Split or Tirana?

In Split the sea is on your doorstep. Bačvice, a shallow sandy bay, is a few minutes from the palace, and the coves around Marjan are quieter, with pine shade and deeper water. Most of the shore is pebble or concrete, though, and the longer beaches are on Brač and Hvar.

Tirana has no sea of its own. Durrës, under an hour away, has a long sandy strip with warm, shallow water, but it is built up and crowded, and the water near the port is not always clear. Albania's famous southern coves need a separate trip.

The two cities eat equally well, but differently. Split's table comes from the sea: grilled fish, black risotto and octopus under the peka, with Plavac Mali or Pošip to drink and the fish market and Pazar by the palace walls to show the season. Menus inside the palace lean towards summer visitors, and the better konobas are in Varoš.

Tirana cooks from the farm: tavë kosi, fërgesë, morning byrek, and long lunches at the farm restaurants on the hills outside town. Blloku holds most of the restaurants, and raki ends almost every meal. Neither city offers much fine dining or international food.

Split has the stronger sightseeing, concentrated in one remarkable place. Diocletian's Palace is a Roman complex that is still lived in, with the cathedral in the emperor's mausoleum and the vaulted substructures underneath. The Meštrović Gallery on Marjan adds a fine museum.

Tirana's sights are about the 20th century: Bunk'Art in its Cold War bunker, the House of Leaves and Skanderbeg Square with the painted Et'hem Bey Mosque. They are absorbing if you are curious about communist Albania, but there is little older fabric, and either city is covered in about two days.

Tirana has the livelier evenings, and they depend on locals rather than visitors. Blloku, the leadership's former closed quarter, is a dense grid of cocktail bars, terraces and small clubs. The young crowd dresses up and stays out well past midnight, and larger clubs near the Grand Park lake run later.

Split's night out is mostly a summer one: small bars in the palace alleys, plus beach bars and a few clubs at Bačvice. Much of the party crowd heads to Hvar instead, and from October to May the scene shrinks to a handful of bars.

Split has more close at hand and more variety. Marjan's pine forest starts at the edge of the old town, and Mosor and Kozjak give proper ridge hikes. Within about an hour you reach Biokovo, the Cetina canyon at Omiš and the waterfalls of Krka, and you can kayak or sail among the islands.

Tirana's great asset is Mount Dajti, a short cable car ride from the city's eastern edge, with beech forest and views across the plain to the sea. Bovilla reservoir and Gamti are an hour or so away, but the Albanian Alps take several days.

Split is the easier base. Trogir is about half an hour away and Šibenik about an hour, Salona and Klis are on the edge of town, and ferries to Hvar, Brač and Vis leave from the same harbour as the buses.

Day trips matter more from Tirana, because the country's heritage lies outside the capital. Kruja's castle and bazaar are under an hour away, and Berat, with its lived-in citadel, is about two hours south. But the roads are slower and most trips need a car, minibus or tour, so each one takes a full day.

Split is the easier city with children. Bačvice is shallow enough for paddling, Marjan has shade and room to run, and a ferry to an island makes a ready-made outing. Nothing is built specifically for children, though, and July and August are hot and packed.

Children are warmly welcomed in Tirana, in cafés and on the evening stroll, and the Grand Park and the Dajti cable car make good outings. But heavy traffic, drivers who rarely yield and broken pavements make it tiring with a buggy, and the beach is an hour away.

Both centres are walkable, but Split is easier for a visitor. In its car-free core the palace, the Riva, the markets and Bačvice are all within fifteen minutes' walk, and the ferry port and the bus and railway stations sit together at the harbour. The stone steps inside the palace are the main trouble with luggage.

Tirana's centre is flat and compact, but the buses are confusingly signed and the wide roads are full of assertive drivers. Cheap taxis are the usual way to Bunk'Art or the cable car, and day trips mostly mean minibuses or a hire car.

Neither city is worth the trip for shopping, and in both the best browsing is at the market. Split's Pazar by the palace's east gate sells figs, honey and brandies, and Dalmatian wine and olive oil are the best things to take home.

Tirana's Pazari i Ri sells cheese, raki and dried herbs, and you can find felt hats, embroidery and filigree silver there and in Kruja's bazaar. For fashion, both cities offer only chain stores and malls on the edge of the centre.

Split can be done cheaply if you live like a local. Bakery breakfasts, fruit from the Pazar, local buses to Solin and Trogir and entry to the palace sights all cost little, and konobas away from the Riva are fairly priced. The big expense is a room in high summer. In winter the whole city becomes modestly priced.

Tirana is cheaper all year round, not just out of season. Comfortable mid-range hotels and apartments in the centre are good value, so you can stay well without straining the budget. Local wine and raki cost very little, and a byrek from a corner bakery makes a breakfast that hardly counts.

Neither city has a deep calendar, and each has one opera house worth an evening: Split's 19th-century Croatian National Theatre and Tirana's National Theatre of Opera and Ballet on Skanderbeg Square. In both, opera and ballet get past the language barrier where plays do not. Split's distinctive offering comes in summer, with the Split Summer Festival staging opera in the Peristyle and klapa singers in the palace vestibule.

In Tirana, tickets are easy to get and a few bars host jazz, but Albania's iso-polyphonic singing is heard mostly at festivals and in the south rather than in the capital.

Split is the more restful of the two, mainly because quiet places are so close. Marjan's pine woods begin at the edge of town, a swim is a short walk away, and a ferry to one of the islands takes you somewhere slower still. The Dalmatian idea of fjaka, doing very little and taking your time over it, suits a long morning by the water. The exception is high summer, when the old town stays crowded and noisy late into the night, so a restful trip works better either side of July and August.

Tirana's slow pace is a social one: lingering over coffee on a terrace and joining the evening xhiro along the boulevards. Traffic noise follows you through much of the centre, though, and getting away from it means the Grand Park or the cable car up Dajti. What Tirana has and Split lacks is thermal water. The sulphur springs at Llixha are about an hour away and plain rather than pampering, while in Split a spa day means a resort spa on the coast east of the centre, with the sea close by.