Graz or Ljubljana?

Neither city is a swimming destination, but Ljubljana has more water within reach. Lake Bled, about an hour away, is a proper Alpine lake for a summer swim, and the Adriatic at Piran is close enough for a day by the sea, even if the shore there is concrete platforms and pebble rather than sand.

Graz has to make do with the former gravel pits south of town, such as the Schwarzlsee. They have grassy banks and jetties, which is fine for a hot afternoon, but there is no sea or big lake within easy reach.

The two eat much alike and share a good deal of their larder, since Slovenian Styria runs right up to the border. Pumpkin seed oil and wines from the Styrian hills appear in both. Graz leans harder on its regional dishes, with oil-dressed chicken salad and Wurzelfleisch, and has farmers' markets at Kaiser-Josef-Platz and Lendplatz every morning except Sunday.

Ljubljana's strength is wine by the glass from Vipava and Goriška Brda, including the western orange wines, poured at bars along the river. You eat štruklji or jota in gostilna inns, and on warm days the street-food gathering takes over the market square.

Graz has more to see. Its old town of arcaded Renaissance courtyards runs up to the cathedral and the Mausoleum of Ferdinand II, and it has two genuine standouts in the Landeszeughaus armoury and the Baroque Schloss Eggenberg. The Kunsthaus and the Murinsel bring a modern counterpoint across the river.

Ljubljana is more about the city as a whole than any single sight. It is Plečnik's city of bridges, colonnades and embankments, with a castle reached by funicular and Metelkova's murals for an alternative streak. Its museums are pleasant but less of a draw.

Evenings out are on much the same modest, student-driven scale in both cities, and neither is built for serious clubbing. Graz goes out in the tight old-town lanes of the Bermuda Triangle around Mehlplatz, with artier bars in Lend, though it empties noticeably when the students leave for the summer.

Ljubljana does its drinking on the riverside terraces along the Ljubljanica. Late nights mean Metelkova, the former barracks where small, scruffy clubs run into the early hours at weekends.

Ljubljana has the bigger landscape on its doorstep. The Kamnik-Savinja Alps start about 40 minutes out, and the Julian Alps, Triglav National Park and the Soča's rafting water are about an hour or a little more away. Postojna and Škocjan caves add a world underground. Šmarna Gora gives locals a climb before work.

Graz's outdoors is gentler. It has the Schöckl with its cable car and paragliders, the Mur cycle path, the ladders of the Bärenschützklamm and the rolling South Styrian wine hills. For serious alpine hiking you have to drive about two hours to the Gesäuse.

Ljubljana sits in the middle of a small country, and it shows. Bled, Škofja Loka, Predjama Castle in its cliff, Idrija and the coast at Piran are all easy outings, and Trieste and Zagreb add a second country. Buses and trains reach the main ones.

Graz's excursions are mostly rural Styria: the South Styrian Wine Road, Riegersburg on its volcanic crag, Admont Abbey's library and Maribor across the border. A car makes most of them much easier. Lipizzaner fans can visit the stud at Piber from Graz or the breed's original home at Lipica from Ljubljana.

Both cities are calm, safe and compact with a pushchair, but Graz has more aimed squarely at children. The Schlossberg alone fills a morning: a glass lift up, the underground slide down and the Märchenbahn train through fairytale tunnels. It also has a dedicated children's museum in the Augarten, and summer toboggan runs on the Schöckl.

Ljubljana offers the castle funicular, the dragons on Dragon Bridge and a modest zoo on Rožnik hill. The puppet theatre puts on shows small children can follow without knowing Slovene.

Both centres are flat, mostly pedestrianised and easy on foot, but Graz has the better public transport. Trams run along the Herrengasse to the station and Eggenberg on one simple ticket, and a lift and funicular climb the Schlossberg.

Ljubljana has no tram or metro, only buses and electric shuttles in the centre, though you will rarely need them because everything is within about 20 minutes' walk. For the countryside, intercity buses beat its slow trains, and a car helps in both cities.

Graz is the better place for shopping, even if it is not a reason to go. It has proper high-street and traditional shops in historic buildings along the Herrengasse and Sporgasse, a grand nineteenth-century department store with a rooftop terrace, Lend's vintage and design shops, and specialist shops for loden and traditional costume.

Ljubljana is smaller still: the Central Market for honey and coastal salt, Idrija lace, a few boutiques on Trubarjeva and the Sunday flea market on the embankment. In both, the best things to take home are edible.

Ljubljana is the somewhat cheaper stay. Set lunch menus at the inns, fairly priced local wine and sights that cost little to enter all help, and you will spend almost nothing on transport. The exception is summer rooms in the old town, so stay outside the centre or come outside July and August.

Graz is fair rather than cheap. Its students keep lunches and bakeries good value, but sit-down dinners and wine cost what they do anywhere in Austria.

Graz offers the richer stage. Its opera house, the second largest in Austria, runs a full season, and the calendar has two well-known festivals: Styriarte for early and classical music, and steirischer herbst for avant-garde work in autumn. The music university's jazz programme also keeps a live jazz scene going.

Ljubljana has the Slovenian Philharmonic, the National Opera and Ballet and Cankarjev dom. Its high point is the summer festival in Plečnik's open-air Križanke courtyard, but most theatre is in Slovene.

Graz has the edge thanks to the Styrian thermal spa villages an hour to the east. Bad Blumau's grass-roofed Hundertwasser resort is the most striking, and Loipersdorf and Bad Radkersburg welcome day visitors to their warm pools.

Ljubljana relies on a water park with a sauna complex on the city's edge, with Slovenia's mineral spa towns about an hour's drive away. Both capitals of calm make up for it with car-free centres and long café afternoons, by the river in Ljubljana and in the Stadtpark in Graz.