Ljubljana or Sarajevo?

Neither is a swimming destination, but water is easier to reach from Ljubljana. Lake Bled is about an hour away and the Slovenian coast at Piran around an hour and a half, close enough for a long day out, even though the shore there is concrete platforms and pebble rather than sand.

From Sarajevo the Adriatic is about three hours away, too far for a day trip. Swimming in summer means cold mountain rivers, Jablanica lake or a pool, so if you want the sea, add a few days on the coast at the end.

The two are close, so the difference is one of character. Sarajevo cooks Ottoman-Balkan food: ćevapi in somun bread from the grills of Baščaršija, burek sold by weight, and Bosnian coffee taken slowly with rahat lokum. Ljubljana's cooking is Alpine and Central European, with Carniolan sausage, štruklji and jota, and a riverside market full of cheese and pumpkin-seed oil.

Ljubljana's real strength is wine: Vipava, Brda and orange wines by the glass along the river. In Sarajevo the evening drink is more likely to be fruit rakija. Both cuisines are narrow, and neither city offers much international cooking.

Sarajevo has the denser and more moving set of sights. A short walk takes you from the Ottoman bazaar and the Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque to Austro-Hungarian avenues, two cathedrals and the Old Synagogue. The Latin Bridge, the Tunnel of Hope and the War Childhood Museum link the city to 1914 and to the siege of the 1990s.

Ljubljana is gentler and more of a piece: Plečnik's bridges, colonnades and library, an old town of baroque and Secession buildings, and the castle on its hill. Its museums are pleasant rather than essential, and two or three days are enough to see it.

Neither city is made for a big night out, and they are close. Ljubljana's evenings are spent on terraces along the Ljubljanica, and Metelkova's scruffy clubs are the one real late-night draw. Sarajevo goes out in café-bars that get louder after dark and cellar bars around Ferhadija, where drinks are cheap and the night often ends over rakija rather than on a dancefloor.

Both cities have serious mountains on the doorstep, so the difference is in style. From Ljubljana, the Julian Alps and Triglav National Park are about an hour away, with well-trodden hiking, the Vintgar gorge, rafting on the Soča and the karst caves at Postojna and Škocjan.

Sarajevo's mountains start at the edge of the Old Town, where a cable car climbs Trebević. The Olympic slopes of Jahorina and Bjelašnica offer more dependable skiing than the small resorts near Ljubljana. The trails are wilder and less clearly marked, and Lukomir above the Rakitnica canyon rewards anyone who wants remoteness.

Ljubljana has the wider and easier choice. Slovenia is small and the city sits in the middle of it, so Bled, Škofja Loka, Predjama Castle, Idrija and Piran are all short trips. Trieste and Zagreb are within reach too, and buses and trains serve the main places.

Sarajevo has one outstanding trip: Mostar, reached by a scenic train through the Neretva gorge, with Konjic, Blagaj and Počitelj nearby. Beyond that, Travnik and the bridge at Višegrad mean slow, winding roads, and most outings work best by car or on a tour.

Ljubljana is the easier city with children, even though it has no aquarium or theme park either. The flat, mostly car-free centre, a puppet theatre whose shows need no language, a hands-on science centre and Tivoli's lawns fill two or three relaxed days.

Sarajevo welcomes children warmly, with pigeons at the Sebilj, the Trebević cable car and carriage rides to Vrelo Bosne. Its main sights are about war, though, the hillside streets are steep, and smoke from the grills and winter smog are hard on small lungs.

In Ljubljana you hardly need transport at all. The old town, the market, the museums and Tivoli Park are within about 20 minutes' walk of each other, the centre is largely pedestrianised, and a bike-share scheme covers the flat districts. Sarajevo's flat core is walkable too, and its historic tram line runs the length of the valley to Ilidža.

Away from that one tram corridor, though, Sarajevo means steep steps, a bus network that is hard for a visitor to follow, and taxis for the airport, the tunnel and the mountains. Ljubljana's weak spot is the slow railway for trips out of the city, where intercity buses work better.

Sarajevo gives shopping more of a sense of place, and nearly all of it is in Baščaršija. Coppersmiths still hammer coffee sets on Kazandžiluk, and the Bezistan and nearby lanes sell kilims, slippers and filigree jewellery, though much of it is souvenir stock.

Ljubljana is quieter. Its best buys are honey, pumpkin-seed oil, Idrija lace and finds from the Sunday flea market on the embankment, plus a few design boutiques around Trubarjeva. Neither city has a luxury quarter.

Sarajevo is much cheaper. Street food, coffee, trams, taxis and museum entry all cost little, and comfortable central guesthouses are priced well below Western European levels.

Ljubljana is mid-priced for Europe. Set lunch menus and a walkable centre keep daily costs reasonable, but central rooms are expensive in summer, so staying further out or avoiding July and August makes a bigger difference there.

Ljubljana has the fuller formal programme. The Slovenian Philharmonic, the National Opera and Ballet and Cankarjev dom put on concerts all year, and in summer the Ljubljana Festival fills Plečnik's Križanke courtyard.

Sarajevo's National Theatre and Philharmonic offer less, and its stage life comes alive mainly at the MESS theatre festival in autumn and the jazz festival in November. What it has that Ljubljana does not is sevdah, the melancholy Bosnian love songs you can hear in traditional restaurants.

The two are level here. What differs is where the warm water is. Ljubljana has no bathing tradition of its own, just a large water park with saunas on the eastern edge and a few hotel spas, so for mineral pools you drive about an hour to one of Slovenia's thermal spa towns. Its calm is in the centre itself, which is quiet, green and largely free of cars, with long afternoons at cafés along the Ljubljanica.

Sarajevo has its thermal springs inside the city. Ilidža, used since Roman times, is at the end of the tram line, and the shaded streams of Vrelo Bosne are close by for a slow walk afterwards. The historic hammam no longer works as a bath, though, and outside Ilidža and the hotel spas there is little bathing culture.