Helsinki or Tartu?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Helsinki makes a swim easier. Hietaniemi's sand is a walk from the centre, and city boats run out to island beaches such as Pihlajasaari, although the Baltic stays cool and the season lasts only a few weeks.

Tartu's town beach is Anne Kanal, on a calm channel of the Emajõgi river. For anything bigger you need a car: Pühajärve lake at Otepää, or the sandy shore of Lake Peipus under its red sandstone cliffs, where the shallow water warms up nicely on a good day.

Helsinki eats better and with more range. You can have salmon soup and Baltic herring at the Old Market Hall, a modern Nordic restaurant built on foraged produce, and a coffee-and-cinnamon-bun habit in between, though casual meals cost more than they are worth.

Tartu's table is smaller: student cafés, bakeries, a handful of modern Estonian kitchens and a riverside market hall. Its most distinctive food is out on Lake Peipus, where Old Believer villages sell smoked fish and onions from roadside stalls.

Helsinki has more to see. It runs from Engel's imperial Senate Square and whole streets of Jugend to Aalto's Finlandia Hall and the Temppeliaukio rock church, with Suomenlinna's UNESCO-listed fortress a ferry ride away and the Ateneum and Kiasma for art.

Tartu's heritage is that of a university town: the neoclassical main building, the sloping Town Hall Square and the cathedral ruins on Toome Hill. The Estonian National Museum is its one big-league sight, and the former KGB cells add a sobering hour.

Helsinki offers the fuller night out. Kallio's unpretentious bars and karaoke rooms, cocktail bars in the centre and a few proper clubs keep going late at weekends, and summer terraces by the water stretch the evenings, although drinks are expensive.

Tartu's nights follow the university calendar. In term time, student pubs and craft beer bars around Rüütli street are busy and cheap. In summer the town empties and the evenings move to riverside terraces, with little on offer for serious clubbing.

Helsinki's outdoors is built around the sea. Ferries reach islands for coastal walks and kayaking among the skerries, and Nuuksio's lakes and marked forest trails are under an hour away by bus.

Tartu's landscape is gentler and inland: canoeing on the Emajõgi, the sandstone cliffs at Taevaskoja, the rolling Otepää uplands with their famous ski trails, and the birdlife of Lake Peipus. Most of it is easier to reach with a car than without.

Both cities can reach Tallinn's medieval old town in about two hours, by fast ferry from Helsinki and by train from Tartu. Helsinki adds more easy outings by public transport: wooden Porvoo, Turku's castle and cathedral, and the craft village of Fiskars.

Tartu's trips are quieter and more rural. Viljandi's castle ruins and folk music, the painted Old Believer villages on Peipus, Alatskivi's Scottish-style manor and Võromaa's farm country are all worth the trip, but buses do not reach the villages, so a car is close to essential.

Helsinki is one of the easiest cities in the region to visit with children. Trams take buggies, cafés have play corners, and Linnanmäki amusement park, Korkeasaari zoo on its island and the Heureka science centre fill several days, with Suomenlinna's tunnels and summer ferry rides on top.

Tartu is just as safe and calm, and the AHHAA science centre with its planetarium can fill a whole day. Beyond that there is a toy museum, the national museum and riverside parks, which together make two or three good days rather than a week.

Both centres are compact and walkable. Helsinki adds a fuller network: green trams, a metro line, commuter trains and island ferries all on one ticket, with the airport about half an hour away by train, so a car is never needed.

Tartu's centre takes only minutes to cross on foot, and the electric bike-share is the handiest way to reach the national museum or the beach. Once you head for the lake villages, manors or forest trails, though, you will want a hire car.

Helsinki is a real shopping destination for Finnish design. Printed textiles, Aalto glass, ceramics and modernist furniture fill the studios and vintage shops of the Design District, while the Esplanadi and Stockmann cover the well-known brands.

Tartu has little beyond everyday shopping: a department store, a couple of malls and a few boutiques selling linen, woollens and ceramics. Honey and smoked fish from the market make better souvenirs than anything on the high street.

Tartu is much the cheaper of the two. Central guesthouses, student lunches, buses and bikes all cost little, although a good dinner and bar drinks are priced at an ordinary Western European level.

In Helsinki, meals, coffee and above all alcohol are well above the European norm. The way to save there is to lean on lunch menus, market food and the free pleasures of the shoreline and islands.

Helsinki has the weightier stage. The Music Centre is home to two major orchestras, the National Opera and Ballet plays a full season by Töölö Bay, and the Helsinki Festival closes the summer, with a strong rock and metal club circuit on the side.

Tartu does well for a small town. The Vanemuine, the first theatre to perform in Estonian, stages opera, ballet and musicals, and the choral tradition goes back to the first Estonian Song Festival in 1869. In both cities, visitors who do not speak the language should stick to music and dance rather than drama.

Helsinki is the easier place for a sauna vacation. Old wood-heated public saunas in Kallio, harbourside complexes where bathers plunge into the Baltic even in icy weather, and the 1920s Yrjönkatu baths are all within the city.

Tartu itself has a water centre, a few hotel spas and riverside saunas in summer. Its most memorable experience is an hour south in Võromaa, where farm smoke saunas end with a plunge into a pond or a roll in the snow.