Vienna or Zakopane?

Neither place is for a beach vacation, but Vienna does have proper summer swimming. The Danube Island's long shoreline and the lidos on the warmer Alte Donau are a U-Bahn ride away, and the Neusiedler See is within an hour.

Zakopane has almost nothing comparable. Bathing in the Tatra lakes is forbidden, and the reservoir at Czorsztyn is a drive away, so a swim there usually means the warm outdoor thermal pools.

Vienna eats with more variety and polish: schnitzel and Tafelspitz in wood-panelled Beisl, strudel and Sachertorte in grand coffee houses, and Grüner Veltliner poured at Heuriger taverns in the city's own vineyards. Its weakness is international and street food, but next to Zakopane that hardly matters.

Zakopane's highland cooking is hearty and memorable for a few days: grilled oscypek with cranberry jam, kwaśnica soup, lamb and pierogi in timber inns with fiddlers. Beyond that the choice narrows quickly, and the better meals are in the side-street family inns rather than on Krupówki.

This is one of the widest gaps between the two. Vienna has the Hofburg, Schönbrunn, St Stephen's Cathedral and the Ringstrasse, plus museums holding Bruegel, Klimt and Schiele, and its Jugendstil buildings add a second great era on top of the baroque.

Zakopane's heritage is small but unlike anything in Vienna: the steep-roofed villas of the Zakopane style, the wooden chapel at Jaszczurówka and the carved grave markers of Pęksowy Brzyzek. A single day covers it.

Vienna has more choice for a night out, from the bars and small clubs under the Gürtel railway arches to deckchair bars on the Danube Canal, and in winter it adds formal balls in palaces. Many evenings simply slide into wine at a Heuriger.

Zakopane's nightlife is one street deep. Krupówki's pubs and inns get rowdy on ski-season weekends and at New Year, but midweek and out of season the town goes quiet early, which suits hikers.

Zakopane is a mountain base in the full sense. Granite peaks, cirques and glacial lakes start where the streets end, with routes from the Kościeliska valley up to Rysy and along the chained Orla Perć, and skiing and ski touring take over in winter. The popular trails do get crowded.

Vienna's outdoors is gentler: beech hills in the Vienna Woods, vineyard paths up the Kahlenberg, the Donau-Auen floodplain forest and flat Danube cycling. For true mountains you have to travel out to the Rax or Schneeberg.

Vienna's central position gives it more good outings and easier ones. Bratislava is an hour away by train or boat, and the Wachau valley with Melk and Dürnstein, the abbeys of Klosterneuburg and Heiligenkreuz and Haydn's Eisenstadt all make an easy day on rail or river.

Zakopane has fine heritage within reach, including the painted wooden church at Dębno, the log houses of Chochołów, and Spiš Castle and Levoča in Slovakia. Kraków and Wieliczka are a long, traffic-prone road trip, though, and most outings depend on the roads.

Vienna gives families more to do on wet days as well as dry ones: Schönbrunn Zoo, the Prater's rides and meadows, an aquarium in a flak tower and the hands-on Natural History and Technical Museums, all reached by trams that are easy with a pram.

Zakopane works best for active families. The Gubałówka funicular and toboggan run, flat valley trails, sledging and the thermal water parks fill several days. Beyond that there is little made for children, and crowds and traffic in the school breaks can test everyone's patience.

Vienna is far easier to move around. A walkable old town, five U-Bahn lines, trams and buses on one ticket reach everything from Schönbrunn to the vineyard villages, and the U-Bahn runs all night at weekends.

Zakopane's centre is walkable and minibuses run to Kuźnice and the valley trailheads, but getting there is the problem: the road jams at peak times, and the train from Kraków is slow. A car helps for Slovakia, though parking in town is a struggle.

Vienna has a proper shopping city, with luxury houses on the Kohlmarkt and Graben, everyday fashion on Mariahilfer Strasse, independent designers in Neubau, and gifts such as Augarten porcelain, crystal and Loden. The Christmas markets add a seasonal reason to browse.

Zakopane is mostly souvenirs, but its best pieces are honest highland crafts: sheep's-wool sweaters, sheepskins, felt slippers and carved wood from the Gubałówka market, plus wheels of oscypek to take home.

Zakopane is the cheaper of the two by a clear margin. Guesthouses, inn meals and minibuses cost little by alpine standards, although Christmas, New Year and the school breaks push room prices up.

Vienna sits in the upper middle range for Western Europe. Transport passes, free palace gardens, set lunches and opera standing places help, but full-price admission to the major palaces and museums adds up over a week.

Vienna is one of the world's great music cities. The State Opera changes its programme almost nightly, the Vienna Philharmonic plays in the Musikverein's Golden Hall, and the Konzerthaus, Volksoper and Burgtheater all add to it, with the music of Mozart to Strauss on offer all year.

Zakopane's live culture is small and local: the Witkacy Theatre, highland string bands playing in the inns, and the August Festival of Mountain Folklore. It has charm, but classical concerts are only occasional.

The two are close here, and the difference lies in the kind of rest. Vienna slows you down through its daily rituals of long coffee-house afternoons and palace-garden walks, with thermal bathing at Oberlaa, the Art Deco Amalienbad or Baden when you want it.

Zakopane has the slight edge for bathing. Several geothermal complexes, in Chochołów, Białka Tatrzańska, Bukowina and Szaflary, have outdoor pools steaming beneath the Tatras, and a soak after a hike is routine. For calm, though, stay on the quieter slopes rather than in the busy centre.