Athens or Skopje?

These two are about as far apart as it gets on swimming. Athens has a proper coastline along the Saronic Gulf, where the coves and water get better as you head south towards Vouliagmeni and Varkiza. Aegina and Agistri are a short ferry ride away for a quieter swim.

Skopje has no sea at all. Summer swimming there means hotel or public pools, because the water at Matka is too cold for bathing. If you want time on the water, Lake Ohrid needs a stay of its own.

Both cities eat in a shared, generous Balkan and Mediterranean way, but Athens has more range and more depth. Meze tables with octopus, fava and horta, souvlaki counters, the Varvakios market and a serious modern Greek fine-dining scene give you plenty for a week. Pangrati, Koukaki and Exarchia cook better and cheaper than Plaka.

Skopje's cooking is heartier and narrower: tavche gravche, stuffed peppers, kebapi in the Old Bazaar and long tavern tables in Debar Maalo. Its pleasant surprise is wine, with Vranec reds and Temjanika whites, though a few days covers the local menu.

Athens has some of the most important sights in the world. The Parthenon, the Temple of Hephaestus, the Kerameikos and the Panathenaic Stadium are linked by one pedestrian promenade, and the Acropolis Museum, the National Archaeological Museum and the Benaki could each fill a day.

Skopje is smaller in scale, but it holds its own story. One of the Balkans' largest Ottoman bazaars, with its caravanserais and the carved iconostasis of the Church of the Holy Saviour, sits across the Stone Bridge from a centre rebuilt in bronze and neoclassical facades. The stopped clock of the old station is a reminder of the 1963 earthquake. Two or three days is enough there, where Athens rewards far longer.

Athens is a real night-out city. Bars fill at midnight, rooftops in Psyrri and Monastiraki look onto the lit Acropolis, Gazi has the big clubs and the gay scene, and in summer the party moves to open-air venues on the coast. Bouzouki clubs add something you won't find elsewhere.

Skopje's evenings centre on cafe-bars, especially the terraces of Debar Maalo, which switch from coffee to rakija as the night goes on. Weekends and summer courtyards in the Old Bazaar get busy, but weeknights are quiet and the clubs are few.

Skopje has the edge for walkers because the mountains start at the city's edge. You can hike or ride the cable car up Vodno from the suburbs, and Matka Canyon, with its cliff monasteries, kayaking and Vrelo Cave, is half an hour out. Further away, the Sar ridges and the beech forests of Mavrovo give real high-country hiking in summer and skiing in winter.

Athens has city hills such as Lycabettus and Filopappou, and fir forest on Parnitha about an hour north, but the landscape is drier and barer. Its outdoor strength is the sea: sailing, paddleboarding and day charters on the Saronic Gulf.

Few cities can match the day trips from Athens. Delphi, Mycenae, Epidaurus and Nafplio are each within about two hours, Sounion makes a fine sunset drive, and Hydra, Poros and Aegina are easy ferry trips with real harbour towns.

From Skopje the trips are less famous but varied: the Painted Mosque in Tetovo, the mosaics at Stobi on the way to Tikves wineries, the crater town of Kratovo, and Prizren across the Kosovo border. Ohrid, the country's star, is too far to do in a day.

With children along, the real gap is in what fills the hours away from the monuments. Athens gives you plenty of ways to break up a day: calm water on the Riviera for younger ones, a planetarium show, a virtual-reality trip through ancient Greece at Hellenic Cosmos, or the park and lake at the Stavros Niarchos centre when everyone has had enough of ruins.

Children who know the myths get more from the Acropolis, but go early, and spring or autumn is far kinder than July.\n\nSkopje has fewer of these fall-backs. Its best family moments are outdoors, swinging up Vodno by cable car or gliding into Matka Canyon by boat, and once those are done the evening stroll by the Vardar is most of what remains. In the hot months there is no sea to cool off in, so two or three days here followed by a stay at a lake works better than a week in the city.

Athens has a metro and a tram, and Skopje has neither. The Athens metro runs from the airport and Piraeus into the centre, with antiquities on display in its stations, and the tram takes you down to the Riviera. The archaeological promenade is a pleasure on foot, but narrow, blocked pavements and steep hills make the rest of the centre harder going.

Skopje's core is flatter and easier to walk, from the Old Bazaar over the Stone Bridge to Macedonia Square and Debar Maalo along the Vardar. Beyond that, the red double-decker buses are hard for a newcomer to work out, so cheap taxis do the work for Vodno, Matka and the bus station.

Athens has more variety: chain fashion on Ermou, Greek designers in Kolonaki, the weekend flea market around Avissynias Square, and leather sandals, honey and jewellery based on ancient designs.

Skopje's shopping is mainly in the bazaar, with silver filigree workshops, copperware and the Bit Pazar produce market. Ohrid pearls and wine are the usual things to take home, and beyond that it's malls.

Skopje is clearly the cheaper of the two. Tavern dinners with wine, coffee and burek, central rooms and taxis all cost very little, and the main sights are free or close to it. Even its smarter riverside places are modest by Western standards.

Athens is good value on souvlaki, neighbourhood tavernas and the metro, but central hotels in summer and archaeological site fees push the total up. Staying in Koukaki or Pangrati helps.

Athens has the bigger and more striking stage. Summer festival opera and ancient drama at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus and at Epidaurus are hard to match, the Greek National Opera keeps a year-round season, and rebetiko in small tavernas is the city's own music.

Skopje's programme is that of a small capital, with opera, ballet and the Philharmonic at low ticket prices. Its standout is the long-running autumn jazz festival, alongside starogradska songs in Debar Maalo.

Neither is a restful city, but Athens has one real asset: Lake Vouliagmeni, a lake fed by mild mineral springs beneath a limestone cliff where you can swim all year. Otherwise rest means hotel spas or a long coffee in the shade.

Skopje's Ottoman hamams are now galleries. Its thermal option, Katlanovska Banja, is an old-style sanatorium rather than a polished spa, so slow cafe hours by the river are the best way to unwind there.