Agadir or Fes?

The beach is the main reason to go to Agadir. Nearly 10km of fine sand curve around a bay calm enough for easy swimming, with lifeguards in season and rougher surf beaches at Tamraght and Taghazout just up the coast.

Fes is inland and has no beach at all. Unless you give up most of a day to reach the coast, swimming means a hotel pool or a plunge pool in a riad courtyard.

Fes is the better city for eating. Its Andalusian-influenced cooking gives you pastilla with almonds and cinnamon and tagines with quince and preserved lemon, often as a long dinner in a riad. In the medina, breakfast counters serve bissara and sfenj.

Agadir's best meals are simpler: sardines grilled by the fishing port, plus the argan oil and amlou of the Souss. Away from the port, though, most eating happens in hotels or along the promenade, where the cooking is uneven. In both cities alcohol is mostly limited to hotels and licensed places.

The two cities are very far apart here. Fes el-Bali is one of the best-preserved medieval cities in the Arab world. Its trades, fountains and quarters are still in use, and the Bou Inania and Al-Attarine madrasas show Marinid craftsmanship at its finest.

The 1960 earthquake destroyed almost all of old Agadir. Today the main sights are the kasbah walls on Agadir Oufella, worth the climb mostly for the view, and the rebuilt craft village of Medina Polizzi. For real history you have to travel out to walled towns such as Taroudant.

Neither city is a place to go out, but Agadir at least has a few options. Beach clubs play music at sunset, there are lounge bars around the marina and a handful of nightclubs on the hotel strip, and these can stay open late in summer.

Fes has nothing like that. The medina empties once the shops close, and a typical evening is a long rooftop dinner followed by mint tea, with only a few hotel bars in the Ville Nouvelle for a drink.

Agadir has more to do outdoors, and much of it is close to town. You can surf the point breaks to the north, walk among the palms and rock pools of Paradise Valley, or watch the rare bald ibis in Souss-Massa National Park, all in dry country where the Atlas meets the Atlantic.

Fes offers a greener landscape instead. The Middle Atlas has cedar forests near Azrou with wild Barbary macaques, small lakes on the plateaux and the caves of Tazekka, and the higher ground sometimes gets snow in winter. You need a car or driver to reach any of it.

Fes has the better choice of day trips. Meknes is a short train ride away, and in one long day with a driver you can add the Roman mosaics of Volubilis and the holy town of Moulay Idriss. Ifrane and the cave houses of Bhalil are pleasant extras to the south.

From Agadir, the outing that really stands out is the ramparted market town of Taroudant, with Tiznit and its silver a second choice. Essaouira, Marrakech and Tafraoute are all far enough away to need an overnight stay.

Agadir is much easier with children. The sand is wide, the bay is gentle and the promenade suits scooters, and many families base themselves in all-inclusive hotels with pools and entertainment. Beyond the beach there is less, mainly the crocodile park and the Vallée des Oiseaux.

Fes asks a lot of young children: narrow, steep lanes shared with donkeys, persistent touts and the smell of the tanneries. Older children who enjoy watching craftsmen at work and getting lost in the lanes can love it.

Getting around is about equally easy in both, but in different ways. In Agadir the beachfront is one long walkable promenade, while the souk, the port and the kasbah hill are a petit taxi ride away.

In Fes the whole medina is car-free. You go everywhere on foot through winding, dead-end lanes, often with a guide on the first day, and use taxis only to get between the gates, the Ville Nouvelle and the station. Fes also has the train to Meknes, while Agadir's surf coast and valleys need a grand taxi or a hired car.

Fes is the better place to shop, because so much of Morocco's handwork is made there. You can buy leather from the tanneries, copper from Seffarine square, blue-and-white Fassi pottery and zellige, often from the workshop where it was made. Bargaining is expected.

In Agadir the shopping is mainly Souk El Had, a huge market where locals do their everyday shopping and the sellers are less pushy. The things worth taking home are argan products from the women's cooperatives and Amazigh silver.

Both are inexpensive, and Fes is a little cheaper. Modest riads in the medina give you a lot of character for the money, and street food and entry to the madrasas cost very little. Spending only climbs with grand riads and private drivers.

Agadir can be a bargain on off-season all-inclusive packages. Prices rise along the seafront strip and during European school breaks, so eating away from the promenade makes a real difference.

Neither city has regular theatre or opera, but Fes has the deeper musical tradition. Andalusian classical music and Sufi devotional singing are rooted there, and the Festival of World Sacred Music puts concerts in palace gardens. Outside the festival there are occasional performances in riads and cultural centres.

Agadir's main musical event is the Timitar festival of Amazigh music in summer, with large free stages. The rest of the year, live performance is mostly hotel entertainment and folk shows put on for visitors.

Fes has the stronger bathing tradition. Every medina quarter has a working public hammam, and the hot springs of Moulay Yacoub, used for centuries, are about half an hour away. The medina itself is loud, so in Fes rest comes from where you stay, a riad courtyard with a fountain or a shaded roof terrace.

Agadir is calmer as a whole. Its resort spas offer argan-oil massages, there are thalassotherapy centres along the bay, and the coast to the north has yoga and surf retreats, all at a slow seaside pace with none of the medina's noise.