Ohrid or Tirana?

Ohrid has the better swimming, even though it is a lake. The water is clear and calm, and Kaneo's coves and Potpeš are a short walk from the old town, with Lagadin and Gradište further down the shore. The catches are a short season and cramped concrete platforms and pebble strips.

Tirana has no water of its own. Its swimming is at Durrës, under an hour away, where you get sand and warmer, shallow Adriatic water but also hotel-lined crowds and murky water near the port. It makes a day out, not a reason to choose the city.

Tirana eats better and more widely. Farm restaurants in the hills serve food grown around the table, and between Blloku and the Pazari i Ri market there are traditional taverns, Italian-leaning kitchens and a serious coffee culture.

Ohrid's appeal is narrower: lake fish such as belvica, tavče gravče and Tikveš wine, with the same menus repeated along the waterfront. The best meals are in family places in the upper old town, but after a few days you will want more variety than it can give.

Ohrid is far richer here. It was a medieval centre of Slavic Orthodox learning, and the frescoes of St Sophia, St John at Kaneo above the water, Plaošnik and the Hellenistic theatre make up a dense, walkable heritage town that rewards two unhurried days.

Tirana tells a more recent story. Bunk'Art and the House of Leaves are gripping on the communist years, and the Et'hem Bey Mosque is lovely, but the historic fabric is thin. Most of Albania's older heritage lies outside the capital.

Tirana is clearly the place to go out. Blloku's cocktail bars, lounge terraces and small clubs fill with a young, dressed-up local crowd after a late dinner, and larger clubs near the Grand Park run until the early hours.

Ohrid only comes alive in high summer, when the promenade café-bars and the beach clubs on the southern shore play late for visitors from Skopje. The rest of the year it is a dinner-and-bed town.

Both sit right against mountains, but Ohrid's setting is the more striking. You have a deep, ancient lake for kayaking, Galičica's ridge with views over both Ohrid and Prespa, summits above 2,000m and paragliding launches.

Tirana's outdoors is closer to hand than you might expect from a capital. The Dajti cable car lifts you into beech forest in a quarter of an hour, and the Bovilla reservoir and Gamti make good half-day hikes. It is good hiking country rather than a landscape you come for.

Tirana is the better base for day trips. Berat's white Ottoman houses, Skanderbeg's castle at Kruja and the Roman amphitheatre at Durrës are all within a couple of hours, with Shkodra and Apollonia also in reach, so a week can bring a different historic town each day.

From Ohrid, St Naum by summer boat is the classic outing, with Bitola's Heraclea mosaics and Korçë across the border as fuller days. They are fine trips, but they are fewer and the slow roads make them harder going.

Neither is built for children, and in both places locals are warm towards them. What differs is the setting. Ohrid gives families a calm lakeside apartment, safe clear water and boat rides, with the pile village at the Bay of Bones as an outing, though the old town's cobbles are hard on a pushchair.

Tirana has more scattered attractions, such as the Grand Park playgrounds, the Dajti cable car and a small zoo. In return you deal with heavy traffic, broken pavements and strong summer heat.

Both centres are easy to cover on foot, and neither has a metro or tram. Ohrid's centre is small but steep, with cobbles and stairs, and the beaches to the south and St Naum depend on infrequent buses and boats. Tirana's centre is flat and largely pedestrianised around the square, but its buses are confusing and wide roads need care. In both, cheap taxis fill the gaps and a car or driver helps for anything further.

Neither is a shopping destination, but the souvenirs differ. In Ohrid it is the lake pearl, bought from an old family workshop rather than a stall, along with carved wood and icons. Tirana's best stop is the Pazari i Ri market for cheese, honey, raki and herbs, and it adds malls and Blloku boutiques if you need clothes.

Ohrid's costs rise with the calendar. Lakefront rooms book up and cost more in July and August, especially at weekends, while late spring and early autumn combine low prices with good weather. In Tirana costs rise by neighbourhood instead: the smarter restaurants and cocktail bars of Blloku charge noticeably more than the corner bakeries and grill restaurants elsewhere in the city.

Apart from that, the two are about equally cheap. Guesthouse rooms, a meal with local wine, taxis and entry fees all cost little in both, and Tirana's mid-range hotels in the centre are especially good value for a capital.

Tirana offers more through the year. The National Theatre of Opera and Ballet on Skanderbeg Square stages opera and ballet across the season with tickets easy to find, and a few bars host jazz.

Ohrid is quiet outside summer, but the long-running Ohrid Summer Festival makes up for it with concerts and opera inside St Sophia and in the ancient theatre. If your dates fit, that is the more memorable setting.

Ohrid is the more restful of the two because the lake sets the pace. In May, June and September you get slow coffee by the water and quiet evenings on the promenade, though August is busier and noisier. For pampering there are only a few hotel spas, and the nearest thermal springs, near Debar, are a long drive away.

Tirana has its own slow rhythm of long terrace coffees and the evening xhiro, but traffic noise fills much of the centre, so for real quiet you need to head to the Grand Park or the forest on Dajti. What it has that Ohrid lacks is hot sulphur water within easy reach, at Llixha near Elbasan, about an hour away, where there are simple, old-fashioned spa hotels.