Ohrid or Skopje?

Ohrid has real swimming in calm, clear lake water off platforms, jetties and pebble strips. In town there are the coves below Kaneo and the beach at Potpeš, and further south Lagadin and Gradište have longer stretches with loungers. The season is short and runs from late June to mid-September.

Skopje has nothing like it. Summer swimming there means hotel and public pools, and the Matka reservoir is too cold for more than a kayak. If swimming matters, book nights at Ohrid rather than trying it as a day out.

Both cook the same Macedonian dishes, such as tavče gravče, stuffed peppers and ajvar, with Tikveš wine, but Skopje does more with them. It has kebapi and pastrmajlija in the Old Bazaar grill houses, early burek with drinking yoghurt, and long tavern tables in Debar Maalo.

Ohrid's speciality is lake fish such as belvica, but the waterfront menus repeat one another. The better meals are in family places in the upper old town or in the shore villages. Neither city has much fine dining or foreign cooking.

Ohrid's old town is the richer place to explore. It has the medieval frescoes of St Sophia, St John at Kaneo on its rock above the water, Plaošnik with its ties to Cyrillic learning, a Hellenistic theatre and Samuel's Fortress, all within a slow walk and listed by UNESCO together with the lake.

Skopje tells a more mixed story. The caravanserais and mosques of the Old Bazaar show the Ottoman city, and the 1963 earthquake explains much of the rest, including the museum in the ruined railway station. The Skopje 2014 statues south of the river divide opinion. Skopje suits curiosity about a modern capital more than a love of medieval art.

Skopje has nightlife all year round, though it is sociable rather than wild. Debar Maalo's terraces move from coffee to rakija as the evening goes on, Old Bazaar courtyards stay busy past midnight in summer, and there are a few clubs. Weekends are when it fills up.

Ohrid comes alive only in July and August. That is when the promenade café-bars and the beach clubs on the southern shore fill up, many of them with people from Skopje itself. Outside summer, evenings end at the dinner table.

Both have mountains close by, but the scenery is different. At Ohrid it is all about the lake. Galičica rises between Ohrid and Prespa, with viewpoints over both lakes, and you can paraglide, hire a kayak or row past the reeds of the spring-fed pool near St Naum.

Skopje's outdoors is drier and more rugged. You can walk up Vodno from the suburbs or take the cable car, kayak between the limestone walls of Matka Canyon to Vrelo Cave, and go further out to the Sar mountains and Mavrovo, which have skiing in winter. Choose Ohrid for water and Skopje for canyons and ridges.

There is a similar amount to see from each, in different directions. Outings from Ohrid follow the lake: St Naum by boat in summer, Struga, the Prespa villages and short trips into Albania to Pogradec and Korçë, with Bitola and Heraclea further east.

From Skopje you head north and east instead: the painted mosque in Tetovo, Roman Stobi on the way to the Tikveš wineries, Kratovo in its volcanic crater, and Pristina and Prizren across the Kosovo border. Buses reach most of Skopje's day trips, while around Ohrid a car or driver matters more.

Ohrid is the gentler place for children. They can spend whole days in clear lake water, take boat rides along the shore and see the pile village on stilts at the Bay of Bones. The steep, cobbled old town is the one hard part with a pushchair.

Skopje has a small zoo, a funfair by City Park, the Vodno cable car and boat rides in Matka. Even so, the summer heat and busy roads wear young children out, and most families do better keeping their stay there short.

Ohrid is easier to get around. The promenade, the bazaar and the old-town sights are a short walk apart, and taxis fill the gaps, though the old town's stairs tire older visitors. Beyond town, buses and summer boats are irregular.

Skopje's main sights also lie along a flat walk by the Vardar, but the city is bigger. It has no metro or tram, its buses confuse newcomers and rush-hour traffic is slow, so taxis are the usual way to reach Vodno and Matka.

Skopje has more to browse. Old Bazaar workshops sell filigree silver, copperware and embroidery, and Bit Pazar is an everyday market piled with spices, cheese and peppers. There are also malls with international chains, though no fashion street.

Ohrid has one real speciality, the Ohrid pearl, best bought from long-established family workshops in the old bazaar, along with carved wood and icons. Beyond that, it is mostly souvenirs and summer clothes.

Both are among the cheapest places to visit in Europe, and cost will rarely hold you back in either. The difference is timing. Ohrid's lakefront rooms cost more and book up in July and August, especially at weekends, so late spring and early autumn are better value there. Skopje's central hotels stay reasonably priced even in summer.

Skopje has a season that runs through the year. The Macedonian Opera and Ballet, the Philharmonic and the National Theatre all perform, there is the autumn Jazz Festival, and starogradska is played live in the Debar Maalo taverns. Plays are mostly in Macedonian, so music is the safer choice.

Ohrid's performing arts are packed into the summer, when the Ohrid Summer Festival stages concerts and opera inside St Sophia and in the ancient theatre. The settings are memorable, but outside that programme there is little to see.

Neither city is a spa destination. Skopje has the only thermal option close at hand, the old sanatorium-style pools of Katlanovska Banja about half an hour out. Ohrid's nearest springs are a long drive away near Debar.

What Ohrid offers instead is quiet: slow mornings by the still lake in May, June and September. In Skopje the closest thing is long hours over coffee on shaded café terraces, which is a city kind of rest.