Vienna or Wroclaw?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Vienna has real summer swimming. The Danube Island has about 20km of free bathing spots, the calmer and warmer Alte Donau is lined with old lidos, and both are a U-Bahn ride from the centre. The Neusiedler See is there for a day at the lake.

Wroclaw's sandy beaches on the Oder are for deckchairs and a drink rather than swimming. To get into the water there you need an outdoor pool or a trip out to a lake in the countryside.

Vienna has a cuisine of its own and eats better overall. Schnitzel, Tafelspitz and the pastries of the grand coffee houses are worth the trip, and the Heuriger taverns pour wine grown inside the city.

Wroclaw's pierogi, żurek in a bread bowl and milk-bar lunches are hearty and honest. Its cellar brewpubs and craft beer taps are a better pub crawl than Vienna offers. Overall, though, it is good food on a trip rather than a reason to go.

Vienna's imperial past is on a different scale. The Hofburg, Schönbrunn, St Stephen's and the Ringstrasse are joined by museums holding Bruegel, Klimt and Schiele, and Jugendstil buildings add a second great period. A week barely covers it.

Wroclaw is smaller and more intimate. The Market Square with its Gothic town hall, the brick churches of Ostrów Tumski and the Centennial Hall fill two or three good days. Its story of rebuilding after the war gives it a layered character that Vienna does not have.

Wroclaw is the livelier night out of the two, thanks to its students. Bars are packed into the cellars and courtyards around the Market Square, especially the passage off Ruska Street, so it is easy to drift from one to the next. Weekend nights run well past 2am, although things go quiet between university terms.

Vienna's evenings are slower. You might drink under the Gürtel railway arches, in the Bermuda Triangle or in a deckchair by the Danube Canal, or spend the night over wine at a Heuriger. The one thing Wroclaw cannot match is Vienna's winter ball season.

Vienna has easier access to green country. The Vienna Woods and the vineyard trails up the Kahlenberg start at the city's edge, and the wild floodplain forest of the Donau-Auen is close by. The Alpine plateaus of the Rax and Schneeberg are about 90 minutes away.

Wroclaw sits on flat ground. Inside the city there are the river islands, Szczytnicki Park and kayaking on the Oder. Ślęża and the Sudetes need a drive, but the Table Mountains and the Karkonosze give fine hiking days and skiing in winter.

Vienna's central position pays off. Bratislava is an hour away by train or boat, the Wachau valley with Melk and Dürnstein is a classic outing, and Baden, Klosterneuburg and Brno are all easy to reach by rail.

Wroclaw's day trips go into rural Lower Silesia: Książ castle above its gorge, the wooden Churches of Peace and Krzeszów abbey. They are rewarding, but you really need a car to combine several in a day.

Vienna gives children more to do. There is Schönbrunn Zoo in the palace grounds, the Ferris wheel and rides at the Prater, an aquarium inside a wartime flak tower, and several hands-on museums for wet days. In summer you can add swimming in the Danube.

Wroclaw is easy and safe, and hunting for the bronze dwarfs and walking through the zoo's Afrykarium shark tunnel are real hits. After those and the water science centre, though, the list runs short.

Vienna is the easier city to get around. The U-Bahn, trams and buses all run on one ticket, the U-Bahn runs through the night at weekends, and the network reaches everything from Schönbrunn to the vineyard villages, so you never need a car.

Wroclaw's centre is compact and easy to walk. Beyond it the trams are slower and the network takes some learning, and trips to the castles or mountains push you towards hiring a car.

Vienna has much more range for shoppers. Luxury houses line the Kohlmarkt and Graben, locals buy everyday fashion on Mariahilfer Strasse, and Neubau has independent designers. Augarten porcelain, crystal and Loden make gifts with real history behind them.

Wroclaw is mostly malls and practical shopping. The Renoma building is worth seeing for its ceramic facade, and Bolesławiec stoneware and amber make good souvenirs, but there is no luxury street.

In Vienna a full day of sightseeing adds up quickly. Two of the big palaces or museums at full admission, a sit-down dinner and a central room make a noticeable dent in the budget, and rooms climb further in the ball season and the Christmas market weeks. The savings come from the transport passes and the opera's standing places rather than from everyday costs.

Wroclaw turns that around. A comfortable central room, a filling lunch, an evening of beer and entry to the main sights together cost a fraction of the Viennese equivalent, so you rarely have to choose between one sight and another. The one place to watch is the Market Square itself, where the terraces and big hotels charge for the view.

This is Vienna's greatest strength. The State Opera stages a different work most nights, the Vienna Philharmonic plays in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein, and the Konzerthaus, Volksoper and Burgtheater fill the rest of the week. It is the city of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, and their music is played every night.

Wroclaw has a respectable scene for its size. It has the National Forum of Music, its opera house, and festivals such as Wratislavia Cantans and Jazz on the Oder. Its theatre is strong, but almost all of it is in Polish.

Vienna makes rest easier to find. In the city there are the thermal pools of Therme Wien and the tiled Art Deco Amalienbad, Baden's sulphur springs are half an hour away, and long coffee-house afternoons are part of ordinary life.

Wroclaw has no bathing tradition of its own. Relaxing in town means a hotel spa, the aquapark or a slow hour on the islands. For proper spa towns, the pump rooms of Szczawno-Zdrój are about an hour away.