Piran or Stuttgart?

Piran puts the Adriatic on your doorstep, in its own way. You climb down ladders and off the rocks around the Punta into clear water. Fiesa's pebbles and the small artificial sand of Portoroz are there for anyone who wants to lie down.

Stuttgart has nothing comparable. The Neckar is a working river, so swimming in summer means the city's outdoor pools, some fed by mineral springs, or a drive of more than two hours to Lake Constance.

Stuttgart eats better and more widely. Swabian dishes such as Maultaschen and Käsespätzle come with wine from vineyards inside the city, growers open seasonal Besen taverns in their homes, and there is serious fine dining on top.

Piran's strength is narrower: grilled fish, squid and buzara by the harbour with Malvazija, Refosk and the local salt. The menus repeat one another, and better cooking lies inland in Istria.

Piran is a single, beautiful whole: Venetian Gothic lanes, Tartini Square and the view from the campanile of St George's. Its museums are small, and a day takes it all in.

Stuttgart has more to see but less old fabric. The Mercedes-Benz and Porsche museums, the Staatsgalerie and the Le Corbusier houses on the Weissenhof Estate carry international weight. The bombed centre keeps its history in pockets around Schlossplatz, and you need two or three days.

Neither is a party town, but Stuttgart at least offers a night out. The bars on Theodor-Heuss-Strasse fill at weekends, basement clubs play electronic music, and the Cannstatter Volksfest fills huge beer tents in autumn.

In Piran the evening is a glass of wine and the sunset on the Punta. Anything louder means the summer beach bars of Portoroz.

Both offer gentle outdoors rather than mountains, but of different kinds. Piran's is coastal: the flysch cliffs at Strunjan, wading birds on the Secovlje salt pans, paddling below the cliffs and the Parenzana cycle route into Istria.

Stuttgart's is wooded and inland. There are vineyard trails on the city's own slopes and deer in the Rotwildpark, and the Swabian Jura and northern Black Forest are about an hour away for longer hikes.

Both make excellent bases, but the trips work differently. From Piran you cross borders: to Trieste, to Rovinj and the Istrian hill towns of Motovun and Groznjan, and to Venice by summer boat. Most of these are easiest by car.

Stuttgart's day trips run on rails. Ludwigsburg's palace and Esslingen are a short S-Bahn ride away, Tübingen and Heidelberg are within the hour, and Strasbourg works for a long day.

Stuttgart has far more built for children. Wilhelma, with its zoo and botanical garden, fills a day, Killesberg park has a miniature railway and animal enclosures, and the rack railway is a treat in itself.

Piran is safe and car-free, and its summer sea is calm, which suits a few easy days with small children. Swimming from concrete ledges and climbing the steep lanes soon wear thin on a longer stay.

Once you arrive in Piran you need no transport, because the car-free peninsula takes a quarter of an hour to cross on foot. There is no railway, though, and exploring Istria or the Karst usually means hiring a car.

Stuttgart's flat centre is just as easy on foot. Beyond it, one ticket covers the Stadtbahn, S-Bahn, buses, rack railway and funicular, which reach the museums, Wilhelma and the airport without a car.

Shopping in Piran fills an idle hour rather than a day. A few galleries and craft shops are tucked into the lanes, souvenir stalls line the harbour, and that is the whole of it. Anyone after clothes or design saves it for a day in Trieste or Ljubljana.

Stuttgart is the clear choice for shoppers, especially those who know which brands they want. Its main street carries the familiar chains, a long-established department store just off it draws buyers of designer fashion, and smaller independent shops cluster around Calwer Strasse. Crafts and markets are modest, so browsers will find less to linger over, although the delicatessen counters in the Markthalle are good for food gifts.

Neither is cheap, and their prices rise and fall at different times. Piran is dearest in July and August, when rooms in the old town are scarce, but costs fall to a fair level out of season or if you stay in Portoroz. Its main pleasures, swimming and walking, cost nothing.

Stuttgart's prices follow business travel. Hotels climb during trade fairs and ease at weekends, while tavern meals and a day ticket on public transport stay reasonable.

Stuttgart is a serious destination for the stage. The Stuttgart Ballet, famous since John Cranko's time, shares the state theatre with a bold opera company. The Liederhalle hosts orchestras and Bach, and big musicals and jazz run through the week.

Piran has summer concerts in honour of Tartini in its churches and the monastery cloister, plus the odd recital at the small Tartini Theatre. The rest of the year there is little on.

Piran draws its calm from the sea. Portoroz next door offers seawater pools, brine baths and salt-mud treatments, and an outdoor thalasso spa sits out among the Secovlje salt pans. The car-free town itself makes it easy to switch off.

Stuttgart offers about as much rest, but from a very different source: mineral springs at Bad Cannstatt and Berg. They feed public baths of naturally carbonated warm water, indoors and out, and the larger baths have saunas. The city around them is businesslike, so it suits an afternoon in the pools better than a whole restful stay.