Kalambaka or Tirana?

Neither city is on the sea, but in practice the gap is large. From Kalambaka the coast is well over two hours' drive away, so swimming means a hotel pool or a cold plunge in a Pindos river.

Tirana has Durrës less than an hour away, with a long sandy beach and shallow, warm water that suits children. The beach is crowded and built-up, and the clear coves of the south are far off, but a beach day is easy to fit in.

Kalambaka feeds visitors well but in one style: grilled lamb and pork, bean soups, pies, and tsipouro with meze. The menu is much the same from one taverna to the next, and the Meteora sunset is the real seasoning.

Tirana's cooking has the same rustic roots but gives you more to explore. There is byrek in the morning, tavë kosi, and farm restaurants on the surrounding hills where the produce comes from the fields outside. Blloku and the streets by the Pazari i Ri market add range, and the slow café culture is a pleasure in itself.

Kalambaka has the stronger draw, because the Meteora monasteries are a sight of European rank. Their frescoed churches, refectories and icon collections sit in buildings perched on sandstone pillars since the 14th century. The old Dormition church in town is a small addition.

Tirana's interest is recent history rather than antiquity. Bunk'Art and the House of Leaves tell the story of the communist era vividly, and Skanderbeg Square with the Et'hem Bey Mosque makes a fine centre. The older layers of Albanian heritage, though, lie outside the city.

After dinner, Kalambaka offers little more than a drink at a café-bar on the main square. Anyone wanting more drives half an hour to Trikala.

Tirana has a real night out. Blloku, once sealed off for the communist leadership, fills with cocktail bars, lounge terraces and small clubs. On summer weekends its streets stay busy past midnight, and the larger clubs near the Grand Park lake keep going later still.

Kalambaka's landscape is the main event. The Meteora pillars rise from the edge of town, monks' paths wind through oak woods between them, and climbers come for the long bolted routes. Beyond lie the Pindos mountains, with fir forest around Pertouli and rafting in the Aspropotamos valley.

Tirana has good nature within easy reach, but nothing as dramatic on its doorstep. The Dajti cable car lifts you into beech and pine forest above the city, and Bovilla's turquoise reservoir and the trails around Gamti make fine outings. The Albanian Alps need a longer trip.

Tirana has more of Albania's best-known heritage within a day's reach. Kruja has Skanderbeg's castle, Durrës its Roman amphitheatre, and Berat its white Ottoman houses about two hours to the south. Shkodra and Apollonia are also within reach.

Kalambaka's outings are pleasant but fewer: Trikala's Varousi quarter, the cheese-making village of Metsovo and lakeside Ioannina, with Zagori's stone villages at the limit of a day. From either base, a car or a tour makes things far easier.

Neither city is built around children, but Tirana copes better. Kalambaka is safe and small, and older children may love the trails or a beginners' climb, but the monasteries mean long stairs, hushed rooms and dress rules.

Tirana gives families more variety: the Grand Park's lake and playgrounds, the Dajti cable car, open space on Skanderbeg Square and a sandy beach at Durrës. Children are also welcome in cafés late into the evening. Heavy traffic and broken pavements are the drawback with a buggy.

Both centres are flat and walkable, so the difference is in reaching the sights. In Kalambaka the monasteries lie along a winding road several kilometres above town and the bus is infrequent. Most visitors either hike up for about an hour, take taxis or hire a car.

In Tirana nearly everything worth seeing is within a twenty-minute walk, and cheap taxis cover the trips to Bunk'Art and the Dajti cable car. The buses are confusing and there is no metro, but you can manage without a car until the day trips.

In Kalambaka, shopping means icons, carvings, honey and tsipouro from souvenir shops and monastery stalls. Tirana is no shopping destination either, but it has more to browse: the Pazari i Ri market for cheese, olives, raki and copperware, felt hats and filigree silver, plus malls and a few boutiques around Blloku.

Both are inexpensive by Western European standards, and Tirana makes a budget go further. Kalambaka's guesthouses and tavernas are fair value, though hotels with views of the rocks, Orthodox Easter, guided tours and car hire push costs up.

In Tirana, coffee, byrek, grilled meals, taxis and museum entry all cost little, and mid-range hotels in the centre are good value. Only the smarter places in Blloku cost noticeably more.

Kalambaka has almost no performing arts beyond a summer festival or a musician in a taverna. Byzantine chant at a monastery service is worship, not entertainment.

Tirana at least has the National Theatre of Opera and Ballet on Skanderbeg Square, with opera, ballet and concerts, and tickets are easy to get. Add jazz in a few bars and open-air concerts in summer. Albania's iso-polyphonic singing, though, is heard more in the south than in the capital.

For pampering the two are level. Neither has a bathing tradition, and spa options are limited to hotel saunas and massage rooms. What differs is the kind of calm: Kalambaka offers country quiet, early nights and dawn light over the rocks.

Tirana's way of resting is urban: long coffees on shaded terraces and the evening xhiro along the boulevards, with Dajti and the Grand Park as escapes from the traffic noise. The thermal springs at Llixha, about an hour away, are an option Kalambaka lacks.