Pula or Split?

The swimming is equally good in both, but it feels different. Pula has no beach in town. You swim from rocks, platforms and pebble coves on the peninsulas to the south, and the best water is at Cape Kamenjak, a wild, protected headland about 10km out, where water shoes are a must.

In Split you can walk from the old town to the sea. Bačvice is a shallow, sandy, sociable bay where locals play picigin, and the Marjan coves are quieter. For longer beaches, people take the ferry to Brač or Hvar. Overall, Pula's coast is wilder and Split's is more urban.

In Pula the best meals are often a drive away, while in Split they are a short walk from your room. Pula cooks Istrian food: fuži pasta with truffle or game sauce, scampi buzara and cured pršut, with Malvazija and Teran to drink. In town the choice is modest, and the family taverns in the hinterland villages and small harbours are where the kitchen shows its best.

Split serves Dalmatian classics such as pašticada with gnocchi, black risotto and peka, which you order ahead, with Plavac Mali and Pošip to drink. The good konobas are in Varoš and the streets behind the Riva, and the fish market and Pazar sit at the edge of the palace.

Each has one great Roman monument, but Split's is something you live inside. Diocletian's Palace is a working neighbourhood of houses, shops and alleys, and its cathedral was once the emperor's mausoleum. The Meštrović Gallery on Marjan adds a fine art museum that Pula cannot match.

Pula's Arena is among the best-preserved amphitheatres anywhere. The Temple of Augustus, the Arch of the Sergii and the Austro-Hungarian forts add history from several eras, but they are separate set pieces rather than a living old town. Both cities can be seen in a day or two.

Split gives a real night out in summer. Small bars fill the stone stairways of the palace, and the crowd moves on to clubs around Bačvice that run into the early hours. Pula's evenings are drinks on terraces by the Forum, beach bars on Verudela and a handful of small clubs, and a glass of wine facing the lit-up Arena is often the high point. Out of season both cities go quiet.

Split has much more varied terrain close at hand. Marjan's pine forest and cliffs begin at the edge of town, Mosor and Kozjak have ridge hikes behind the city, and Biokovo, the Cetina canyon at Omiš and the waterfalls of Krka are each about an hour away. The islands make sailing easy.

Pula's southern Istria is low and stony, with no mountains. Kamenjak is good for walking, cycling, kayaking and spotting dinosaur footprints, Premantura bay suits windsurfing, and naval-era wrecks attract divers. Quiet inland roads suit cyclists, but the nearest real hills, on Učka, are about an hour and a half away.

Both are excellent bases for day trips, but you get around in different ways. From Pula, Istria is explored by car: Venetian Rovinj, the Byzantine mosaics of Poreč, the hilltop towns of Motovun and Hum, and the Brijuni islands just offshore. Piran and Trieste are within two hours' drive.

From Split, buses and ferries do most of the work. Trogir and Šibenik have UNESCO-listed cores, Salona and Klis are on the city's edge, and Hvar, Brač and Vis are reached by sea. Pula leans towards hill towns and food, and Split towards islands.

Pula has a little more for children. There is an aquarium inside an Austro-Hungarian fort, the Arena has underground passages to explore, and the sheltered bays at Medulin and Premantura suit small swimmers. A dinosaur park and a water park are within an hour, though you will need a car for most of it.

Split's appeal is simpler: paddling at Bačvice, shade and space on Marjan, and the thrill of a ferry ride. With no aquarium or theme park, and packed streets in July and August, it has less to fill a week with young children.

Split is much easier without a car. The palace, the markets, Varoš and Bačvice are all a short walk apart, and the ferry port, bus station and railway station sit together on the harbour, so leaving town is simple. The catch is the palace's stepped stone streets, which are hard with a pushchair.

Pula's old centre is flat and easy on foot, and buses reach Verudela. Beyond that, regional buses are infrequent and the railway is of little use, so Kamenjak and the hill towns really need a car or scooter.

Neither city is a shopping destination, and in both the best things to take home are edible. Pula's specialities are Istrian truffle products, pršut and olive oil from producers in the countryside. Split adds a little more browsing, with galleries, jewellers and ties inside the palace, plus the Pazar market for figs, honey and local brandies.

Costs are similar, with Pula perhaps a touch easier on the budget. In both, July and August bring room rates close to Western European levels and tourist pricing beside the main sights. The extras differ: in Pula, car hire and boat trips add up, while in Split it is fish sold by weight on the waterfront and island ferries for a family. Spring and late September are far kinder in each.

Pula's great night out is a summer concert or film screening inside the Roman Arena, with the stone arches lit above the crowd. For the rest of the year there is drama in Croatian at the Istrian National Theatre and little else.

Split has a 19th-century opera house, the Croatian National Theatre, where opera and ballet run through the season and need no Croatian. In summer the Split Summer Festival moves performances into the Peristyle, and klapa harmony singing echoes in the domed vestibule of the palace.

Neither city has a spa tradition, but Split makes slowing down easier. Dalmatian fjaka, the unhurried idleness of long coffees on the Riva, sets the pace outside high summer. The pine woods on Marjan and the quieter islands are close at hand when the old town gets loud.

In Pula, wellness mostly means resort hotel spas on Verudela and in Medulin. The rest of the calm comes from coastal walks and quiet days in the Istrian countryside.