Kalambaka or Plovdiv?

Both are inland, so swimming makes little difference between them. What you do on a hot day does differ: in Kalambaka it is a hotel pool or a cold dip in a Pindos river, while Plovdiv has outdoor pools, the rowing canal on the western edge of town and reservoirs up in the Rhodopes. For sea and sand, add time on the Aegean or Black Sea coast.

Plovdiv gives you more to eat and drink. Beyond its mehanas serving kebapche, kavarma and banitsa, Kapana adds modern bistros and coffee places. The Thracian Valley wines, Mavrud and Rubin above all, give meals a local focus that Kalambaka cannot match.

Kalambaka's tavernas in town and in Kastraki serve good, generous grills, bean soups and pies with tsipouro and meze, but the menus barely change from one to the next. The view of the pillars at sunset is the main reason to choose a table.

Plovdiv has the wider range. It has a Roman theatre still in use, a stadium beneath the shopping street, early Christian mosaics in two basilicas, a whole quarter of painted National Revival houses, an Ottoman mosque and a museum of Thracian finds, which together make two or three full days of sightseeing.

Kalambaka has one great sight rather than many: the six working monasteries of Meteora, with frescoed churches and icon collections at the top of rock-cut stairs. They are unforgettable, but once they and the Dormition church are seen, the plain modern town has little else to offer.

After dark the difference is large. Kalambaka has café-bars round the central square and nothing that stays open late, so a night out means driving to Trikala. Plovdiv's Kapana district has wine bars, craft beer and cocktails out on the pavements, students in term time, a few clubs and bars along the river, though most evenings there end with a glass of wine rather than dancing.

Kalambaka has the more dramatic landscape. The Meteora pillars, some rising around 400m, start at the back streets, and the oak-wooded ravines, climbing routes and sunset viewpoints are all within walking distance. Further west are the Pindos forests around Pertouli and the Aspropotamos valley.

Plovdiv's outdoors mostly lie beyond the city. Inside it there are only the rocky tepeta hills, good for a short climb and a view. The Rhodopes begin about 20km south and the Central Balkan range lies an hour north, so getting good walking in means a drive first.

Plovdiv is the better base for day trips. Bachkovo Monastery is half an hour away, Hisarya and the Thracian temple at Starosel within an hour, and Kazanlak's painted tomb, the Valley of Roses and Koprivshtitsa are each a comfortable outing, with wine estates all over the plain.

Kalambaka's best trips head west over the mountains: Metsovo for smoked cheese and folk art, Ioannina's lakeside castle quarter, and Zagori at the far edge of a day. Trikala, nearer to home, is pleasant but modest.

Plovdiv is the easier city with children. The car-free main street suits a pushchair, the singing fountains in the Tsar Simeon Garden and the playgrounds at Lauta park and the rowing canal give children space to play, and running round the Roman theatre usually goes down well.

Kalambaka thrills older children who can manage the trails or a beginners' climb. For younger ones, though, the long monastery stairs, quiet interiors and dress rules wear thin, and one or two nights are usually enough.

In Plovdiv you can see most things on foot. The long pedestrian street links the station side, the Roman ruins, Kapana and the Old Town, and taxis are plentiful for the rest, though the cobbled hills are steep.

Kalambaka's town is small and easy to cross, and it has a rail link, but its main sights sit several kilometres up a winding road served by an infrequent bus. Unless you hike up on the footpaths, you will need a car, taxis or a tour.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Plovdiv has more to browse. There are design studios and galleries in Kapana, antique stalls on the way up to the Old Town, and rose oil, embroidery and pottery to take home. Kalambaka has one street of icons, carvings and postcards, plus local honey, herbs and tsipouro, and that is worth an hour at most.

Both are inexpensive by Western European standards, but a budget goes further in Plovdiv. In Kalambaka you pay extra for a room facing the Meteora pillars, and rooms cost more again when Greek visitors fill the town over Orthodox Easter and the long feast-day weekends. A plain family guesthouse a few streets back from the rocks keeps the bill down, and taverna meals are generous for what they cost.

In Plovdiv, even a room among the painted Revival houses of the Old Town is cheap, and dinner in a mehana with a bottle of Thracian red costs less than a similar evening in a Greek taverna. Sightseeing is cheaper to reach as well. The Roman theatre, basilicas and museums sit along a walkable centre with small entry fees, whereas Kalambaka's monasteries charge little but lie several kilometres up a winding road from town.

Plovdiv has the one memorable setting: summer evenings of opera and concerts in the Roman theatre, plus a resident opera company, a philharmonic orchestra and a jazz festival. Kalambaka has almost nothing staged. There may be a taverna musician or a summer folk festival, and Byzantine chant at a monastery service, which is worship rather than a show.

Kalambaka's restful side is its quiet: a small town that goes to bed early, with dawn and evening light over the rocks that suits slow mornings. For treatments or bathing, though, there are only the pools, saunas and massage rooms of a few hotels, and no bathing tradition to seek out.

Plovdiv offers more for a restful stay. Its unhurried aylyak pace means long coffees under the plane trees, and warm mineral pools are within reach at Hisarya, about 45 minutes away, or further into the western Rhodopes at the spa resort of Velingrad.