Warsaw or Wroclaw?

Neither city is a place for sea and sand, and the Baltic is a long journey from both. Each has a summer river-beach culture of deckchairs and drinks on sandy banks, with no swimming in the river itself.

The difference is in where you go for a proper swim. Warsaw has the Zegrze reservoir just north of the city, along with lidos on the outskirts, and its wilder Praga bank of the Vistula feels more natural than the Oder's deckchair beaches. Wroclaw's swimmers head further out, to lakes and reservoirs in the Lower Silesian countryside.

Warsaw is the clear choice for anyone who cares about eating. Both cities share the same base of pierogi, żurek and milk-bar lunches. Warsaw adds a confident modern scene of chefs cooking with game, fermented vegetables and river fish, food halls in old industrial buildings, and a vodka culture with herring and pickles.

Wroclaw cooks Polish comfort food well, and the bistros a street or two off the Market Square lighten it up. It is not a city for eating adventures, though. Its strength is beer, poured in brewpubs set in historic cellars, more than anything on the plate.

The two are close in depth but very different in kind. Warsaw is the city of great museums. The Warsaw Rising Museum and POLIN tell the story of the twentieth century with real force, and the Royal Route links the rebuilt Old Town to Łazienki and Wilanów.

Wroclaw's appeal lies more in its streets. The huge Market Square with its Gothic town hall, the lamplit lanes of Ostrów Tumski and the gilded Aula Leopoldina make the old centre itself the sight. The Racławice Panorama and the Centennial Hall give it a couple of unusual set pieces.

Warsaw has the bigger and later night out. Mazowiecka Street and Nowy Świat fill with bars and clubs, and the pavilions behind the main streets keep people drinking cheaply until morning. Across the river, Praga's old factories hold techno and alternative nights that a clubber would plan around.

Wroclaw's nights are a student bar crawl. They centre on the courtyard passage off Ruska Street and the cellars around the square, and they are good fun but light on clubs. The city also goes noticeably quiet between university terms.

Wroclaw has the better outdoors because it has hills within reach. Ślęża rises alone from the plain for an easy half-day hike. The Karkonosze and the Table Mountains are about two hours away for proper hiking, or for skiing in winter, and in town the river splits around islands that make for pleasant walks.

Warsaw's landscape is flat lowland all round. What it offers is wildness rather than relief: Kampinos forest with its dunes, marshes and elk on the edge of the suburbs, and an untamed Vistula bank of sandbars and birdlife facing the skyline.

Wroclaw is the better base for excursions. Lower Silesia packs castles, abbeys and market towns into one or two hours' driving, from the hilltop castle of Książ to the wooden Churches of Peace at Świdnica and Jawor. A hire car lets you string several together in a day.

From Warsaw the choice thins out sooner. Łódź and Lublin are reachable by train, and Chopin's birthplace at Żelazowa Wola, the gardens at Arkadia and the Treblinka memorial are good closer outings. Kraków, though, is too far for a comfortable day.

Both cities are safe, clean and easy with children, so the choice comes down to the headline attraction. In Warsaw it is the Copernicus Science Centre, a hands-on museum that can fill a whole day, with the planetarium next door and indoor water parks for winter.

Wroclaw answers with its zoo and the Afrykarium's walk-through shark tunnel. Children also love hunting for the bronze dwarfs, which turns the car-free old centre into a game. Warsaw's history museums are heavy going for young children, while Wroclaw's list of attractions runs out sooner.

Getting around is easy in both, but in different ways. Warsaw is spread out along wide post-war avenues. Its two metro lines, trams and one ticket for everything do the work, and a direct train runs from the airport to the centre.

In Wroclaw you mostly walk. The square, the university, the cathedral island and the riverside are close together on flat, largely pedestrianised streets, and you need a tram only for the zoo or the Centennial Hall. The trams can crawl in rush hour, though, and the network is less intuitive.

Warsaw is the better place to shop. Beyond its big malls, Mokotowska Street has boutiques and Polish designer labels, and the city has a luxury department store and weekend flea markets selling communist-era posters.

Wroclaw covers the basics with its malls and the riverside market hall. The 1930s Renoma building is worth seeing for its ceramic facade, and Bolesławiec stoneware made nearby is the souvenir to take home. There is little else beyond a few vintage shops in Nadodrze.

Wroclaw is the cheaper stay. The gap shows most in hotels: central rooms in Wroclaw cost a fraction of Western prices, while Warsaw's business visitors push weekday and trade-fair rates up.

Day-to-day costs are low in both. Milk bars, trams and museums are modestly priced, and drinks are cheap. Warsaw's free museum days help, and a weekend stay there softens the hotel bill.

Both are good music cities, with Warsaw a little deeper. The national opera and ballet perform on the Grand Theatre's huge stage. Chopin recitals run all year, there are free summer Sunday concerts at his monument in Łazienki, and the Chopin Piano Competition comes round every five years.

Wroclaw leans towards concert music and festivals. The National Forum of Music has excellent acoustics, Wratislavia Cantans is devoted to oratorio and early music, and Jazz on the Oder is long-running. Its theatre has Grotowski's experimental legacy, but in both cities theatre is almost all in Polish.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, so in both, relaxing in town means hotel spas and the saunas of indoor water parks. Warsaw's slow corner is Konstancin-Jeziorna on its southern edge, with a saltwater graduation tower and a park. Otherwise it is a brisk working capital.

Wroclaw has a gentler pace, and the old spa towns of Lower Silesia are nearby. Szczawno-Zdrój, about an hour away, and Polanica and Kudowa further south offer pump rooms and spa parks in the Central European style.