Mostar or Ohrid?

Ohrid is the place to swim. In summer the lake becomes the town's living room. There are small coves below Kaneo and the beach at Potpeš within walking distance, and beach bars on longer stretches of shore at Lagadin and Gradište. The water is calm, clear and fresh, though the season only runs from late June to mid-September.

Mostar has nothing comparable. The Neretva is too cold for more than a quick jump from the rocks, so swimming means a trip to the pool beneath the Kravica falls. For salt water you have to drive over an hour to Neum.

The two eat at much the same level, homely and cheap, with little beyond the local kitchen. In Mostar that kitchen leans Ottoman: charcoal-grilled ćevapi in somun, flaky pies, and Bosnian coffee served slowly with rahat lokum. The local Žilavka and Blatina wines are worth asking for.

Ohrid's speciality is lake fish such as belvica, served alongside baked beans in clay pots, sheep's cheese and ajvar, with Tikveš wine. In both towns the best meals are found a few streets away from the main tourist strip.

Ohrid offers more to see. On one hillside you get the medieval frescoes of St Sophia, the church of St John at Kaneo above the water, Plaošnik with its links to Cyrillic learning, a Hellenistic theatre and Samuel's Fortress, all within a UNESCO listing that includes the lake.

Mostar's sights centre on one famous monument and the story around it. The rebuilt Old Bridge, the bridge divers, the Koski Mehmed Pasha minaret and the Ottoman house museums sit near the war-damaged buildings of the former front line. These make a powerful day, but a narrower one.

Ohrid has the livelier evenings, though only in summer. Then visitors from across the region fill the lakefront café-bars, and beach clubs on the southern shore play music late into the night. Out of season it goes quiet.

Mostar's evenings mostly mean dinner on a terrace looking at the lit bridge. After that you have a few cocktail bars and student clubs at weekends.

Both are set in fine scenery, but the landscapes are very different. Mostar lies in a dry karst basin under Velež and the rugged Prenj range. Its outdoor life follows the river, with rafting in the canyons, the Buna spring at Blagaj and birdlife on the Hutovo Blato wetland. Summer in the valley is too hot for serious walking.

Ohrid's landscape is lake and mountain. Galičica National Park rises between two lakes and offers trails to summits above 2,000m, and paragliders launch from the ridge. On the water there are easy kayaks and a rowing-boat trip through the reeds at the springs by St Naum.

The two are close here, but Mostar's outings are packed closer together. Blagaj's dervish house, walled Počitelj, the medieval tombstones at Stolac and Tito's bunker at Konjic all lie within easy reach. Sarajevo is a long day by train through the Neretva gorge.

From Ohrid the classic trip is by boat to St Naum. Beyond it are Struga, the mosaics of Heraclea near Bitola, and an easy crossing into Albania for Pogradec and Korçë. From either town you will need a car or driver for most of these.

Ohrid is the easier town with children. Clear, calm water for whole days of swimming, boat rides, ice cream on the promenade and the pile village at the Bay of Bones fill a week without strain.

Mostar is better for an afternoon than for a whole stay. Children enjoy the bridge divers and the minaret climb, and Kravica makes a memorable outing. Against that, the polished stone lanes are hard with a pushchair and the summer heat is tough on small children.

You can cover the centre of both on foot, but Ohrid is easier once you go further out. Taxis are plentiful for short hops, and local buses and summer boats run down the shore to the beaches and St Naum, even if they are not always frequent.

In Mostar the old town and the Austro-Hungarian centre make a short stroll on slippery cobbles. Beyond that, city buses serve residents rather than visitors, so Blagaj or Počitelj means a car, taxi or tour. Its one advantage is the train to Sarajevo.

Neither is a shopping destination, but each has one craft worth seeking out. In Mostar it is hand-hammered copper from the workshops on the Kujundžiluk, among stalls that are otherwise full of imported souvenirs. In Ohrid it is the lake pearl, made by a handful of long-established family workshops, along with filigree silver and carved icons.

Both are among the cheapest places to visit in Europe, with low-cost guesthouses, inexpensive meals and local wine at little expense. The difference is where prices rise. In Mostar it is terraces with a view of the bridge and old-town rooms in midsummer. In Ohrid it is lakefront rooms on summer weekends, so late spring and early autumn give the best value.

Ohrid has more to offer, though only in summer. The Ohrid Summer Festival, held every year since the early 1960s, brings opera, classical concerts and theatre to St Sophia and the ancient theatre, and a choral festival adds sacred and folk singing.

Mostar has a national theatre and a youth theatre, but they perform mainly in local languages. Beyond summer open-air concerts, there is little more than a band in a café bar.

Neither town has a bathing tradition, but Ohrid is the easier place to unwind. There are hotel spas with pools and saunas, and in May, June and September there are quiet lakeside mornings on still water. August is noisier.

Mostar's hammam survives only as a historic building, and spa treatments are limited to a few hotels. Its calm comes in the early mornings and evenings, when the old town empties and you hear only the river.