Mostar or Sofia?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Mostar is closer to a good swim. Locals jump from the rocks into the cold Neretva below the old town, the pool beneath the Kravica falls makes a proper summer outing, and Neum and the Makarska Riviera bring the Adriatic within a day trip.

Sofia's options stay inside the city limits: outdoor pools in the parks and the lake at Pancharevo. The Black Sea is far enough away that it means a separate leg of the trip rather than a day out.

The two cities eat in much the same broad way, grilled minced meat and pastry, but with different accents. Mostar's Ottoman-tinged cooking means ćevapi in soft somun, burek and slow-cooked stuffed vegetables, followed by coffee from a copper džezva. It is best eaten a few lanes back from the bridge terraces, with a glass of Herzegovinian Žilavka or Blatina.

Sofia has a little more range. Banitsa from corner bakeries makes breakfast, mehana taverns serve clay-pot dishes, sometimes with folk music, and small bistros near Vitosha Boulevard give the food a lighter touch. Wine bars pour Mavrud and Melnik. Neither city goes far beyond its regional kitchen.

Sofia gives a visitor more to see, and for longer. Roman Serdica lies open around the metro station, the Rotunda of St George, a mosque and a cathedral stand within minutes of each other, and the gold domes of Alexander Nevsky crown the centre. Add the UNESCO-listed frescoes at Boyana and the Thracian treasures in the National Museum of History, and two or three days are easily filled.

Mostar's appeal is narrower and more concentrated. The rebuilt Stari Most, with divers leaping from its arch, is the image everyone comes for, and the Kujundžiluk, the Koski Mehmed Pasha minaret and the Ottoman houses around it make a beautiful whole. The war-scarred old front line adds weight, but the set is covered in a day or two.

Sofia is clearly the place for a night out. Around Shishman and Tsar Ivan Asen streets there are cocktail bars, craft beer pubs and wine bars, students fill the cellar bars under old buildings, and a few electronic clubs keep going late. It is relaxed rather than wild, but there is enough for several evenings.

Mostar's evenings mostly end with dinner and a drink facing the lit bridge. Once the day visitors leave, the old town goes quiet, and only a few cocktail bars and student clubs carry on at weekends.

Sofia has the stronger outdoors offer, mainly because Vitosha rises right behind it. City buses and a gondola reach spruce forest, boulder rivers and the trail to Cherni Vrah. The Seven Rila Lakes and proper skiing at Borovets are within reach, and summers are mild enough for hiking.

Mostar's landscape is harsher karst, ringed by Velež and the wild Prenj massif. The Neretva canyons upstream are its real strength, with rafting and kayaking, and the Blagaj spring, Blidinje plateau and the birdlife of Hutovo Blato are all nearby. The valley heat pushes walking into spring and autumn.

Both cities have plenty within a day's reach, but the outings are of different kinds. From Mostar they are small places close together: the dervish tekke at Blagaj, the walled hill village of Počitelj, the stećci tombstones at Stolac, plus Konjic and Jablanica along the Neretva. Most need a car or a tour. Sarajevo, about two hours away by train through the gorge, is the one big city you can visit.

Sofia has two major trips rather than a cluster. Rila Monastery sits in its mountain valley, and Plovdiv, with its Roman theatre and painted merchant houses, is about two hours by train. Koprivshtitsa and the Iskar Gorge make gentler alternatives.

Sofia is a little easier with children over several days. Borisova Gradina and South Park have playgrounds and space to run, the gondola and forest trails on Vitosha make a good family day, and there is a hands-on science centre for a rainy one.

Mostar works for a short stop. The bridge divers and the minaret climb hold attention for an afternoon, and a swim at Kravica is the highlight. Steep, slippery lanes and the summer heat in the valley are harder on small children than Sofia's cracked pavements.

On foot, both centres are easy, but beyond them Sofia is much simpler. Its metro runs from the airport through the centre to the station and the foothills of Vitosha, and trams, trolleybuses and plentiful taxis cover the rest. The main drawback is that signs away from the centre are mostly in Cyrillic.

In Mostar, the old town and the Austro-Hungarian streets are a short stroll apart on slippery cobbles. Getting to Blagaj, Počitelj or Kravica, though, means a hired car, a taxi or a tour, because the city buses are run for residents.

Neither city is a shopping destination, and what each sells is quite different. Mostar's shopping is a single bazaar street, the Kujundžiluk, where the find is a coppersmith hammering a coffee set in his doorway among the imported souvenirs.

Sofia covers more ground. There are chain stores on Vitosha Boulevard and in the malls, rose oil and Troyan pottery in the craft shops, and a flea market of icons and curiosities near Alexander Nevsky.

Both are among the cheapest trips in Europe, and the savings show up in different places. In Mostar it is family guesthouses and plates of ćevapi that cost little, and the bridge-view terraces and old-town rooms in midsummer are where prices rise. In Sofia, comfortable central hotels, low museum admissions and cheap metro rides stretch a budget, and even the smarter bistros stay moderate.

Sofia has a real performance calendar, and Mostar has very little. The National Opera and Ballet performs through most of the year, the Sofia Philharmonic plays at Bulgaria Hall, and Orthodox and choral singing is something worth hearing nowhere else. Mostar has a national theatre and a youth theatre playing in local languages, plus open-air summer concerts, but most evenings offer nothing more than a band in a café bar.

Sofia has the stronger wellness side. Its mineral springs flow from public taps beside the old Central Mineral Baths, and there are pools on the edge of the city. The spa town of Bankya is about half an hour away, with larger resorts such as Velingrad further out.

Mostar's hammam near the bridge is a monument, not a working bath, and spa treatments are limited to a few hotels. What it offers instead is stillness, early and late in the day, when the old town empties and you hear only the river.