Kotor or Tirana?

Neither town has a proper beach of its own, but Kotor puts the water closer. You can swim in the calm, warm bay straight off the jetties and pebble strips towards Dobrota and Muo. The sandy beach at Jaz and the coves around Budva and Sveti Stefan are only about half an hour over the hill.

From Tirana the sea is a day out rather than part of the stay. Durrës is under an hour away and has a long sandy beach with shallow water that suits children, but it is hotel-lined and crowded on summer weekends. Albania's clear southern coves are many hours away.

Tirana eats better. Its cooking comes from the farm: tavë kosi, fërgesë, stuffed vegetables and grilled meat, with tomatoes and cheeses that taste of the countryside. The farm restaurants in the hills around the city are among the best meals of a trip, and the coffee culture is a pleasure in itself.

Kotor's strengths are seafood from the bay, mussels, black risotto, Njegusi ham and a glass of Vranac. The terraces in the old town serve much the same menu with uneven results, though, so the good meals mean heading out to the konobas in Dobrota, Prcanj or Perast.

Kotor has more to see, and it is older. The whole UNESCO-listed walled town is the attraction: marble lanes, the 12th-century Cathedral of St Tryphon, seafaring palazzi, the Maritime Museum and the walls zigzagging up to St John's fortress.

Tirana's interest is almost all 20th-century. Bunk'Art and the House of Leaves bring the communist years to life in a way few European capitals can match, and the Et'hem Bey Mosque and the National History Museum frame Skanderbeg Square. There is little older fabric, so it suits travellers who are curious about recent history more than those looking for medieval streets.

Tirana is where you go out. Blloku, once sealed off for the communist leadership, is a grid of cocktail bars, lounge terraces and small clubs with a young local crowd. Evenings start late after dinner and run past midnight on summer weekends, and a few larger clubs near the Grand Park lake go on longer.

Kotor's evenings are for a drink on a square once the day visitors have gone, under the floodlit walls. A few bars stay open late in summer, but anyone after a real night out takes the half-hour trip to Budva.

Both cities have a mountain on the doorstep, but Kotor's landscape is the reason people come. Limestone walls rise more than 1,000m almost straight out of the bay. The old Ladder of Kotor mule track and the hairpin road climb towards Lovcen National Park, and kayaking along the shore shows the setting from the water.

Tirana has Mount Dajti, reached by a cable car in about a quarter of an hour, with forest trails and views over the plain to the sea. The Bovilla reservoir and the hiking around Gamti are within an hour. It is good walking country, but it lacks the drama of the bay, and Albania's high peaks are too far for a day.

Kotor's outings are closer and easier. Perast and its island church of Our Lady of the Rocks are about twenty minutes away, Herceg Novi and Budva's old town are along the same coast, and Cetinje and the Njegos mausoleum on Lovcen are about an hour away. Dubrovnik is within reach for a longer day.

Tirana's day trips carry more historic weight, because the country's heritage lies outside the capital. Kruja's Skanderbeg castle is under an hour away, and Berat's white Ottoman houses, Durrës' Roman amphitheatre and Apollonia are also within range. Most take around two hours on slow roads, though, so each one fills a whole day.

Neither city offers much that is made for children, and both welcome them in restaurants late into the evening. In Kotor the safety comes from the car-free old town, the street cats and calm bay water off the jetties. The fortress climb is too steep and hot for most young legs in summer.

Tirana has the Grand Park playgrounds and the Dajti cable car, which give children space and an adventure. The cost is heavy traffic and broken pavements that make pushing a buggy hard work.

Inside each centre you get around on foot. Kotor's car-free old town takes minutes to cross, though the marble is slippery after rain. Leaving it is the problem: the buses run too rarely, the single road round the bay jams in summer, and a car or driver is the usual answer.

Tirana copes a little better. Its flat centre, from Skanderbeg Square to Blloku, is about twenty minutes end to end. For places further out such as Bunk'Art or the cable car, the cheap taxis are easy to use, even if the city buses confuse visitors and crossing the wide roads needs care.

Neither is a shopping destination, though Tirana has a bit more range. The Pazari i Ri market sells cheese, honey, raki and copperware, and there are high-street malls and boutiques around Blloku.

In Kotor the best buys are things to eat and drink, such as Vranac and Njegusi ham from the green market, plus filigree and lace in the old town lanes. For brands you have to go to the Tivat marina.

Tirana is much cheaper. Coffee, byrek, grilled-meat dinners, taxis and museum entry all cost a fraction of Western European prices, and even the smarter Blloku bars stay reasonable.

Kotor is moderately priced, cheaper than the bigger resorts along the coast. Its walled centre charges resort rates in July and August, though, so staying in an apartment in Dobrota or Muo and coming in May, June or September is how to keep costs down.

Tirana has a real stage, even if the scene is thin. The National Theatre of Opera and Ballet on Skanderbeg Square runs opera, ballet and concerts through the season, and tickets are easy to get. A few bars host jazz.

Kotor has no year-round programme. What it has is occasional: summer recitals and choirs in its churches and squares, and the masked parades of the carnival and Boka Night, when decorated boats fill the bay.

Both are thin on spas, and the hotels supply most of what there is. What sets them apart is the kind of rest each offers. In Kotor it means staying outside the walls, taking quiet early mornings on the water and long lunches in the shore villages, and avoiding the crowded old town at midday.

Tirana has real hot water within reach, at the old-fashioned sulphur spa hotels of Llixha about an hour away. In town, people unwind over slow coffee on the terraces, on the evening xhiro and in the shade of the Grand Park and Dajti, away from the traffic.