Agadir or Chefchaouen?

Agadir is a beach destination first. Its crescent of sand runs for nearly 10km around a sheltered bay that is calm enough for easy swimming, and the surf beaches of Taghazout and Tamraght are half an hour to the north. The Atlantic stays cool, but the steady sun makes the beach work even in winter.

Chefchaouen has no beach of its own. The grey-sand Mediterranean shore at Oued Laou lies over an hour away down a winding gorge road. The river pools at Akchour are a cold dip rather than a swim, so the sea is a day out at best.

Neither town is a reason to travel for food, but Agadir gives you more to work with. Sardines grilled at the fishing port, Souss flavours such as argan oil and amlou, and the piled-up produce of Souk El Had beat anything on Chefchaouen's menus. A beer or a glass of wine is also easier to find in its hotels and licensed restaurants.

Around Outa el-Hammam, Chefchaouen's restaurants serve much the same tagines and kefta one after another. The rewards are small and local: Rif goat cheese wrapped in palm leaf, bissara for breakfast and bread from the communal ovens.

Here Chefchaouen comes out ahead. The whole medina is the attraction. It was founded in 1471 and settled by refugees from Andalusia, and you get blue-washed stairways, the red kasbah on Outa el-Hammam and the sunset view from the Spanish Mosque. It is small and seen in a day or two, but it is genuinely old.

Agadir lost its old town in the 1960 earthquake and was rebuilt as a modern, planned city. The kasbah walls on Agadir Oufella, the Medina Polizzi craft village and a small Amazigh museum fill a day, and the view from the hill is the main reward.

Agadir at least offers a night out. It has hotel bars, a few clubs, lounges by the marina and beach clubs with music at sunset, all running late in summer, though it is resort nightlife with no local bar scene. Chefchaouen has almost nothing. Only a couple of hotel bars serve alcohol, and evenings end with mint tea in the square and a walk through silent lanes.

Both are strong for the outdoors, in very different landscapes. Agadir's are coast and dry plain: the point breaks of Taghazout and Imsouane, the palm gorge of Paradise Valley, argan trees with climbing goats, and the birdlife of Souss-Massa National Park, including the rare northern bald ibis.

Chefchaouen means mountain walking. Trails leave straight from the Ras el-Maa spring into the Rif, and Talassemtane National Park has the gorge walk to God's Bridge, cedar forests and Barbary macaques. Paths are poorly marked, so a guide helps. Surfers should pick Agadir and hikers Chefchaouen.

Agadir's best outing is Taroudant, about an hour and a half inland, where long ochre ramparts enclose souks far calmer than those of the big cities. Tiznit, the walled silver town to the south, makes a second full day, and the surf villages of Taghazout and Imsouane are easy half days. That gives Agadir a slightly wider choice.

From Chefchaouen the obvious trip is Tetouan, about an hour and a quarter away. Its UNESCO-listed medina is larger than Chefchaouen's and far less visited, and the coast at Martil lies just beyond. After that both lists run thin. Marrakech from Agadir, and Fes or Tangier from Chefchaouen, are about three hours away or more, so they work better as the next stop on a route than as a return trip in a day.

With children, Agadir is much easier. It has a gentle sandy bay, a flat promenade for buggies, and all-inclusive hotels with pools and kids' clubs. The crocodile park and the Vallée des Oiseaux make a change from the beach.

Chefchaouen is welcoming, but it is built for adults on foot. Steep, stepped lanes rule out pushchairs, there is little for children to do beyond the pools at Akchour, and the hashish offers in the lanes are awkward with a family in tow. It works best as a short stop with older children.

Agadir's flat promenade is easy to walk from the hotels to the marina, but the city behind it is spread out. You need a petit taxi to reach the souk, the port or the kasbah hill, so agree the fare or ask for the meter first. For Paradise Valley or the surf coast you need a grand taxi, a tour or a hire car.

Chefchaouen is simpler once you are there, because you can cross the medina on foot in about fifteen minutes. Nearly every route involves steep stairs and polished steps, though, which is hard work with luggage. There is no railway. Tetouan is the nearby link by bus or taxi, while getting there from Tangier or Fes is a long road journey.

Shopping is modest in both, and the difference is mainly in kind. Agadir has one huge working market, Souk El Had, where locals buy their produce among the carpets and leather. The best things to take home are argan oil and cosmetics from the Souss cooperatives, and Amazigh silver.

Chefchaouen sells crafts made close by: Rif blankets and striped weavings, often woven on looms in the shopfront, as well as djellabas, baskets and bottles of blue pigment. Sellers push less than in the big souks, but the range repeats after a few lanes.

Both are cheap by European standards, and Chefchaouen is cheaper. Simple riads and guesthouses cost little, the medina is free to wander, and even the restaurants on the main square stay modest. Agadir is good value away from the seafront, where fish at the port and petit taxis cost little and off-season packages can be a bargain. The promenade strip, alcohol and room rates in the school breaks push the cost of a stay up.

Neither is a place to plan evenings around live performance. Agadir has the edge thanks to Timitar, the long-running summer festival of Amazigh music with large free stages. The rest of the year it offers hotel entertainment and folk shows. In Chefchaouen there is only occasional Andalusian music around festivals, and the call to prayer over the rooftops is most of what visitors hear.

Agadir is better equipped for pampering. Its resort hotels have hammams with black-soap scrubs and argan-oil massages, thalassotherapy centres line the bay, and there are yoga and surf retreats up the coast.

In Chefchaouen, rest is simpler. Cool mountain air, roof terraces and the sound of water at the spring slow the days down, and the neighbourhood hammams give a cheap, authentic scrub. Spa treatments, though, are limited to a handful of riads.