Agadir or Tangier?

Agadir is the stronger beach destination by some distance. Its crescent of fine sand runs for close to 10km around a sheltered bay, and the water near town is usually calm enough for easy swimming. The surf beaches at Tamraght and Taghazout are within half an hour.

Tangier's own city beach is more for looking at than swimming from. The better sand lies out west at Achakar and Cap Spartel, or down the coast at Asilah. Beach life there is a local summer affair where people dress modestly, whereas Agadir is set up as a beach resort all year.

In both cities the best meal is often at the fishing port, with sardines picked from the catch and grilled, but Tangier has more of a food culture around that. Its medina grill counters, bakeries and msemen stalls, bissara at breakfast and long hours over mint tea on terraces above the Strait give eating there a daily rhythm.

Agadir has the Souss flavours of argan oil, amlou and slow-cooked Amazigh tagines, and Souk El Had is a fine market. Beyond that, though, most of the eating happens in hotels and along the promenade, where the cooking is uneven.

This is where the two cities differ most. Tangier has a kasbah with the old sultan's palace museum and a whitewashed medina running between the Petit and Grand Socco. It also has the American Legation, Art Deco and Spanish colonial streets in the Ville Nouvelle, and its links with Paul Bowles and the Beat writers, which is enough for two or three days.

Agadir lost almost all of its old town in the earthquake. What remains are the kasbah walls on Agadir Oufella, worth the climb mostly for the view, the rebuilt Medina Polizzi and a small Amazigh heritage museum, all of which fit into a day.

Neither city is the place for a big night out, but evenings feel different in each. Agadir's are resort evenings: hotel bars, a few nightclubs, lounges around the marina and beach clubs at sunset, livelier in summer and during European school breaks.

Tangier's evenings are quieter and more local, spent on café terraces and along the seafront. Drinking is limited to a few old bars from the international era, hotel lounges and summer beach clubs on the bay. Agadir is better for dancing, and Tangier for a quiet drink in a bar with some history.

Agadir has the wilder setting, where the High Atlas meets the Atlantic. The surf breaks north of town, the palm-filled gorge of Paradise Valley, argan plains with goats climbing the trees and the bald ibis of Souss-Massa National Park are all within easy reach, with the Anti-Atlas further out for trekking.

Tangier's outdoors centres on the Cap Spartel headland, with its cliffs, pine woods and the Caves of Hercules, and on the wooded Perdicaris park. Its particular draw is the spring and autumn migration of storks and birds of prey across the Strait. Serious hiking in the Rif needs an overnight stay.

Tangier is much the better base for day trips. Asilah and Tetouan are about an hour away, Chefchaouen makes a long day, and the high-speed train reaches Rabat in well under two hours. A ferry puts you in Tarifa, in Spain, in about an hour.

From Agadir the good day trips are Taroudant, with its ochre ramparts and calm souks, Tiznit for silver jewellery, and the surf villages up the coast. Marrakech and Essaouira are three hours or more away and are better visited with a night's stay.

Agadir is the easier choice with children. It has a wide, gentle beach, a flat promenade for buggies and plenty of all-inclusive hotels with pools and kids' clubs. The crocodile park, the Vallée des Oiseaux and boat trips from the marina fill the odd afternoon away from the sand.

Tangier is just as warm towards children and stays cooler in summer, but there is little made for them, and the steep, stepped medina is hard going with a pushchair. Families there tend to rely on a hotel pool, the Perdicaris park and a day trip by ferry to Spain.

Both cities run on cheap petit taxis, orange in Agadir and blue in Tangier, and neither has a metro or tram. The difference is in how each city is laid out. In Agadir, visitors spend much of their time on one flat promenade, but the souk, the kasbah hill and the port are each a taxi ride away. The surf coast and Paradise Valley need a grand taxi, a hired car or a tour.

In Tangier you can walk between the medina, the kasbah and the Ville Nouvelle, though the medina's stairways take some getting used to. Its train links to Rabat and Casablanca and its ferry port in the centre make it the better connected of the two.

Agadir keeps its shopping in one place, the walled Souk El Had. It is a huge working market where locals buy produce, spices and household goods, and the selling is fairly relaxed. The things to take home are argan oil from the Souss women's cooperatives, Amazigh silver and woven rugs.

In Tangier the shopping runs through the medina lanes around the Petit Socco and up towards the kasbah, with leather slippers, lanterns, ceramics and the red-and-white striped cloth worn by Rif women. The Saturday markets by the Grand Socco and a few antique shops from the expatriate era add to it, but expect bargaining and a harder sell. Both offer less than Morocco's great souk cities.

Both cities are inexpensive, and Tangier is slightly more so. Its medina guesthouses and riads, street food and café terraces keep a stay cheap, and costs rise mainly at hotels with sea views and places that serve alcohol.

Agadir's local cafés, fish at the port and taxis are cheap too, and all-inclusive packages out of season can be a bargain. Its seafront strip, however, is aimed at tourists, and room rates climb during European school breaks. In both cities alcohol is the one thing that is not cheap.

Neither city has a theatre or opera scene, but Tangier has more musical depth. It has its musical past from the international era, the Jajouka musicians of the nearby Rif hills, a long-running jazz festival, and Andalusian music and gnawa at festivals. The historic art-house cinema on the Grand Socco also gives an evening out more to work with.

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

Agadir is built for a restful week. Resort hotels have their own hammams and spas offering the black-soap scrub and argan-oil massage, thalassotherapy centres line the bay, and yoga and surf retreats lie up the coast.

In Tangier the hammam is part of everyday life, mostly simple neighbourhood bathhouses with separate hours or rooms for men and women, plus spas in riads and larger hotels. Slowing down there means riad rooftops and mint tea over the Strait, though the port and the traffic keep the city from ever being truly calm.