Rovinj or Vienna?

Rovinj has real sea swimming. Clear Adriatic water laps flat limestone ledges, pebble coves and concrete platforms for kilometres along the Golden Cape, and St Catherine and Red Island are a taxi boat away. It is rock rather than sand, so pack water shoes.

Vienna's version is river and lake bathing on the long Danube Island and the calmer, warmer Alte Donau with its old lidos. It is a pleasant way to spend a hot afternoon after sightseeing, but nobody travels to Vienna for it.

Vienna has a cuisine of its own: schnitzel, Tafelspitz and a pastry tradition, plus the grand coffee houses, which are a ritual in themselves. There are also Heuriger taverns pouring wine from vineyards inside the city limits. The range thins out once you leave the classics behind.

Rovinj eats well, but in a narrower register. You get grilled fish, scampi buzara, truffle pasta and Malvazija from the hinterland. Many harbour menus are written for visitors, though, and the best konobas are a drive into the countryside.

In Rovinj, the town itself is the sight. Pastel Venetian houses climb to St Euphemia and its campanile, and alongside them are the Batana House and a small town museum. A slow afternoon covers it all.

Vienna can fill a week. There are the Habsburg apartments in the Hofburg, Schönbrunn and its gardens, and St Stephen's at the centre of a UNESCO-listed old town. The museums are first rank too: Bruegel in the Kunsthistorisches, Klimt's The Kiss at the Belvedere and Schiele at the Leopold.

A night out in Rovinj means a long dinner and then a drink on the rocks as the sun sets. A few waterfront bars stay busy in summer, but most of the old town is quiet by midnight, and outside the season it barely stirs.

Vienna gives you more to choose from, though it is not a party city. There are late bars and small clubs under the Gürtel railway arches, the Bermuda Triangle in the old town and deckchair bars on the Danube Canal in summer. In winter there is the ball season, which visitors can join.

Both have gentle, easy-to-reach green space, but of different kinds. Rovinj's is about the sea: pine paths in the Golden Cape, kayaking and diving around the islands of the archipelago, and the steep green channel of the Lim Fjord.

Vienna's is woods and river. You can hike up through vineyards to the Kahlenberg, explore the floodplain forest of the Donau-Auen by boat, or cycle the Wachau. Real limestone mountains are within reach at the Rax and Schneeberg.

Both make good bases, and Vienna has the slight edge because so much of it can be done by train. Bratislava is an hour away by rail or Danube boat. The Wachau and Melk abbey, the spa town of Baden and Haydn's Eisenstadt all make easy days out.

Rovinj's surroundings are just as rich: Pula's Roman amphitheatre, the mosaics of the Euphrasian Basilica in Porec and hill towns such as Motovun. Piran and Trieste are within reach too, but almost all of it needs a car.

Vienna is better set up for children. There is Schönbrunn Zoo next to a maze and a children's museum, the Ferris wheel and rides at the Prater, and an aquarium inside a flak tower. Dinosaurs and hands-on museums cover wet days.

Rovinj offers a relaxed resort feel instead, with island boat trips, gelato on the harbour and campsites with pools and playgrounds. The rocky shore and steep, polished lanes mean close watching and little use for a pushchair.

Inside Rovinj you walk everywhere: the old town is car-free, and the promenade leads straight to the swimming rocks. Beyond the town there is no railway, and the wineries and hill towns really need a car.

Vienna is one of the easiest cities in Europe to get around without a car. The U-Bahn, trams and buses all run on one ticket, the U-Bahn runs all night at weekends, and the network reaches Schönbrunn, the Danube Island and even the vineyard villages.

Rovinj's shopping is small and regional: truffles, olive oil, Teran wine and lavender, plus the artists' studios along Grisia. Beyond that there is little.

Vienna has a real retail centre. Luxury houses line the Graben and Kohlmarkt, Mariahilfer Strasse handles everyday fashion, and independent designers fill the side streets of Neubau. Augarten porcelain, crystal and Loden coats make gifts that last.

Neither is cheap, but Vienna is usually the easier on your wallet. Rovinj in July and August costs what any sought-after Mediterranean resort costs, and fish sold by weight adds up fast. Private apartments, campsites and the months either side of summer bring it down.

Vienna's hotels are reasonable for a capital outside the ball and Christmas market weeks. Set lunches, Heuriger buffets, transport passes and opera standing places all keep a stay within reach.

This is the widest gap between the two. Rovinj has summer concerts in St Euphemia, music on the squares and the occasional bitinada singing, and very little the rest of the year. Pula's arena is the nearest stage for big summer concerts.

Vienna is one of the great music cities. The State Opera changes its programme almost nightly, the Philharmonic plays in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein, and the Burgtheater, Konzerthaus and Volksoper complete a schedule that runs all year.

Rovinj's calm comes from its pace in May, June and September: late swims, long lunches and walks under the pines. Spa life means the wellness areas of the resort hotels, and high summer crowds the centre.

Vienna offers more ways to unwind. There are the thermal pools of Therme Wien, the Art Deco sauna hall of the Amalienbad, and Baden's sulphur springs half an hour away. The slow coffee-house afternoon is a habit of the city itself.