Rovinj or Trieste?

Neither has sand, but Rovinj gives a swimmer more. Limestone ledges and pebble coves run for kilometres under the pines of the Golden Cape, you can slip into the sea right below the old town walls, and taxi boats reach quieter coves on St Catherine and Red Island.

Trieste's sea works like a city lido. People lay towels on the concrete steps and lawns of Barcola, climb down ladders into the water or use the old bathing establishments with their changing cabins. The prettier coves at Sistiana, Duino and Grignano mean a trip along the coast.

Trieste has the more distinctive table. Its buffets carve boiled pork to eat with horseradish and sauerkraut, and alongside them come jota, sardoni and Central European cakes, all reflecting the city's mix of Italian, Austrian and Slavic cooking. Its coffee culture is a reason to visit in its own right, and the osmize on the Karst add farmhouse wine and cured meats.

Rovinj eats well within narrower limits: fish, scampi buzara, truffle pasta and Istrian oil and wine, with some of the best meals in the country konobas. Many harbour menus are written for passing visitors, and cheap everyday eating is harder to find than at a Trieste buffet counter.

In Rovinj the old town is the sight. Its pastel Venetian houses climb to St Euphemia, and with the Grisia lane and the Batana House you can see it all in an afternoon.

Trieste has a city's worth of history. Piazza Unità and the Borgo Teresiano show Habsburg ambition, and San Giusto pairs a cathedral with Byzantine-style mosaics and a castle. Miramare, the great synagogue, the Revoltella and the Risiera di San Sabba memorial can fill several days.

Neither is a party town: in both, evenings mean dinner and a drink. Trieste still has more going on. Aperitivo around Piazza Unità and the Canal Grande and student wine bars keep evenings going all year, and in summer the kiosks at Barcola stay open late. In Rovinj the night means a sunset cocktail on the rocks and a few waterfront bars, and outside summer it largely shuts down.

Trieste has the more dramatic setting. The Karst rises straight up behind the city, with the Strada Napoleonica high above the gulf, the Rilke Path along the Duino cliffs, the Val Rosandra gorge and huge caves like the Grotta Gigante. The Julian Alps are close enough for days in the mountains.

Rovinj's outdoors is gentler and centred on the sea. There are flat paths through the Golden Cape forest park, kayaking and diving around the archipelago, and boat trips up the Lim Fjord, but no high ground nearby.

Both are good bases, but from Trieste you can go further, and more easily. Aquileia, Cividale, Palmanova, Udine and the Collio wine country are all in Friuli. Across the Slovenian border are Piran, Ljubljana and the Postojna cave, and Venice is a long but realistic day by train.

Rovinj's range is Istria: Roman Pula, the Euphrasian Basilica at Porec, the hill towns of Motovun and Groznjan, and the Brijuni islands. It is a rich circuit, but almost all of it needs a car.

For families the two are much alike. Both are safe and calm, both swim from rock and concrete rather than sand, and both are steep in places.

What differs is the kind of trip. Rovinj is a resort town, with family campsites, pools, playgrounds and boat trips to the islands, which suits younger children. Trieste has outings for older ones: the Grotta Gigante, the gardens at Miramare, an aquarium and a hands-on science centre.

Rovinj is easy as long as you stay in town. The car-free old town, the promenade and the swimming rocks are all within walking distance. Beyond it there is no railway, only intercity buses, so the hinterland means a car.

Trieste is easier to get around. The flat centre is walkable, a dense bus network runs out to Barcola, Miramare and the Karst, and boats cross the bay to Muggia. You only need a car for the wine country and trips across the border. The one real effort is the steep climb to San Giusto.

Trieste has the slight edge, though shopping is a sideline in both. In Rovinj the most interesting browsing is in the galleries and artists' studios along Grisia. What people take home comes from the region: truffles, Istrian olive oil, Malvazija and Teran. There is little choice outside summer.

Trieste adds ordinary Italian clothing and shoe shops around Corso Italia and antique and second-hand shops in the old town lanes. The best things to pack are edible: coffee from the city's roasters, Karst wine and presnitz.

Trieste is easier on the budget. Buffet lunches and coffee at the bar cost little, buses are cheap, rooms are reasonable for most of the year, and the waterfront, the cathedral hill and Barcola are free.

Rovinj is one of the pricier stops on the Croatian coast. Harbour restaurants charge for the view, and fish sold by weight adds up quickly. Private apartments, campsites and travelling in late spring or September soften the cost.

This is one of the widest gaps between the two. Trieste has the Teatro Verdi with a full season of opera and ballet, a long attachment to operetta that is rare in Italy, the Politeama Rossetti and a Slovenian-language theatre, as well as summer concerts in the castle courtyard on San Giusto.

Rovinj offers summer concerts in St Euphemia, music on the squares and occasional performances of bitinada singing, but very little outside the season. The nearest big stage is the Roman arena at Pula.

Neither is a spa destination, and both are better at slowing you down than at pampering you. Rovinj's calm is a resort's. It means late-afternoon swims off the rocks and slow walks under the Golden Cape pines in May, June or September, and the bigger shoreline hotels open their pools, saunas and treatments to outside guests. In July and August the old town fills up, so for quiet you have to head away from the harbour.

Trieste winds down as a city does, with coffee and conversation rather than sun loungers. You can spend an unhurried morning at a marble table in one of the grand old coffee houses, then walk out along the Molo Audace into the gulf as the light goes. Apart from a few hotel and day spas there is little to book, and for real thermal baths you have to leave town.