behind Oliwa and Sopot, and a coastal cycle path runs to Gdynia. The Kashubian lakes lie to the west, and the Bay of Puck draws kitesurfers and windsurfers.

Warsaw offers space rather than scenery. Kampinos National Park, with its inland dunes, marshes and elk, begins at the city's edge, and the wild eastern bank of the Vistula is unusual for a capital. Beyond that it is flat lowland with no sea or hills.

Gdansk has the stronger day trips, led by Malbork, the Teutonic Knights' castle, about 35 minutes away by train. Sopot and Gdynia make easy half-days. Frombork, Pelplin and the Kashubian villages add more, and in summer boats run to Hel.

From Warsaw the choice thins out sooner. Łódź's factory palaces and Lublin's old town work as day trips, and Chopin's birthplace at Żelazowa Wola and the Nieborów and Arkadia gardens are closer. Toruń, though, is better as an overnight stay from Warsaw, while from Gdansk it makes a long but manageable day.

Both are safe, easy cities with children, and both have a large zoo. What sets them apart is the season. Gdansk is a summer place for families, with shallow, sandy beaches, Gdynia's aquarium, the Hevelianum hilltop fort and boat trips to the Sopot pier.

Warsaw holds up better year-round. The Copernicus Science Centre and its planetarium can fill a whole day, and indoor water parks take families through the winter. In both cities the major war museums suit older children better.

Both are easy to get around without a car. Gdansk has a small, flat, pedestrian centre that you see on foot. The SKM commuter trains then run along the coast through Oliwa and Sopot to Gdynia, so the main effort is the length of the Tricity.

Warsaw's sights are spread out across wide post-war avenues. Trams and two metro lines do the work there, and you'll ride them more often.

Warsaw is the better city for shopping, though neither has great shopping streets. It has the big malls, a luxury department store and the designer boutiques of Mokotowska Street, along with Hala Mirowska and weekend flea markets selling communist-era objects.

Gdansk's real draw is amber, sold in the workshops along Mariacka Street. In summer the centuries-old St Dominic's Fair fills the old town with crafts and antiques.

Both are good value by Western European standards, with cheap transport, modest museum tickets and inexpensive meals. The difference is when room rates rise. In Gdansk they climb in July and August, when Poles crowd to the coast and Sopot charges seaside rates. In Warsaw business travel pushes up central hotels on weekdays and during trade fairs, so weekends there are the cheaper time.

Warsaw has the deeper programme. The national opera and ballet play the Grand Theatre's huge stage, and the National Philharmonic runs a full season. Chopin recitals run all year, with free concerts at his monument in Łazienki on summer Sundays, and the jazz cellars have a long history.

Gdansk has a decent season on a smaller scale. There is the Baltic Opera, the Philharmonic in its old power station, and a Shakespeare festival at the theatre with the opening roof. Organ recitals in Oliwa Cathedral are the local tradition to catch.

Neither city is a place to come for wellness, and both rely on hotel spas and saunas. Gdansk has Sopot's grand old spa hotels by the sea, plus morsowanie, the winter sea-dipping that locals take up on cold weekend mornings. Warsaw has the towel-waving sauna rituals of its water parks, the graduation tower at Konstancin-Jeziorna, and slow mornings in Łazienki to offset a brisk capital pace.