Skopje or Split?

On swimming the two are not close. Skopje is landlocked, so summer swimming means hotel or public pools. The reservoir in Matka Canyon is too cold for bathing and better for kayaks, and Lake Ohrid is about three hours away by road.

In Split the Adriatic starts at the end of the street. Locals play picigin in the shallow sandy water at Bačvice, the coves around Marjan are quieter with deeper water, and ferries to Brač, Šolta and Hvar reach longer beaches. Most of the city shore is pebble or concrete platforms rather than sand.

Both cities serve generous home cooking, and neither has much fine dining or international choice, so the difference is in what you eat. Skopje means meat, beans and peppers: tavche gravche in a clay dish, kebapi from the Old Bazaar grill houses, and ajvar with sheep's cheese at the long tavern tables of Debar Maalo, with Vranec and rakija to drink.

Split cooks from the sea, with grilled fish, black risotto, pašticada, and peka that is usually ordered ahead, plus Plavac Mali or Pošip to drink. Its best meals are in the konobas of Varoš rather than inside the palace walls, and the choice shrinks in winter.

Split has the single greater sight. Diocletian's Palace is a Roman emperor's residence that became a lived-in quarter. Its cathedral was once his mausoleum, and the vaulted substructures show the original layout. The Meštrović Gallery on the Marjan slopes adds a strong museum.

Skopje's sights are more varied but less grand: the Ottoman Old Bazaar with its caravanserais and the Mustafa Pasha Mosque, the carved walnut iconostasis in the Holy Saviour, and the 1963 earthquake remembered by the stopped clock of the old railway station. Neither city needs more than two or three days.

Split has the busier summer nights. Small bars fill the palace alleys and stairways, and beach bars and clubs around Bačvice stay open into the early hours. From October to May, though, it shrinks to a handful of bars.

Going out in Skopje means café-bars, with terraces in Debar Maalo moving from coffee to rakija as the evening goes on, and bazaar courtyards that stay busy late in summer. It fills up at weekends but is quiet midweek, and it is a local, sociable scene rather than a reason to travel.

Both cities have mountains on the doorstep, and Split adds the sea. Marjan's pine woods and cliffs begin at the edge of the old town, and Mosor and Kozjak have ridge walks. The Cetina canyon at Omiš is known for rafting and canyoning, and you can kayak and sail among the islands.

Skopje has Vodno, which you can walk up or ride by cable car, and Matka Canyon about half an hour away. Further out are the high ridges of the Sar mountains and Mavrovo, with skiing in winter, which Split cannot match. A car matters more here. In both cities, high summer is too hot for hiking.

Split is the far better base for day trips. Trogir is half an hour away, Šibenik and Krka about an hour, and Salona and Klis are on the edge of the city. In summer, ferries from the harbour make Hvar and Brač an easy day out.

Skopje still has a good spread: the painted Sarena Mosque in Tetovo, the mosaics at Stobi, the Tikves wineries, Kratovo in its volcanic crater, and Prizren across the border in Kosovo. Its most famous town, Ohrid, is too far for a day, and the rest are easier to combine by car.

Neither city has much built for children, but Split is the easier of the two. Bačvice is shallow enough for paddling, Marjan has shade and room to run, and a ferry to an island is often the best day of the trip.

Skopje's cafés and restaurants welcome children, and the Vodno cable car and a boat on Matka go down well. Hot summers, traffic and uneven pavements tire small children quickly, though, so families usually pair Skopje with time at a lake.

Split is the easier of the two to get around, although both have a walkable core. In Skopje the Old Bazaar, the Stone Bridge, Macedonia Square and Debar Maalo lie along a flat stretch of the Vardar. Away from that strip there is no metro or tram, and newcomers find the red buses hard to work out, so cheap and plentiful taxis take most visitors to Vodno, Matka and the bus station.

Split fits the palace, Varoš, the markets and Bačvice into about fifteen minutes on foot, with no cars in the centre. Ferries, intercity buses and trains all leave from the same place at the harbour. Its weak points are slow summer traffic on the coast road and stepped stone lanes that are hard work with a pushchair.

Neither city is a shopping destination, but Skopje has more worth browsing. Workshops in the Old Bazaar still sell silver filigree, copperware and embroidery, and Bit Pazar next door is a real everyday market full of spices, cheese and peppers.

Inside Split's palace the shops are mostly souvenirs, lavender and ties. Its Pazar green market by the east gate, with dried figs, honey and local brandies, is the better place to spend time. For fashion, both cities fall back on chains and malls.

Skopje is much the cheaper of the two. A tavern dinner with wine, burek and coffee, taxis and central rooms all cost little, and the main sights are free or close to it.

Split is mid-priced overall but expensive in July and August. Rooms near the old town then cost as much as in a large Western European city, waterfront fish is sold by weight, and island ferries add up. Going in May, June or late September, and eating in konobas away from the Riva, keeps costs reasonable.

The two are closely matched here. Each has a national theatre with opera, ballet and plays in the local language, and each is at its best in festival season. Split's summer festival uses the palace Peristyle as an open-air stage, and its own sound is klapa, unaccompanied harmony singing that you can often hear in the domed vestibule.

Skopje's highlight is its autumn Jazz Festival, which has run since the early 1980s. It also has summer concerts at the fortress and in the bazaar, and starogradska music late into the night in the Debar Maalo taverns.

Neither city has a tradition of bathing. Skopje's Ottoman hamams now serve as art galleries. Its one thermal option, Katlanovska Banja, is an old sanatorium-style spa half an hour out of town, so relaxing mostly means long coffees on shaded terraces.

Split has more to offer: resort spas along the coast east of the centre, the pine woods of Marjan, and the Dalmatian habit of fjaka, unhurried idling over coffee on the Riva. For real quiet, avoid midsummer or escape to one of the islands.