Munich or Piran?

Piran has the sea, and Munich does not, though neither has a long sandy strand. In Piran you swim in clear Adriatic water from concrete platforms, rocks and ladders along the seafront and around the Punta, or from the pebbles at Fiesa. For sand you go along the shore to Portoroz or to the cliff-backed coast at Strunjan.

Munich's swimming is a summer side trip. People lie on the gravel banks of the Isar at the Flaucher or take the S-Bahn to the Starnberger See or the Ammersee, where you swim off jetties in fresh, alpine-fed water that never gets as warm as the Adriatic.

Munich gives you more to eat and more reasons to sit down. The beer halls and chestnut-shaded beer gardens serve roast pork, Schweinshaxe and white sausage, the Viktualienmarkt is good for grazing, and there are starred restaurants and solid Italian, Turkish and Balkan cooking.

Piran's strength is narrower: grilled fish, squid and scampi buzara in simple konobas, with Malvazija, Refosk, Istrian olive oil and local salt. It is good, plain eating, but the harbour menus are much alike, and anything more ambitious means driving inland.

Munich is one of the great museum cities of Europe. The Kunstareal alone holds the old masters of the Alte Pinakothek, the Glyptothek's antique sculpture and the Blue Rider painters at the Lenbachhaus. Then there are the Residenz, Nymphenburg Palace and the vast Deutsches Museum, enough for several full days.

In Piran the town itself is the sight. Its Venetian Gothic lanes lead to the oval Tartini Square, and St George's campanile and the old walls look over the red roofs. The maritime museum and the Minorite cloister are pleasant but small, and a single unhurried day covers it all.

Munich has a real night out, even if it is a tidy one. Evenings often begin in a beer hall, and from there you can move on to the cocktail and gay bars of the Glockenbachviertel and Gärtnerplatz, the student pubs of Schwabing or a techno club that runs until morning at weekends. During the Oktoberfest the whole city turns into one long party.

Piran's evening is a glass of wine at sunset on Tartini Square or the Punta, then bed. Portoroz, a few minutes away, adds beach bars, a casino and some summer clubs, but the gap is wide.

Munich has the mountains on its doorstep. The Alps begin about an hour south, and trains reach Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the Zugspitze and Tegernsee for hiking in summer and skiing in winter. In town, the English Garden is enormous, and surfers ride the Eisbach wave at its edge.

Piran's outdoors is gentler and coastal. You can walk the path above the flysch cliffs of Strunjan, watch wading birds at the Secovlje salt pans, paddle along the shore or cycle the old Parenzana railway line through vineyards. The Karst and the Skocjan caves are about an hour inland.

Munich is the better base by some distance, both for the range of places within reach and because nearly all of them are a train ride away. Augsburg and its Fuggerei are half an hour out, Nuremberg's castle about an hour, and Regensburg on the Danube, baroque Salzburg and Innsbruck all make comfortable days. Add Neuschwanstein, Herrenchiemsee on its island in the Chiemsee and the painted villages of Oberammergau and Mittenwald, and you can fill a week of outings without a car.

Piran's strength is its corner of the map, where Slovenia, Italy and Croatia meet. Trieste is under an hour away, the hilltop towns of Motovun and Groznjan and the coast at Rovinj and Porec lie to the south, and in summer boats cross the gulf to Venice. The list is shorter, though, and most of it is far easier with a hire car.

Munich has far more laid on for children. There is the Hellabrunn zoo on the Isar meadows, the hands-on sections of the Deutsches Museum, an aquarium in the Olympic Park, beer gardens with playgrounds, and Legoland within reach. Getting about with a pushchair is easy.

Piran is safe and calm, with a car-free old town, a flat seafront and warm, gentle summer sea, and its small aquarium suits toddlers. But swimming means ledges and ladders rather than sand, and the lanes up to the church are steep, so it suits a few quiet days with young children better than a long stay.

Both centres are easy on foot. You can cross Piran's car-free peninsula in a quarter of an hour, and Munich's pedestrianised old town puts Marienplatz, the Residenz and the market a short walk apart.

Further out, Munich pulls well ahead. Its U-Bahn, S-Bahn, trams and buses form one network that reaches the museums, the palaces, the lakes and the airport, and the flat city is good for cycling. Piran has a shuttle to the car park and Portoroz, but there is no railway and the regional buses are slow, so most visitors hire a car to explore.

Munich is a serious shopping city. It has the luxury houses of Maximilianstrasse, the department stores on Kaufingerstrasse, independent boutiques in Glockenbach, the old delicatessen Dallmayr and tailors who make dirndls and lederhosen. In December the Christmas markets add craft stalls to the old town.

Piran has a few galleries, craft shops and harbour souvenir stalls. The worthwhile buys are edible: salt flower from Secovlje, Istrian olive oil and coastal wine.

Piran is the cheaper of the two, although neither is a bargain. It becomes dear in July and August, when old-town rooms are scarce and the waterfront restaurants charge for the view. Staying in Portoroz, coming outside high summer and eating in the simpler konobas bring costs down to a fair level.

Munich is expensive all year, with hotels the biggest cost, and they become very dear during the Oktoberfest and the trade fairs. Beer-garden picnics, free parks and lakes, and token Sunday museum fees help, but they do not close the gap.

The two cities are not close here. Munich has the Bavarian State Opera in the National Theatre, the Munich Philharmonic and two more orchestras of real standing, chamber opera in the rococo Cuvilliés Theatre, operetta at the Gärtnerplatztheater, jazz clubs, and big touring acts at the Olympic Park.

Piran's music is a summer pleasure built around Tartini, the violinist born in the town. There are concerts in churches, the monastery cloister and on the square. Out of season there is very little to see.

Both are good places to unwind, but they offer different kinds of bathing. Munich follows the German indoor tradition. There are the Art Nouveau pools and steam bath of the Müller'sches Volksbad, textile-free saunas with infusion rituals, the huge thermal complex at Erding, and the spa towns of Bad Tölz and Bad Reichenhall towards the mountains.

Piran's treatments come from the sea. Portoroz has seawater pools and brine baths, you can lie in salt mud at the outdoor thalasso spa among the Secovlje lagoons, and Strunjan has a seawater health resort. The car-free lanes and evening light over the bay make it easy to slow down.