Kalambaka or Skopje?

Neither city has a beach, and both are a long way from swimmable water. From Kalambaka the sea is more than two hours away by car, and the summer alternative is a cold dip in a Pindos river. From Skopje the nearest good swimming is at Lake Ohrid, about three hours away and better as a stay of its own, with public outdoor pools in town for hot days.

Both cities serve hearty grilled meat and bean dishes, but Skopje gives you more to explore. Its Old Bazaar grill houses, early-opening burek bakeries, tavche gravche in clay dishes and the taverns of Debar Maalo add up to a fuller local repertoire, and the Vranec and Temjanika wines from Tikves are a real reason to linger at the table.

Kalambaka's tavernas, in town and in Kastraki, serve generous lamb, pies, mountain greens and tsipouro with meze, often with the rocks lit up at sunset. Menus vary little from place to place, though, and there is no market or café scene. Neither city has much fine dining.

The two offer very different kinds of sightseeing that carry similar weight. Kalambaka has one overwhelming sight: the active monasteries of Meteora, among them the Great Meteoron, Varlaam and Roussanou. They have frescoes, icons and old refectories reached by rock-cut steps, and the frescoed Dormition church stands in town.

Skopje is a city of layers instead. It has the Ottoman Old Bazaar with its caravanserais and the Mustafa Pasha Mosque, Kale Fortress, the carved iconostasis of the Holy Saviour, the earthquake story told at the old railway station and the much-debated statues of Skopje 2014. Neither city needs more than about three days.

Skopje has a real night out, even if it is a local one. Café-bars in Debar Maalo move from coffee to rakija and cocktails, Old Bazaar courtyards stay busy past midnight in summer, and there are a few clubs and open-air parties near the city park. Weeknights are quiet, but weekends fill up.

Kalambaka offers dinner and a drink on the central square, and little after that. Anyone who wants more has to drive half an hour to Trikala's bar street.

Both cities have mountains close by, but Kalambaka's are more striking and nearer to hand. The Meteora pillars, some rising around 400m, begin at the town's back streets, so you can walk from your room up monks' paths to the clifftops, and the conglomerate rock is a well-known climbing area. The Pindos adds the fir forests around Pertouli and rafting in the Aspropotamos valley.

Skopje has Mount Vodno above its southern suburbs, with a cable car up to the Millennium Cross, and Matka Canyon half an hour away for kayaking and a boat to Vrelo Cave. The Sar mountains and Mavrovo offer good hiking and skiing, but you need a car to reach them.

The choice of day trips is similar in size but different in character. From Kalambaka the trips are Greek and mountainous: the river town of Trikala with its castle and Varousi quarter, the stone village of Metsovo over the Pindos, and lakeside Ioannina, with the Zagori villages at the limit of a day. The sparse buses make a car more important here.

Skopje's trips cross borders and centuries. They include Roman mosaics at Stobi, wineries in Tikves, the painted Sarena Mosque in Tetovo, Kratovo inside its crater, and Prizren's Ottoman old town in Kosovo. Ohrid, though, is too far for a day trip.

Neither city is built around children, and families in both usually keep the stay short. Kalambaka's draw is the rocks themselves, which thrill older children who can walk the trails or try a beginners' climb, though the monastery steps and dress rules wear on little ones.

Skopje has more everyday distractions: City Park, a small zoo and funfair, the cable car up Vodno and boat rides in Matka. Hot summers, busy roads and uneven pavements still make long days tiring.

Both centres are small and easy to walk, and in each the difficulty lies outside town. Kalambaka sits at the end of a rail branch off the Athens to Thessaloniki line, but its monasteries are spread along a winding road several kilometres above town, served by an infrequent bus. Fit walkers hike up in about an hour, while most visitors use a hire car, taxis or a tour.

Skopje's main sights sit along a flat stretch of the Vardar. The red double-decker buses are confusing for newcomers, but cheap, plentiful taxis cover Vodno, Matka and the bus station, so you only need a car for the mountains and the wine country.

Skopje is the better place to browse. Workshops in the Old Bazaar sell silver filigree, copperware and embroidery, Bit Pazar is a working market full of spices, cheese and peppers, and modern malls cover the international chains. Kalambaka has a street of icons, carvings and postcards, plus honey, herbs and tsipouro to take home, and little else.

Kalambaka is good value, and much of what visitors come for costs nothing. The monks' footpaths, the walks between the pillars and the clifftop viewpoints at sunset are free, and the monasteries charge only small entry fees. What you spend depends mostly on how much comfort and convenience you want, so a walker who hikes up from town spends far less than someone who has everything arranged. On a wider Greek itinerary, it is a noticeably cheaper stop than the islands or Athens.

Skopje is cheaper still, and the gap is widest when you trade up. Even the smarter hotels and restaurants along the river are modest by Western standards, tickets for the opera and the Philharmonic are affordable, and the main sights are free or close to it. A comfortable stay in this capital costs little more than a basic one.

Skopje has a modest but real cultural calendar. It includes the Macedonian Opera and Ballet, the Philharmonic, the National Theatre with plays mostly in Macedonian, the long-running Skopje Jazz Festival each autumn, and summer concerts at the fortress and in the bazaar.

Kalambaka has almost none of this, beyond an occasional summer festival or a musician in a taverna. Byzantine chant at a monastery service is moving to hear, but it is worship, not a performance.

Neither city is a spa destination, and both offer calm rather than treatments. Kalambaka's calm is the quiet of a small town that sleeps early, with slow mornings in the dawn light over the rocks and a few hotel saunas.

Skopje's Ottoman hamams are galleries rather than baths. Katlanovska Banja, half an hour out, has old-style thermal mineral pools, though, and the café terraces of Debar Maalo are made for idle hours.