Piran or Pisa?

The two are about level for swimming but very different in kind. In Piran you swim right below the town walls, climbing into clear Adriatic water from concrete platforms, ladders and rocks around the Punta, with only the pebble cove at Fiesa nearby. If you want sand, you have to go to the small, artificial beach at Portoroz.

Pisa's sea is about 12km away, but there you get long, wide sandy beaches at Tirrenia and Calambrone, backed by pine woods and mostly lined with rented umbrellas and loungers. The water is shallower and warm, but near the mouth of the Arno it is cloudier than in Piran.

You eat better in Pisa. Its Tuscan cooking includes ribollita, wild boar and cecina hot from wood ovens, and the trattorias around the Piazza delle Vettovaglie market are kept honest by students. Avoid the menus near the tower.

Piran's food is narrower: grilled fish, scampi buzara and squid in konobas whose harbour menus look much alike, with Malvazija, Refosk and the local salt on the side. Neither town is a dining destination.

Pisa has far more to see. The cathedral, baptistery, Leaning Tower and Camposanto stand together on one lawn, and beyond them are Vasari's palace on Piazza dei Cavalieri, Santa Maria della Spina by the river and the medieval painting in San Matteo.

Piran's appeal is the whole town rather than any one sight: Venetian Gothic houses, Tartini Square and the view of the red roofs from St George's campanile and the old walls. With a small maritime museum and an aquarium, a day covers it.

Neither is a place for a big night out, but Pisa has more going on after dark. During term, students fill the squares around the old market late into the night, and aperitivo hour brings people to Borgo Stretto and the river.

In Piran, evenings mean a glass of wine watching the sunset on the Punta, and the town is quiet soon after. For later nights you go to Portoroz for its casino and a few summer clubs.

Pisa has more variety close by. The San Rossore park, with its forest, wetland and wild dunes where you often see fallow deer, starts at the edge of the city. The olive terraces of Monte Pisano are just east, and the Apuan Alps offer proper mountain hiking.

Piran's outdoors is gentler and more about the sea. You can kayak beneath the Strunjan flysch cliffs, watch wading birds on the Secovlje salt pans and cycle the Parenzana through the vineyards. The Skocjan caves on the Karst are about an hour away.

Both make good bases, but Pisa is the easier one. Trains reach Florence in about an hour, Lucca in under half an hour, and the Cinque Terre in a little over an hour. Volterra, San Gimignano and Chianti are within reach by car.

Piran's advantage is that three countries meet here. Trieste, Rovinj, Porec and the hill towns of Motovun and Groznjan are all close, and summer boats cross to Venice. Most of these trips are much easier by car than by bus.

The two towns work about equally well for families, for different reasons. Piran is safe and calm: no cars in the old town, a warm, quiet sea and a small aquarium. But swimming means ladders rather than sand, and the lanes up to the church are steep.

Pisa has the tower lawn for running about, the famous photo, and a tower climb for older children only. The shallow sandy beaches at Tirrenia and Calambrone are better for paddling. Plan around the summer heat and the crowds on the cathedral square.

Getting around is easier in Pisa. The airport is linked to the central station by a shuttle train, everything worth seeing is within walking distance on the flat, and the station is a regional rail hub, so you rarely need a car.

You can cross Piran's car-free old town on foot in about a quarter of an hour, and a shuttle runs from the car park and on to Portoroz. With no railway and slow regional buses, though, exploring further usually means hiring a car.

Pisa offers more shopping, though it is ordinary Italian shopping: high-street chains along Corso Italia, smarter clothes, shoe shops and old pastry shops under the arcades of Borgo Stretto, and a monthly antiques market by the river. In Piran it comes down to a few craft shops, plus salt flower from Secovlje, Istrian olive oil and coastal wine.

Pisa is the cheaper stay. Central rooms are mid-range, the student trattorias are good value, and you can walk everywhere. The costly parts are the tower climb, the cafés next to the monuments, and the umbrellas and loungers at the beach in summer.

In July and August, Piran's old-town rooms are scarce and expensive, and you pay for the view at the waterfront restaurants. Staying in Portoroz or coming outside summer helps, and swimming off the rocks is free.

Pisa has the stronger programme, and the two run in opposite seasons. The 19th-century Teatro Verdi stages opera, ballet and symphonic concerts from autumn to spring.

Piran's music happens in summer: Tartini concerts in churches, the monastery cloister and on the square named after him, plus occasional recitals at the small Tartini Theatre. Out of season there is little on.

This is where Piran comes out ahead. Portoroz was built as a spa resort around seawater pools and brine baths, and out among the salt pans you can lie in salt mud with the lagoons around you. Strunjan has its own seawater health resort.

Pisa's springs are older and inland: the Roman-era waters of San Giuliano Terme in an 18th-century bath palace, and the larger public pool at Casciana Terme. Beyond those, the calm comes from walks along the Arno rather than from bathing.