Plovdiv or Sibiu?

Neither city works for a beach trip: both sit far inland, and the Black Sea means a separate journey of several hours. The difference is in how you cool off. Sibiu has the salt lakes of Ocna Sibiului about 20km away, dense enough to float in, while Plovdiv relies on outdoor pools, the rowing canal and Rhodope reservoirs.

Plovdiv eats and drinks better. Grilled kebapche, clay-pot kavarma and banitsa are served in Old Town mehanas, Kapana adds modern bistros and coffee places, and the Thracian Valley wineries towards Asenovgrad give it real depth in a glass.

Sibiu's strength is hearty Transylvanian cooking: sarmale with polenta, bean soup in bread, and sheep's cheese and smoked meats from the Marginimea villages, served in vaulted cellars. Beyond that the choice thins quickly, and the main-square terraces trade on the view more than the food.

These two are evenly matched, but their history comes from very different eras. Plovdiv is about antiquity: the hillside Roman theatre, the stadium beneath the main street and the early Christian mosaics in the basilicas, with painted National Revival houses on the hills above.

Sibiu is a medieval Saxon town of linked squares, Gothic towers, guild walls and rooftop "eyes", with the Brukenthal's paintings and the ASTRA open-air museum in the forest. Each fills two or three days on foot.

Plovdiv has the livelier evenings. Kapana's grid of wine, craft beer and cocktail bars spills onto the pavements, summer weekends run late, and there are a few clubs and riverside bars. Sibiu's cellar bars and pubs around the squares make a good place for a drink after dinner, but the town winds down earlier and its clubs mostly come alive only on term-time weekends.

Sibiu has the bigger mountains on its doorstep. The Fagaras rise above 2,500m to the east, with ridge walks and glacial lakes, Paltinis offers easy trails and modest skiing, and the Transfagarasan climbs to Balea Lake in summer. Brown bears live in these forests.

Plovdiv's outdoors are gentler: short climbs up the city's rocky tepeta, forested Rhodope gorges about 20km south and the Central Balkan range an hour away. Both cities need a car to make the most of it.

Both are strong regional bases, with a different flavour. From Plovdiv the outings are monasteries and Thracian sites: Bachkovo, the temple at Starosel, the tomb at Kazanlak and the Valley of Roses, plus Roman Hisarya and the painted village of Koprivshtitsa.

From Sibiu the theme is Saxon and Habsburg: fortified churches at Biertan and Cisnadioara, walled Sighisoara, the citadel at Alba Iulia and Corvin Castle. In both places slow trains make a car the sensible choice.

What changes between the two is the shape of a family day out. Plovdiv offers a string of open-air outings: the singing fountains in the Tsar Simeon Garden, the big Lauta park and the playgrounds by the rowing canal, with the Roman theatre as a place to run around. Its long pedestrian main street is easy with a pushchair, but the midsummer heat can wear small children out.

Sibiu puts more into one place. The ASTRA open-air museum, with its windmills and farmhouses in the forest, sits beside the small zoo and playgrounds of the Dumbrava park, and the Natural History Museum covers a wet afternoon. Neither town has much else made for children.

Both centres are compact and walkable, and each has one steep part. Plovdiv's sights string along a single car-free street, with the effort saved for the polished cobbles of the Old Town hills. In Sibiu the squares sit close together, but reaching the Lower Town means steep lanes and stairs. Its airport lies close to the centre, which saves time on a short stay.

Shopping is small-scale in both, so the interest lies in what you can bring home. Plovdiv has rose oil cosmetics, local wine and the design studios tucked into Kapana. Sibiu's crafts are more traditional: painted ceramics, embroidered blouses and icons on glass, with its Christmas market and summer pottery fair as the high points of the year.

In Plovdiv, much of the pleasure costs nothing at all, from the Roman stadium lying open along the main street to an evening wandering Kapana. Guesthouses near the Old Town and meals in the mehanas are modest too.

Sibiu is just as easy on the pocket for most of the year, but timing matters more there. Rooms are scarcer and dearer during the June theatre festival and the Christmas market season, and eating a street or two away from the main square gets you better value than the terraces on it.

Sibiu has the edge. The Radu Stanca National Theatre has a reputation well beyond Romania, and every June its international festival fills halls, churches and squares for more than a week.

Plovdiv's prize is a single setting: opera and concerts in the Roman theatre on summer nights. The rest of its year is a modest local programme, mostly in Bulgarian, much as Sibiu's theatre is mostly in Romanian.

Neither has proper baths in town, so in both cities real bathing means a short trip out. From Plovdiv that means the mineral springs of Hisarya or Velingrad, and the local habit of aylyak, taking things slowly over coffee, sets the pace. Sibiu's equivalent is floating and mud cures in the salt lakes at Ocna Sibiului, or clean mountain air at Paltinis.