Alicante or Ronda?

This is where the two differ most. In Alicante the sea is part of every day. Postiguet sits below the castle, the tram runs to the fine sand and shallow water of Playa de San Juan, and a boat crosses to Tabarca for clearer, rockier swimming. Expect crowds in July and August.

Ronda has no beach of its own. The Costa del Sol near Estepona is about 50km away over a winding mountain road, which turns a swim into a full day out, so most visitors use a hotel pool instead.

Alicante eats better. Its rice cooking, from arroz a banda to the egg-crusted arroz con costra, is worth planning lunches around, and the modernist Mercado Central adds red prawns, mojama and counters for a snack. Old-town tapas bars and local Alicante wines fill the evenings.

Ronda's mountain cooking is hearty and honest: oxtail stew, lamb, game, cured hams, chestnuts and mushrooms in autumn, and Sierras de Málaga wines from nearby estates. The range is narrower and fine dining is scarce. In both towns, the restaurants with the best views are the weakest choice.

Ronda has the more memorable heritage, and much of it is the town itself. The Puente Nuevo over the Tajo gorge, the old Moorish quarter of La Ciudad, the Real Maestranza bullring with its museum and the well-preserved Arab baths make a compact and unusual set of sights.

Alicante's highlights are the Castillo de Santa Bárbara with its views over the bay, the flowerpot-lined steps of Santa Cruz and the MARQ, which beats any museum in Ronda. You can see either town properly in a day or two.

Alicante goes out properly. After a late dinner, the narrow streets of El Barrio fill with small bars until the early hours, the marina has bigger bars and clubs, and the beach terraces at San Juan stay busy on summer nights. Serious clubbers will still find it limited.

In Ronda, evenings end with tapas around the Plaza del Socorro and perhaps one more drink. Outside the September fair, the town is asleep by the early hours.

Ronda is the stronger choice for the outdoors. It sits among limestone mountains, with the green Sierra de Grazalema and its griffon vultures to the west, the Spanish fir forests of the Sierra de las Nieves to the east, and a path from town down to the foot of the gorge. The Caminito del Rey is an hour's drive away.

Alicante's nature is drier and more coastal. There is the coastal path round Cabo de las Huertas, snorkelling in the Tabarca marine reserve, flamingos on the Santa Pola salt lagoons, and real hiking and climbing on Puig Campana and around Sella. Alicante is better for time on the water, Ronda for time on foot.

Both make excellent bases for day trips, but of different kinds. From Alicante most outings work by tram or train: Elche's UNESCO palm grove half an hour away, painted Villajoyosa and white Altea up the coast, and Valencia about two hours north. Guadalest is the main draw inland.

Ronda's trips head into the hills: the white villages of Setenil, Grazalema and Zahara, the Roman site at Acinipo and the cave paintings of La Pileta. Seville, Málaga and Gibraltar are each within reach for a long day, but most of these trips need a hire car.

Alicante is far easier with children. Shallow water at San Juan, a beach a few minutes from the centre and a flat promenade for pushchairs keep the days simple. The castle lift and the Tabarca boat add some variety, and the theme and water parks near Benidorm are under an hour away by car.

Ronda suits older children, who will enjoy the bridge, the path down into the gorge and the nearby caves. There are no zoos or theme parks, though, and the steep cobbled lanes make pushchairs hard work. Families there do best in a country house with a pool.

Both centres are walkable, but in Alicante you can do much more without a car. The old quarter, port, market and beach are all within about fifteen minutes of each other. The tram follows the coast to San Juan, Benidorm and Dénia, and trains reach Elche, Murcia and Valencia.

Ronda takes only minutes to cross on foot, though the lanes down into La Ciudad are steep. Trains and buses are fine for arriving, but the white villages and the natural parks really need a car, and parking in the old town is tight.

Neither town is a reason to travel for shopping, but Alicante gives you far more to browse. Around Avenida Maisonnave there is a real high-street district of department stores and familiar Spanish chains, enough for an afternoon of clothes shopping that Ronda can't match. The weekly street markets add esparto baskets and ceramics, and Elche's shoe factory outlets are half an hour away for anyone after cheap footwear. Even here, luxury labels are scarce.

In Ronda, shopping is something you do on the way to somewhere else: a walk along Carrera Espinel, then the souvenir shops near the bridge, which sell ceramics and leather goods. In both towns the best things to take home are edible. In Alicante that means turrón and saffron from the Mercado Central, and in Ronda it means local wine, cured meats from the hills and convent sweets.

Overall costs are similar, and both are cheaper than Spain's big cities. The difference is where the money goes. In Alicante it goes on rooms: beds near the beach cost far more in July, August and during the Hogueras, while from October to May they are easy to find and the weather stays mild. Cheap trams and the free castle grounds help.

In Ronda the biggest extra is a hire car, and prices climb at hotels overlooking the gorge, at Easter and during the September fair. Free walking around the small town and fairly priced rural houses make up for it.

Alicante has the fuller programme, though neither town is known for the arts. The nineteenth-century Teatro Principal stages drama, musicals and dance, and the ADDA auditorium hosts the provincial symphony orchestra and visiting jazz performers. Most of it is in Spanish.

Ronda offers small flamenco shows for visitors and an occasional programme at the municipal theatre. Its standout event is the Corrida Goyesca at the September fair, a bullfight in eighteenth-century costume held in the historic ring.

Neither town has a bathing culture of its own. Alicante comes out a little ahead with its hotel and day spas and the slow seafront routine of a walk, a long lunch and a siesta. Murcia's thermal towns of Archena and Fortuna are about an hour away.

Ronda's Arab baths are a monument, not a spa. What Ronda offers is quiet: once the day-trippers leave, the town settles down, and the farmhouse hotels in the hills suit a few days of doing nothing.