Belgrade or Tirana?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Tirana has the real sea. Durrës is under an hour away, with a long sandy shore and shallow Adriatic water around 25°C in high summer, although the stretch near the port gets crowded and is not always clear.

Belgrade's swimming is closer to home and fresh water: the gravel shores of the Ada Ciganlija lake, a lifeguarded lido where locals go after work, and the wilder sandy Danube beach on Great War Island. It is convenient, but it is a city swim rather than a day at the coast.

These two kitchens are about equal, and they lean in different directions. Belgrade is built around the grill and the kafana: ćevapi, pljeskavica, kajmak and long rakija-fuelled meals in Skadarlija and Zemun, with Kalenić market and Fruška Gora wines alongside.

Tirana's cooking is closer to the farm, with tavë kosi, fërgesë and vegetables that taste of the countryside, and its best meals are often at farm restaurants in the hills outside town. Both are thin on refined and international dining.

Belgrade gives a sightseer more. Kalemegdan alone holds Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and Austrian walls above the meeting of two rivers, the Temple of Saint Sava is a monumental church with a gold mosaic interior, and the National Museum and the Museum of Yugoslavia are serious collections. Zemun's Habsburg streets and the socialist blocks of New Belgrade add texture.

Tirana's own story is mostly the 20th century. Bunk'Art and the House of Leaves are gripping on the communist era, and the Et'hem Bey Mosque and the painted facades are attractive, but the historic fabric is thin and the country's older heritage lies outside the city.

This is where Belgrade pulls furthest ahead. Its splavs, floating clubs moored along the Sava and Danube, play everything from turbo-folk to house through summer nights that end at dawn, and in winter the scene carries on in basement and warehouse clubs.

Tirana's going out is concentrated in Blloku, the former leadership quarter, where young locals fill cocktail bars and lounge terraces until well past midnight. It is stylish and fun, with dressing up and being seen at terrace bars, but it is smaller and quietens quickly outside that grid of streets.

Tirana has the mountain on its doorstep. The Dajti cable car rises to about 1,000m in a quarter of an hour, opening up forest trails and views across the plain to the sea, and the Bovilla reservoir, Gamti and the canyons further out suit proper hikers.

Belgrade's outdoors is flatter and gentler, shaped by its rivers: long promenades for walking and cycling, the herons and cormorants of the Great War Island wetland, wooded Košutnjak and Avala, and easy vineyard walks on the low ridge of Fruška Gora.

Both are good bases for excursions, but the trips have a different character. From Belgrade the easiest outing is Novi Sad and its Petrovaradin fortress by fast train, with baroque Sremski Karlovci and the Fruška Gora monasteries for wine and churches, and the big Danube fortresses at Smederevo and Golubac further along.

From Tirana the trips are the heart of a visit, because the country's heritage lies outside the capital: Kruja's castle and bazaar, the Roman amphitheatre at Durrës and, above all, the white Ottoman houses of Berat. Almost all of them need a car, minibus or tour, so plan full days.

For families the two are broadly level, and both are warm towards children while offering little built for them. Belgrade's best afternoons are at Kalemegdan, with tanks outside the military museum and a small zoo inside the walls, and in summer at the shallow lake at Ada Ciganlija.

Tirana's highlights are the cable car up Dajti, the playgrounds by the Grand Park lake and a sandy beach at Durrës. In both cities heavy traffic and cluttered pavements make pushchairs hard going, so older children get more out of either.

Getting around is much the same in both cities, and the difference is in the layout. Tirana's centre is flat and compact, with Skanderbeg Square, Blloku and the market within a twenty-minute walk, though buses are confusing and there are no trams.

Belgrade's core is also walkable but climbs steeply from the rivers, and Zemun and New Belgrade sit across the Sava. Its trams and trolleybuses reach further than Tirana's buses but are crowded and slow in traffic. In both cities taxis are cheap and the usual fallback.

Belgrade is the better place to shop, though neither is a shopping destination. Knez Mihailova and the riverside malls cover the familiar brands, while young designers in Dorćol and Vračar and the produce at Kalenić give it a local edge.

Tirana has little independent design and no luxury street. Its most rewarding stop is Pazari i Ri for cheese, honey, raki and herbs, with felt hats, carpets and filigree silver to take home.

Both are cheap by European standards, and Tirana is the cheaper of the two. Meals, coffee, raki and taxis cost very little there, and comfortable central hotels stay good value.

In Belgrade, kafana meals and taxis are similarly easy on the budget, but central rooms in Dorćol or near Knez Mihailova are priced more like Central Europe, so the bed is where the gap shows.

Belgrade has much the deeper scene. The National Theatre stages opera and ballet, the Belgrade Philharmonic plays at Kolarac, Madlenianum in Zemun adds musicals, and the BITEF and BEMUS festivals give the autumn real weight. On an ordinary night, tamburica bands at kafana tables in Skadarlija are a pleasure of their own.

Tirana has one good stage, the opera and ballet house on Skanderbeg Square, plus a few jazz bars and summer concerts. Albania's UNESCO-listed iso-polyphonic singing is mostly heard at festivals and in the south rather than in the capital.

Neither city is made for resting, and they are about level. Belgrade's calm comes from long terrace coffees and lazy afternoons by the lake on Ada Ciganlija, against loud streets, late nights and indoor smoking, and its spa towns are hours away.

Tirana has the evening xhiro along the boulevards and the cool forest of Dajti for an escape, and thermal springs at Llixha only about an hour away, though the spa hotels there are simple and old-fashioned.