Ljubljana or Munich?

Neither city is a beach destination, and in both a swim means fresh water. In Ljubljana locals use the Sava, and Lake Bled warms to around 24°C, but it is an hour away. The Adriatic at Piran, with its concrete platforms and small pebble strips, is a day trip.

Munich makes summer swimming a little easier to fit into a city stay. The gravel banks of the Isar are in town, and the Starnberger See and Ammersee, with their lawns and jetties, are under an hour by S-Bahn. The alpine-fed water stays on the fresh side.

Both kitchens are hearty and regional, but they are built around different drinks. Ljubljana is a wine city, pouring Vipava, Brda and Styrian bottles and the western orange wines by the glass along the river. Gostilna inns serve štruklji, žganci and jota, and the Central Market sells cheeses and pumpkin-seed oil.

Munich gives you more to eat your way through. The beer halls and chestnut-shaded beer gardens are an experience in themselves, coffee and cake is a daily ritual, and there are more starred restaurants. Over a week you will run through Ljubljana's choices sooner.

Ljubljana's appeal lies in a whole townscape shaped by one architect: Plečnik's Triple Bridge, colonnades and library, the baroque and Secession old town and the castle above. You can see it comfortably in two or three days, and its museums are pleasant rather than essential.

Munich is in another league for collections. The Kunstareal alone, with the old masters of the Alte Pinakothek, the Glyptothek and the Blue Rider painters of the Lenbachhaus, could fill a stay. The Residenz, Nymphenburg and the Deutsches Museum come on top of that.

In Ljubljana an evening usually means a drink on the embankments of the Ljubljanica. Metelkova's scruffy late clubs are the one real draw for a longer night, and on weekdays the river goes quiet after midnight.

Munich has more range. Its beer halls can take up a whole evening, Glockenbachviertel and Gärtnerplatz have cocktail and gay bars, and a handful of serious techno clubs run until morning. It is still tidy rather than wild, except during the Oktoberfest.

Both have the Alps close by, so the outdoors is a real strength either way. From Ljubljana, the Julian Alps, Triglav National Park and the Kamnik-Savinja range are about an hour away or less. There is rafting on the Soča, the Postojna and Škocjan caves lie in the karst, and Šmarna Gora is a climb within the city.

Munich's mountains around Garmisch and the Zugspitze are a little further off, but there is more green space in town: the vast English Garden, the surfers on the Eisbach and long cycle paths along the Isar. Its lakes are good for sailing and easy cycling, while the country around Ljubljana is wilder and more varied.

Both are excellent bases, but Munich's list is longer and nearly all of it is reachable by train. Augsburg, Nuremberg, Regensburg, Salzburg and Innsbruck are all within a couple of hours, and the royal castles of Neuschwanstein and Herrenchiemsee are the classic excursions.

From Ljubljana most of Slovenia is within reach: Bled, Škofja Loka, Predjama Castle set into its cliff, Idrija and the coast at Piran, with Trieste and Zagreb across the borders. The smaller places are easier with a car.

Ljubljana is calm and largely free of cars. Younger children enjoy the castle funicular, the dragons on the Dragon Bridge and the puppet theatre, but the zoo is modest and there is no aquarium or theme park.

Munich has far more for a week with children: the large Hellabrunn zoo, the children's area at the Deutsches Museum, the transport museum and an aquarium in the Olympic Park. A big theme park is within a day's reach, and beer gardens with playgrounds make even adult outings easy.

Ljubljana is a walking city. Almost everything is within about 20 minutes on foot, and you will mainly need a bus for the airport. The lack of a metro hardly matters at this size, though the remote mountain valleys are easier to reach by car.

Munich has a walkable old town too, plus an integrated U-Bahn, S-Bahn and tram network. That means the museums, Nymphenburg, the lakes and most day trips need no car at all.

In Ljubljana, shopping means gifts from the market: honey, salt from the coastal pans, pumpkin-seed oil and Idrija lace. There is also the Sunday flea market on the embankment and a few boutiques in the old town.

Munich is a proper shopping city. The luxury houses are on Maximilianstrasse, department stores line the pedestrian streets, specialist tailors make dirndls and lederhosen, and Christmas markets fill the old town in December. Only Ljubljana's flea market has no real match there.

Ljubljana is the cheaper stay. Lunch menus at the inns, fairly priced local wine and walking everywhere keep daily costs modest. Rooms are the main expense in both cities, but in Ljubljana they reach Western European levels mostly in the old town at the height of summer, while in Munich they are expensive all year.

Munich's rates rise further during the Oktoberfest and the trade fairs, and a restaurant dinner costs about what it would in any Western capital. Some things help: you can bring a picnic to a beer garden, the parks and lakes are free, and some museums charge only a token fee on Sundays. Even so, the same number of nights costs noticeably more in Munich.

Ljubljana has enough for a good night out: the Slovenian Philharmonic, the opera and ballet house, Cankarjev dom and the summer festival in Plečnik's Križanke courtyard.

Munich is worth the trip for music alone. The Bavarian State Opera is among the world's leading companies, three orchestras of real standing play the Herkulessaal and the Prinzregententheater, and the rococo Cuvilliés Theatre stages chamber opera. In both cities most drama is in the local language.

In Ljubljana the restfulness comes from the pace: a quiet centre with few cars and long afternoons at riverside cafés. For proper bathing you drive to Slovenia's thermal spa towns, about an hour away.

Munich has a bathing culture inside the city. The Art Nouveau Müller'sches Volksbad has a Roman-style steam bath, the public saunas follow the textile-free German custom, and the large thermal complex at Erding is about forty minutes out. Bad Tölz and Bad Reichenhall add more choice.