Kotor or Sofia?

Kotor has the Adriatic on its doorstep, even though the town itself only offers concrete platforms and narrow pebble strips along the inner bay. The water there is calm and warm in summer. For sand, Jaz and the coves around Budva are half an hour over the hill, and the Lustica peninsula has quieter rocky spots.

Sofia has nothing comparable. In summer people swim in park pools or at Pancharevo lake, and the Black Sea coast needs its own separate stay.

Kotor's best food comes from the bay and the mountains behind it: mussels, black cuttlefish risotto and grilled fish, with Njegusi ham, sharp cheese and a glass of Vranac. The old town's terraces are uneven, though, and the better meals mean heading out to konobas in Dobrota, Prcanj or Perast.

Sofia gives you more to eat well across a stay. There is banitsa from corner bakeries in the morning, kebapche and clay-pot dishes in mehana taverns, lighter bistros behind Vitosha Boulevard, and wine bars pouring Mavrud and Melnik. Neither city has much cooking beyond the Balkans and the Mediterranean.

Both cities fill two or three days well, but in different ways. Kotor works as a single place: a UNESCO-listed triangle of marble lanes around the Cathedral of St Tryphon, with walls climbing to the fortress of St John. The appeal is the whole townscape rather than any museum.

Sofia offers separate sights from many eras: Roman Serdica beside the metro, the Rotunda of St George, the gold domes of Alexander Nevsky and the medieval frescoes of Boyana Church. Add the Thracian gold in the National Museum of History, and Sofia has the deeper collections, even if the streets between them are often plain.

In Kotor, an evening usually means a drink on an old-town square once the day visitors have left and the walls are lit on the cliff. A few bars stay open late in summer, and the town goes quiet early the rest of the year. Anyone wanting a club night goes down the coast to Budva.

Sofia has a proper scene of its own, and it runs all year. Small cocktail bars, craft beer pubs and wine bars fill the streets around Shishman and Tsar Ivan Asen, cellar bars sit under the grand old buildings, and a handful of electronic clubs keep the night going.

Both cities have outstanding scenery, but Kotor pairs mountain with water. Its fjord-like bay sits under cliffs rising more than 1,000m, the Ladder of Kotor starts at the town gates and Lovcen National Park lies up the hairpins. Kayaking along the shore is one of the best ways to see it.

Sofia's landscape is higher and snowier. Buses and a gondola reach Vitosha within the hour, Cherni Vrah tops 2,200m and the Seven Rila Lakes are within a day. In winter there is skiing, from modest runs on Vitosha to Borovets.

Kotor has more within easy reach. Perast and its island church are twenty minutes away, and the other bay villages, Herceg Novi, Budva's old town and Sveti Stefan are all close. Cetinje and the Njegos mausoleum on Lovcen make an easy inland day, and Dubrovnik and Ostrog suit longer days out.

Sofia's outings are fewer but carry real weight. Rila Monastery and Plovdiv's Roman theatre and painted old town are each about two hours away. Koprivshtitsa and the Iskar Gorge are quieter options.

Neither city has much built for children, but each has a few easy wins. In Kotor, these are the car-free old town and its street cats, calm bay water off the jetties and a boat out to Perast's island church. The hot, steep fortress climb is best skipped with small children.

Sofia offers big parks with playgrounds, a gondola ride and forest trails on Vitosha, a hands-on science centre and the minerals at the Museum of Earth and Man. Cracked pavements and high kerbs make pushchairs hard work.

Inside Kotor's walls everything is a few flat minutes on foot. Leaving town is the hard part: buses round the bay are not frequent enough, the single shore road jams in summer, and most visitors hire a car or a driver for Lovcen and the coves.

Sofia is far easier without a car. The metro runs from the airport through the centre to the station and Vitosha's foothills, trams and buses cover the rest, and taxis are plentiful. Signs away from the centre are mostly in Cyrillic.

In Kotor, shopping is small old-town shops with silver filigree, lace and cat-themed souvenirs. The best things to take home are Vranac, Njegusi ham and olive oil from the green market. For brands, people go to the marina at Tivat.

Sofia has a little more. Vitosha Boulevard and the outer malls cover the international chains, and for something local there is rose oil, Troyan pottery and the icon flea market near Alexander Nevsky. It fills an afternoon rather than a trip.

Kotor is cheaper than the better-known resorts up the coast, but it is the more expensive of these two in any month. Konoba meals, Vranac and the buses round the bay are moderately priced. In July and August, though, rooms inside the walls and the terraces on the main squares charge resort rates. An apartment in Dobrota or Muo and a visit in May, June or September bring the cost down noticeably.

Sofia is much cheaper than Kotor whatever the season, and is among the least expensive capitals in the European Union. A central hotel, a dinner of clay-pot dishes and a bottle of Mavrud cost far less than the same night on the bay, and even the upmarket bistros and cocktail bars feel moderate. Because there is no beach season to push prices up, you also have less reason to plan your dates around cost.

Kotor's live culture comes in seasonal bursts. There are summer recitals and choirs in its churches and squares, the long-established carnival and Boka Night with decorated boats on the bay, and otherwise mostly a musician on a restaurant terrace.

Sofia has a proper season. The National Opera and Ballet performs through most of the year, the Sofia Philharmonic plays at Bulgaria Hall, and Orthodox choral singing and folk music in taverns give you something you will not hear at home.

Kotor has no bathing culture, so wellness means a resort-hotel spa along the bay or at Tivat. Its real restful side is the slow pace outside the walls: quiet early mornings on the water and long lunches in the shore villages.

Sofia sits on mineral springs, and locals fill bottles at the warm taps beside the old Central Mineral Baths. You can soak in pools on the city's edge or in Bankya, half an hour west, with bigger spa resorts such as Velingrad further out.