Piran or Vienna?

Only Piran has the sea. You swim by climbing down from the rocks and concrete platforms below the town walls into clear Adriatic water. The pebble cove at Fiesa is a short walk away, and the small sandy beach at Portoroz and the cliff-backed shore at Strunjan make a change.

Vienna's bathing is in fresh water, on the gravel banks of the Danube Island and at the calmer, warmer lidos of the Alte Donau, where locals swim after work. It makes a good summer afternoon, but nobody should go there for a beach.

Vienna eats far better. It has a cuisine of its own: schnitzel and Tafelspitz in wood-panelled Beisl taverns, strudel and Sachertorte in the grand coffee houses, and new wine poured at taverns among the city's own vineyards.

Piran's food is narrower: grilled fish, squid and scampi buzara by the harbour, with Istrian olive oil, Malvazija wine and salt from the local pans. It is good, simple eating, but the menus repeat one another, and the food is no reason to choose it over Vienna.

The gap here is wide. Piran's Venetian Gothic peninsula, Tartini Square and the view from the campanile of St George's make a lovely morning, but the maritime museum and small galleries are done within a day.

Vienna can fill a week. There are the Hofburg and Schönbrunn, St Stephen's Cathedral and the Ringstrasse, then Bruegel at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Klimt at the Belvedere and Schiele at the Leopold. The Jugendstil city of the Secession and Otto Wagner adds a second great period on top.

Neither city is a place for partying, but Vienna has a real night out where Piran offers a drink at sunset. In Piran the evening means wine on Tartini Square or out on the Punta and then quiet, with the beach bars and casino of Portoroz as the only step up.

Vienna has late bars under the Gürtel railway arches, the old-town Bermuda Triangle, deckchair bars on the Danube Canal in summer and a small electronic club scene. In winter you can also buy a ticket to one of its formal balls.

Vienna has the slightly wider range of outdoors. The beech-covered Vienna Woods and the trails up through the vineyards to the Kahlenberg start at the city's edge, and the Donau-Auen floodplain forest lies to the east. The Rax and Schneeberg give real mountain walking about 90 minutes away.

Piran's nature is coastal and gentle: the flysch cliffs and clifftop path at Strunjan, kayaking below them, wading birds among the Secovlje salt pans and the Parenzana cycle route through the olive groves. The Skocjan caves are within an hour.

Both make excellent bases, in different ways. Piran's trips cross borders: Trieste is under an hour away, Rovinj, Porec and the hill town of Motovun are over in Croatian Istria, and summer boats cross to Venice. Most of these trips are easiest with a car.

From Vienna you go by train or boat. Bratislava is about an hour away, and the Wachau has Melk and Dürnstein along the river. Baden, the wine villages of the Neusiedler See and Brno are all easy to reach without driving.

Vienna gives children much more. Schönbrunn Zoo, the Ferris wheel and rides at the Prater, the Haus des Meeres aquarium, and the Natural History and Technical Museums cover sunny and rainy days alike, and trams are easy with a pram.

Piran's strengths are calm and safety: a car-free old town, a flat seafront and a warm summer sea. But swimming is from ledges rather than sand, the lanes are steep, and apart from the small aquarium little is aimed at children, so it suits a short seaside stay best.

Both centres are easy on foot, but beyond that they differ. Piran's car-free old town takes a quarter of an hour to cross, and a shuttle bus runs to Portoroz. There is no railway, though, so exploring Istria or the Karst usually means hiring a car.

Vienna needs no car at all. The U-Bahn, trams and buses run on one ticket and reach Schönbrunn, the Danube Island and the vineyard villages, and the U-Bahn runs all night at weekends.

Vienna is a proper shopping city, and Piran is not. The Graben and Kohlmarkt have the luxury houses, Mariahilfer Strasse has everyday fashion and the side streets of Neubau have independent designers. Augarten porcelain, Loden coats and dirndls are the local buys.

In Piran the things worth buying are mostly to eat and drink: salt flower from the Secovlje pans, olive oil and coastal wine. A few galleries in the lanes add some local craft.

Overall costs are much the same, mid-range for Western Europe, but they rise at different times of year. Piran is most expensive in July and August, when rooms in the old town are scarce. Staying in Portoroz and eating at simple konobas brings costs down, and swimming and walking cost nothing.

Vienna is dearest in the ball season and the Christmas market weeks, and its big palaces and museums charge full admission. Transport passes, wine-tavern buffets and standing places at the opera keep a stay affordable.

Music is where the two cities are furthest apart. Piran honours Tartini, who was born there, with summer concerts in its churches, the monastery cloister and on the main square, and the small Tartini Theatre puts on the occasional recital. They make a pleasant evening if you happen to be there, but outside summer very little is on.

In Vienna, music is a reason to travel in itself. During its long season the State Opera stages a different work on most nights, the Vienna Philharmonic plays in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein and the Burgtheater stages German-language drama. The Vienna Boys' Choir also sings Sunday Mass in the Hofburg chapel. In summer there are still free opera films outside the Rathaus and open-air concerts at Schönbrunn.

Both are easy places to slow down, using different kinds of water. In Piran it comes from the sea: seawater pools and salt-pan mud at Portoroz, an outdoor thalasso spa among the Secovlje lagoons and the seawater health resort at Strunjan. The car-free lanes set a slow pace.

Vienna's spas use warm springs, at Therme Wien in Oberlaa, the Art Deco Amalienbad and the sulphur baths of Baden. The rest of its calm comes from long afternoons in coffee houses and walks in the palace gardens.