Sibiu or Skopje?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Sibiu has the more interesting stand-in. The salt lakes at Ocna Sibiului, about 20km out, are buoyant enough to float in and warm by midsummer, which makes a pleasant half day.

Skopje offers only pools in the city, and the reservoir at Matka is too cold for real swimming. Lake Ohrid is the proper answer, but at three hours away it calls for nights there rather than an outing.

Skopje is the better place to eat. Its Old Bazaar grill houses, morning burek with drinking yoghurt, tavche gravche in clay dishes and the long tavern tables of Debar Maalo make eating out an event, and Vranec and Temjanika wines from Tikves give meals real interest.

Sibiu's cooking is hearty and honest, with sarmale, bean soup in bread and cheese and salami from the Marginimea villages served in vaulted cellars, but the choice narrows quickly. Neither city has much international range, though Skopje's local repertoire runs a little deeper.

Sibiu has the more rewarding townscape. The Upper Town's three squares, the Lutheran Cathedral, the guild towers and the watching attic windows form a coherent medieval whole, and the Brukenthal paintings and the ASTRA open-air museum add genuine depth.

Skopje is more uneven but more surprising. The Ottoman Old Bazaar with its caravanserais, Kale Fortress and the carved iconostasis of the Holy Saviour sit across the river from the statues and replica galleons of Skopje 2014, which divide opinion. The museums are shaped by the 1963 earthquake. Both cities fill two or three days.

Skopje has the livelier evenings. In Debar Maalo, coffee terraces turn to rakija and cocktails, and in summer the Old Bazaar courtyards and riverside spots stay busy past midnight, although weeknights are quiet.

Sibiu's going out is smaller and depends on the students: cellar bars and craft beer around the squares, with clubs mostly busy on term weekends. It suits a drink after dinner, not a night that runs until dawn.

Above 2,500m in the Fagaras range, Sibiu's mountains offer multi-day ridge traverses and glacial lakes, and the hairpins of the Transfagarasan climb to Balea Lake. Paltinis adds gentler hiking and skiing, and bears roam the forests.

Skopje's advantage is proximity. Vodno rises straight from the suburbs with a cable car to the top, and the cliffs and caves of Matka Canyon are half an hour away. The Sar mountains and Mavrovo are further, and the summer heat in the valley pushes serious walking into spring and autumn.

Sibiu sits at the centre of a richer circuit. Saxon fortified churches such as Biertan and Cisnadioara, walled Sighisoara, the star-shaped citadel at Alba Iulia and Corvin Castle make a string of strong outings, though slow trains mean a car or a tour.

Skopje's excursions are more varied but more scattered: the Sarena Mosque at Tetovo, the mosaics of Stobi with wineries beyond, crater-bound Kratovo, and Prizren across the border in Kosovo. Buses reach most of them, which helps travellers without a car, but its best-known town, Ohrid, needs a stay of its own.

Sibiu is a little easier with children. Its squares are largely car-free and calm, and ASTRA's windmills and lakes sit next to the zoo and playgrounds of the Dumbrava park, although the stairways down to the Lower Town are hard with a pushchair.

Skopje is warm towards children in its cafés, and the Vodno cable car and a boat into Matka are good outings. Hot summers, busy roads and uneven pavements make long days with young children tiring.

Sibiu is simpler on foot. The sights cluster around the pedestrianised Large Square, and the only effort is the climb between the Upper and Lower Town. The airport is close by, and buses run out to ASTRA.

Skopje's centre is an easy, flat walk along the Vardar from the bazaar to Debar Maalo, but beyond it there is no tram or metro, the buses are hard to decode and rush-hour traffic builds. Most visitors rely on cheap taxis for Vodno and Matka.

Browsing in Sibiu is small-scale and seasonal: painted ceramics, embroidered blouses and icons on glass along Nicolae Balcescu Street, with the summer pottery fair and the Christmas market as the highlights.

Skopje gives a shopper more to explore. Silver filigree and copperware workshops fill the Old Bazaar, and the spice, cheese and pepper stalls of Bit Pazar next door are worth a morning in themselves. Neither city offers fashion or luxury.

Both are cheap by European standards, and the difference lies in when they are cheap. Skopje stays inexpensive through the summer, with coffee and burek costing almost nothing and most sights free or nearly so.

Sibiu is good value most of the year, but rooms fill and rise in price during the June theatre festival and the Christmas market, and the terraces on the main square charge for their view.

Sibiu punches above its size. The Radu Stanca National Theatre is known well beyond Romania, and for over a week each June the International Theatre Festival spills into churches and squares across town, though on ordinary nights the choice is slim.

Skopje has the full national set of opera, ballet, philharmonic and theatre, an autumn jazz festival with a regional name, and starogradska music in the Debar Maalo taverns. In both cities most plays are not in English.

Sibiu offers more for a restful stay. Ocna Sibiului, a spa since the 19th century, has salt lakes for floating and mud cures, and Paltinis brings quiet and mountain air within an easy drive.

Skopje's Ottoman bathhouses serve as galleries rather than baths, and Katlanovska Banja is a plain sanatorium-style thermal spa. Its real way to unwind is unhurried coffee on shaded terraces.