Dubrovnik or Kalambaka?

This is not a close call. Dubrovnik is a real swimming destination. People swim from pebble coves and concrete platforms at Banje, Lapad and below the seaward walls, and quieter bays, including the sandy cove at Sunj on Lopud, are a short boat ride away.

Kalambaka is on the edge of the Thessalian plain, well inland, so swimming means a hotel pool or a cold mountain river in the Pindos.

Dubrovnik eats better, as long as you avoid the Old Town's tourist menus. Ston oysters, black risotto and Peljesac reds at a konoba in Lapad or Konavle are a step above most meals in Kalambaka.

Kalambaka offers heavier mountain food: grilled lamb, bean soups, pies and tsipouro with meze, usually at a table with a view of the rocks at dusk. It is honest and filling, but every taverna serves much the same menu.

Both have a single main attraction, but Dubrovnik's is broader. A whole walled city of palaces, monasteries and churches, with Fort Lovrijenac and the Mount Srd museum, fills two or three days.

Kalambaka's culture is almost entirely the Meteora monasteries: frescoed chapels, refectories and icon collections on top of the pillars, reached by steps cut into the rock. They are extraordinary, but once you have seen them the plain modern town offers little more beyond its Byzantine church.

Neither is a place for a big night out, but Dubrovnik at least has evenings worth staying up for. In summer there are sunset drinks at the bars cut into the rocks, wine bars in the lanes off the Stradun and a club inside the Revelin fortress.

Kalambaka's evenings end with dinner and perhaps a drink on the central square. Anyone wanting more has to drive half an hour to the student bars in Trikala.

Kalambaka is the stronger place for being outdoors, because the landscape is right at the town's edge. Footpaths lead from the back streets up between pillars around 400m high, climbers come for the long conglomerate routes, and the Pindos forests and the Aspropotamos valley are a short drive west.

Dubrovnik's nature is coastal and more about views. You can kayak around the walls, ride the cable car up Mount Srd, and visit the saltwater lakes of Mljet and the walking paths on the Elafiti islands.

Dubrovnik's location near the borders gives it more varied day trips. Kotor and Perast in Montenegro, and Trebinje or Mostar in Bosnia, add whole different countries to the trip, and Cavtat and the Elafiti islands are easy by boat. Summer queues at the borders are the main drawback.

From Kalambaka the trips are into mountain Greece: Trikala's old Varousi quarter, the smoked cheeses of Metsovo, and Ioannina's lakeside castle. All of them are much easier with a car.

Dubrovnik gives children more to do. There are calm coves in Lapad, boat rides to Lokrum, the cable car, an aquarium and the walls themselves, though the stairs and summer crowds are hard going with a pushchair.

In Kalambaka, older children may love the trails or a beginners' climbing session. Younger ones tend to tire of long flights of steps, quiet monastery interiors and dress codes, so one or two nights is usually enough.

Dubrovnik is easier without a car. A simple bus network connects Lapad, Gruz and Ploce to the Pile gate, and taxi boats cover the islands, but the steep stairways make walking between districts tiring.

Kalambaka is flat and quick to cross on foot, and unlike Dubrovnik it has a rail link towards Athens and Thessaloniki. The problem is getting up to the monasteries several kilometres above town, where buses are infrequent. Most visitors end up hiring a car, taking taxis or joining a tour.

Neither is a shopping destination. Dubrovnik has slightly more worth taking home: Konavle embroidery, silver filigree and candied orange peel from the Gunduliceva Poljana market. In Kalambaka the choice comes down to painted icons, honey, herbs and tsipouro, some of it sold by the monasteries themselves.

Kalambaka is much cheaper. Guesthouse rooms, taverna meals and monastery entry fees all cost little, and prices only rise at hotels facing the rocks or over Orthodox Easter.

In summer, Dubrovnik charges what a Western European capital would for rooms near the Old Town. The walls, the cable car and boat trips add up quickly, and even staying out in Gruz or visiting in spring only partly reduces the cost.

Dubrovnik has something to offer here, though only in season. The Summer Festival in July and August puts theatre, concerts and dance on stage at Fort Lovrijenac and in the Rector's Palace atrium, and the symphony orchestra plays through the year.

Kalambaka has almost nothing beyond a summer folk evening or a taverna musician. Byzantine chant at a monastery service is moving, but it is worship rather than a performance.

The two are broadly level. Neither has a bathing tradition, and spa facilities in both are limited to a few hotels. The difference lies in where to find calm: in Dubrovnik it means leaving the Old Town for Cavtat or the Elafiti islands, while in Kalambaka the town itself is quiet, sleeps early and has slow mornings with the light on the rocks.