Innsbruck or Ljubljana?

Neither city is a place for a beach trip, and swimming in both is a summer afternoon out of town. Innsbruck has small plateau lakes such as the Lanser See and the Natterer See, which get pleasantly warm, and the beautiful but chilly Achensee.

Ljubljana's options are the Sava, warm Lake Bled about an hour away, and the real sea at Piran and Izola about an hour and a half away. At the coast you swim from concrete platforms and pebbles rather than sand.

Ljubljana has the more rewarding table. In Innsbruck the best eating is often up a mountain: Gröstl, Kaspressknödel and Kaiserschmarrn at a hut after a walk, with coffee houses and old inns in town. There is little market culture, though, and the restaurants by the Golden Roof are aimed at tour groups.

Ljubljana has what Innsbruck lacks: an open-air Central Market under Plečnik's colonnades, a weekly street-food gathering in summer, and a real wine culture, with Vipava, Brda and orange wines poured by the glass along the river. Neither will fill more than a week of meals, but Ljubljana keeps you interested for longer.

Both cities have a compact old town you can cover in two or three days, but they show you different things. Innsbruck's draw is Habsburg history in individual great pieces: the Golden Roof, the Hofburg, Maximilian's tomb with its bronze figures in the Hofkirche, and the cabinet of curiosities at Ambras Castle.

Ljubljana is more about the whole townscape than any single sight. Plečnik's bridges, embankments and library, the baroque and Secession streets and the castle on its hill work as one ensemble, and the murals of Metelkova add an alternative edge that Innsbruck does not have.

Both are small university cities that are livelier after dark than their size suggests, and neither is a reason to go. Innsbruck's late nights happen in the bars and small clubs under the railway viaduct arches, and in winter much of the partying moves out to après-ski in the resorts. Ljubljana's evenings are spent outdoors on the riverside terraces, with Metelkova's scruffy clubs for later at weekends.

Innsbruck has the edge here, and it comes from how close the mountains are. A funicular from the edge of the old town connects to cable cars onto the Nordkette, the Karwendel nature park lies just behind it, and glaciers, via ferratas and a whole cluster of ski areas surround the city. Skiing on the Stubai Glacier for most of the year has no match near Ljubljana.

Ljubljana is still unusually green for a capital. You can climb Šmarna Gora or cycle the marshes without leaving the city. The serious country is a drive away, though: the Kamnik-Savinja Alps, Triglav National Park, the Soča for rafting, and the Postojna and Škocjan caves, which add an underground world Innsbruck lacks.

Ljubljana has more variety close by, because so much of Slovenia lies within an hour or two: Bled, Škofja Loka, Predjama Castle built into its cliff, the Lipizzaners at Lipica, Piran on the coast and the wine villages of Brda. You can be in Trieste or Zagreb in about two hours.

Innsbruck is a strong rail base in its own right. Hall in Tirol and Rattenberg are close, Munich and Salzburg are each just under two hours away, and across the Brenner, Bolzano and Merano bring Italy into reach. The Bavarian castles around Füssen make a longer outing by car.

Innsbruck gives children more to do, mostly because the mountains are so easy to reach. The funicular stops at the Alpenzoo, with its ibex, bears and wolves, on the way to the Nordkette. Summer brings adventure trails, playgrounds by the huts and warm plateau lakes, and in winter there are ski schools on gentle slopes.

Ljubljana is easy rather than exciting for children. The flat, largely car-free centre suits pushchairs, the castle funicular and the Dragon Bridge go down well, and the puppet theatre works without the language. Its small zoo and science centre fill only two or three days.

Both cities have a small, flat centre you can walk, and in both you rarely need a car. Innsbruck has trams and buses and a funicular to the mountains, plus ski buses and valley trains, so the countryside is easy to reach without driving. Ljubljana has no tram or metro, but its centre is mostly pedestrianised, with bike-share and electric shuttles. A hired car helps more there for the mountain valleys, because the rail network is slow.

Neither city is somewhere to shop seriously, and what is worth buying is local in both. In Innsbruck that means loden jackets, dirndls, woodcarvings, Speck and schnapps, and its outdoor and ski shops are excellent. Ljubljana leans towards edible and handmade gifts, such as market honey, coastal salt, pumpkin-seed oil and Idrija lace, with a few design boutiques on Trubarjeva and a Sunday flea market on the embankment.

Ljubljana is the easier city on your budget. Set lunch menus at the inns, fairly priced local wine, cheap entry to sights and a centre you cross on foot all keep costs down. The one exception is old-town hotels in July and August.

Innsbruck adds an Alpine resort premium to Western European prices. Ski season and the Christmas markets push hotel rates up, and an active trip quickly fills up with cable car tickets. The guest and city cards help, and spring and autumn are noticeably cheaper.

The two are close, both offering a solid provincial programme worth checking against your dates. Innsbruck's standout is its summer Festival of Early Music in historic rooms such as the Spanish Hall at Ambras, along with folk evenings of yodelling and brass. Ljubljana has a slightly broader range, with the Slovenian Philharmonic, the National Opera and Ballet, Cankarjev dom, and the open-air Ljubljana Festival in Plečnik's Križanke courtyard. Most of its theatre is in Slovene, though.

Neither city has its own thermal baths, so in both, relaxing means calm streets with the bigger spas a short trip out. In Innsbruck that means saunas with mountain views in the hotels of Igls and the plateau villages, with the large spa complexes of the Ötztal and Zillertal about an hour away. Ljubljana offers a water park sauna complex and slow afternoons at riverside cafés, and Slovenia's string of thermal spa towns lies within a similar drive.