Stockholm or Tallinn?

Neither is a beach destination, but Stockholm makes the better summer swimming city. Its water is clean enough to swim in from the centre, at the rocks of Långholmen, Smedsuddsbadet on Kungsholmen or the lakes at Hellasgården, and the archipelago adds coves and bathing jetties a ferry ride away.

Tallinn has the proper sand, with Pirita's long beach backed by pines and smaller strands at Stroomi and Pikakari, but that is about the whole of it, and the summer weather is less reliable. A few hours on Pirita is pleasant; Stockholm offers more ways to fit a swim into a July day.

Stockholm eats more broadly. A serious Nordic tasting-menu scene sits above the old-fashioned husmanskost of meatballs, herring and toast skagen, Östermalms Saluhall shows off the produce, and fika with a cardamom bun is a daily habit.

Tallinn's best cooking works with similar Baltic ingredients in a lighter, smaller way, mostly in bistros around Telliskivi, Rotermann and Kalamaja, with the Baltic Station Market for smoked fish and rye bread. The catch is the Old Town, where many restaurants serve medieval-themed menus to tour groups, so eating well there means stepping outside the walls.

Stockholm has the deeper set of sights. Beyond Gamla Stan and the Royal Palace it has the Vasa Museum's 1628 warship, Skansen, the Nationalmuseum, Moderna Museet and the woodland cemetery at Skogskyrkogården, enough to fill a long stay across several islands.

Tallinn's strength is one place done exceptionally well: a walled Hanseatic Old Town with its towers, Town Hall and St Olaf's spire, and Toompea above it with Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. Kadriorg, KUMU and the Seaplane Harbour round it out, but the city is covered in two or three days, where Stockholm keeps going.

Stockholm offers more range after dark. Stureplan has the polished clubs with strict doors and late weekend hours, while Södermalm's bars and small dance floors around Medborgarplatsen give a looser night, and summer brings the waterfront terraces to life.

Tallinn's scene is smaller and seen in a couple of nights: cellar pubs and cocktail bars in the Old Town, often full of visiting groups, and craft beer in the old factory spaces of Telliskivi and Kalamaja. In both cities the drinking is far quieter in winter and on weekdays.

Stockholm wins on its archipelago, thousands of granite islands that begin at the quay and invite kayaking, sailing and island walks, with Royal Djurgården's oak meadows on foot from the centre and Tyresta's old pine forest within easy reach. In a hard winter there is skating on natural ice too.

Tallinn's outdoors needs a little more effort and has a different character. Lahemaa National Park is about an hour away, with boulder-strewn peninsulas and coastal trails, and the boardwalks across raised bogs such as Viru show the most typical Estonian landscape, something Stockholm cannot offer. Closer in, the limestone cliffs of the klint and the Keila-Joa waterfall make short outings. Both are flat.

Stockholm has the richer choice on its doorstep: Uppsala's cathedral and royal mounds by train, Sigtuna's wooden main street, and Drottningholm Palace by boat across Lake Mälaren. In summer the boats add Birka, Gripsholm Castle, Vaxholm and Sandhamn, though in winter the list narrows to towns on the railway.

Tallinn's standout is Helsinki, a whole second capital about two hours away by fast ferry. Beyond that come the manor houses of Lahemaa, Rakvere's castle ruins and Haapsalu, while Tartu and Pärnu are far enough to suit an overnight stay instead.

Stockholm is one of the easiest cities anywhere to visit with children. Buggies go on every bus, playgrounds are everywhere, and Djurgården packs Skansen's Nordic animals, Junibacken's Astrid Lindgren world and the Gröna Lund amusement park into one island, with Tekniska museet and the natural history museum for wet days.

Tallinn is calm and safe too, and the Seaplane Harbour, where children climb inside a real submarine, is a superb morning. The zoo, Proto and the open-air museum help, but there is no theme park, and the Old Town cobbles are hard going with a pushchair.

In Stockholm the transport is part of the pleasure, while in Tallinn you rarely need it. Stockholm's Tunnelbana, trams, buses and harbour ferries run on one ticket, the painted bedrock metro stations are worth seeing for themselves, and the ferry to Djurgården doubles as a harbour tour. Spread over islands, the city does mean bridges and some steep climbs on Södermalm.

Tallinn's centre is compact: the Old Town, harbour, Rotermann, Telliskivi and Kalamaja are all a short walk from one another, trams cover Kadriorg and the airport, which sits unusually close, and the Helsinki ferries leave near the walls. Beyond that the network is simpler and thinner, and the cobbled climb to Toompea is tiring.

Stockholm is a real shopping destination, above all for Scandinavian design. Clean-lined Swedish fashion and denim fill Biblioteksgatan and Norrmalmstorg alongside the luxury houses, NK is the classic department store, and SoFo on Södermalm is the place for vintage and independent boutiques.

Tallinn shops on a smaller scale and leans to crafts: glass, ceramics, leather and knitwear from the workshops of St Catherine's Passage, plus young Estonian designers in Telliskivi and Rotermann. Amber and souvenirs crowd the Old Town, and there is no luxury district to speak of.

Tallinn is the gentler on a budget, though it costs roughly what an average Western European capital does rather than the bargain its past suggests. Transport and museums are cheap, and lunch menus in the neighbourhoods beyond the walls are the way to eat well for less; only the Old Town's tourist restaurants charge extra for the view.

Stockholm is expensive almost across the board, with heavily taxed alcohol sold to take away only in state shops. The weekday lunch deal, free parks and bathing spots and hotel rates that fall at weekends and in July soften it, but a tight budget will feel it.

Stockholm gives a visitor the broader and fuller choice of evenings. The Royal Swedish Opera stages opera and ballet through the season, the Konserthuset and Berwaldhallen host orchestral concerts, and in summer the Drottningholm Palace Theatre performs baroque opera on its original eighteenth-century stage machinery. Add touring pop acts, a long-running jazz scene and arena shows, and there is something worth booking on most nights outside high summer.\n\nTallinn's offer is narrower but has a character of its own, built on the human voice.

Organ and choral concerts in Old Town churches, frequent performances of Arvo Pärt's music and the opera and ballet at the Estonia Theatre make for fine evenings. The Song Festival brings tens of thousands of singers together, but only every few years. Beyond these, theatre is almost entirely in Estonian, so the options run out sooner than they do in Stockholm.

The two are close here, both built on the Nordic sauna rather than thermal water. Stockholm has the grander setting, with the Art Nouveau Centralbadet and the older Sturebadet in town and waterside spa hotels around Nacka and the inner archipelago.

Tallinn's version is plainer and more everyday: old neighbourhood public saunas in Kalamaja and seaside saunas with a cold plunge into the Baltic, with a few harbour spa hotels besides. Either city is an easy, unhurried place to slow down for a few days.