Skopje or Tirana?

Skopje has no beach at all. Summer swimming means pools, and Matka's cold reservoir is better for kayaking. The nearest real swimming is at Lake Ohrid, which needs a stay of its own.

Tirana has the sea within reach. Durrës and the sandy strip towards Golem make an easy day out with warm, shallow water. It gets crowded and is not always clear, so think of it as a day at the beach rather than a beach vacation.

The two cities eat equally well and in a similar Balkan style, but the best places to eat are different. In Skopje, the best meals are kebapi and pastrmajlija in the Old Bazaar grill houses and long tavern dinners in Debar Maalo, where Tikves reds such as Vranec are a highlight.

Tirana's best meals are often in the farm restaurants on the hills outside town, with tavë kosi and fërgesë made from local produce. In the city, Blloku adds some Italian-leaning variety. Neither city has much fine dining.

Skopje has more to see in the city itself. North of the Stone Bridge is a large surviving Ottoman bazaar with caravanserais, mosques and Kale Fortress above it. South of the river, the statues of the Skopje 2014 programme and the stopped clock of the old railway station make an odd but memorable contrast.

Tirana's sights are mostly about the 20th century. Bunk'Art and the House of Leaves tell the story of the communist years vividly, and the Et'hem Bey Mosque is lovely, but there is little older history in the city. Two days is enough for its sights.

Tirana is the better city for a night out. Blloku, once closed off for the communist leadership, is now a grid of cocktail bars, lounge terraces and small clubs. A few bigger venues near the Grand Park lake stay open into the early hours, and people dress up to be seen.

Skopje's evenings are gentler. Terraces in Debar Maalo move from coffee to rakija as the night goes on, and in summer the Old Bazaar courtyards stay busy, but there are only a few clubs and weeknights are quiet.

Both cities have a mountain on their edge, but Skopje has more variety close by. You can walk or ride the cable car up Vodno, and Matka Canyon, about half an hour away, has limestone cliffs, kayaking, Vrelo Cave and monasteries on the rock faces. Further out, the Sar mountains and Mavrovo offer summer ridge walking and winter skiing.

Tirana's cable car climbs Dajti to about 1,000m through beech and pine forest, with views to the sea. The Bovilla reservoir and Gamti mountain are about an hour away, but the Albanian Alps are too far for a day.

Tirana has better day trips, because so much of Albania's heritage is just outside it. Berat's white Ottoman houses and lived-in citadel are the highlight. Skanderbeg's castle at Kruja, the Roman amphitheatre at Durrës, Shkodra's lakeside fortress and Apollonia are all within about two hours.

Skopje has a wider spread but fewer famous names. You can visit the painted mosque at Tetovo, the Stobi mosaics with a stop at a Tikves winery, the crater town of Kratovo, or cross the border to Prizren. Ohrid is too far for a day trip.

Neither city has much made specifically for children, so the real difference is natural water to cool off in. Skopje has no lake or sea nearby, so on hot days the choice is a hotel or public outdoor pool. The best outings are the Vodno cable car, a boat ride in Matka Canyon and summer evenings in City Park. Hot afternoons and uneven pavements soon tire young children, which is why many families add a few days at a lake.

Tirana has the sandy shallows at Durrës about an hour away, as well as playgrounds around the Grand Park lake and the open, traffic-free space of Skanderbeg Square. Pushing a buggy is just as hard here, with heavy traffic and obstructed pavements, and in both cities children are welcome in cafés and restaurants.

Tirana's centre is the easier one to cover on foot, with pedestrianised streets around Skanderbeg Square. Skopje's core is short and flat too, with the Old Bazaar, the Stone Bridge, Macedonia Square and Debar Maalo along a pleasant stretch of the Vardar. Beyond that, the red double-decker buses are hard for a visitor to work out, so taxis are the way to reach Vodno, Matka or the bus station.

In Tirana, Blloku, the Pyramid and the market all lie within about twenty minutes' walk of the square, though assertive drivers mean wide roads need care to cross. Like Skopje, it has no metro or tram, and cheap taxis cover the trips out to Bunk'Art and the Dajti cable car.

Skopje is the better place to buy something to take home. Small workshops in the Old Bazaar still make silver filigree and copperware, and Bit Pazar next door is a working market full of spices, cheese and peppers.

Tirana's best stop is the food stalls of Pazari i Ri for honey, olives and raki. For crafts, Kruja's bazaar has more choice. Both cities have only malls and chain stores for clothes.

Both are among the cheapest capitals in Europe, and the difference between them barely matters. Skopje is a little cheaper in its traditional taverns and central hotels.

In Tirana, the main extra cost is Blloku's smarter restaurants and cocktail bars. Even these are cheap compared with most European capitals.

Skopje has slightly more on stage, mainly because of its festivals. The Skopje Jazz Festival has been held every autumn since the early 1980s, and the summer festival puts on concerts at the fortress. Starogradska music plays in the Debar Maalo taverns most nights.

Tirana's main venue is its opera and ballet house on Skanderbeg Square, which makes for a good evening. You are unlikely to hear Albanian iso-polyphonic singing in the capital.

Neither city is a place for spa days. Their Ottoman baths are now galleries or have gone, and the spas are in the bigger hotels. Each has an old-fashioned thermal spa nearby: Katlanovska Banja is about half an hour from Skopje, while Llixha, near Elbasan, is about an hour from Tirana.

The slow pace of life is the real pleasure in both. In Skopje that means long coffees by the river. In Tirana it means the evening stroll along the boulevards, with the forests of Dajti as an escape from the traffic.