Andalusia or Costa Brava?

Both coasts are excellent for a beach trip, but they offer different things. Andalusia has two seas: the warm, calm Mediterranean on the Costa del Sol and around Cabo de Gata, where the sand is often grey and the shore heavily built up, and the Atlantic Costa de la Luz, with wide golden beaches backed by dunes at Bolonia and Zahara, cooler water and the gusty levante.

The Costa Brava is mostly small coves of clear green water under pine cliffs, at their best around Begur and Calella de Palafrugell. For open sand there is the Bay of Roses and the dunes at Pals. The coves are prettier than anything on the Costa del Sol, but they fill early in high summer, and the tramontana can spoil the northern beaches for days at a time.

In Andalusia you graze. You stand at a tapas bar in Triana or Granada with a small plate and a glass, move on to the next bar, and drink cold fino and manzanilla in the sherry towns of Jerez and Sanlúcar. The cooking is traditional, and there are fewer creative restaurants than bars.

On the Costa Brava you sit down to a meal. Empordà dishes pair seafood with meat, the red prawns come from Palamós, and the Girona area has a long fine-dining reputation that draws people who travel to eat. The weak spot is the big resorts, where menus are aimed at package tourists.

Andalusia is in another league for sights. The Alhambra above the Albaicín, the striped arches of Córdoba's Mezquita and Seville's cathedral and Alcázar would each justify a trip alone, and Ronda, Cádiz and the Renaissance towns of Úbeda and Baeza add more. Seeing it well means travelling between several cities.

The Costa Brava has rewarding sights on a smaller scale. There is the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres with his house at Portlligat, Girona's cathedral steps and Jewish quarter, and the Greek and Roman ruins at Empúries beside the sea. Together they make a good few days rather than the reason for the trip.

Andalusia gives you more to do after dark, and most of it happens on the street. In Seville people fill the terraces of the Alameda de Hércules and Triana long after a ten o'clock dinner, Granada's student bars are crowded and cheap, and in summer Marbella, Puerto Banús and Torremolinos supply the clubs.

On the Costa Brava, nightlife is concentrated in a couple of places. Lloret de Mar and Platja d'Aro are summer party resorts for a young crowd, and elsewhere the evening means a long dinner and a drink in the square, with villages like Cadaqués quiet by midnight.

Andalusia has the wider range of landscapes. The Sierra Nevada rises to nearly 3,500m above Granada, the Caminito del Rey runs through a gorge, the Doñana marshes are home to flamingos and the Iberian lynx, and Tarifa is a world centre for kitesurfing. Inland summers are too hot for much of this, so it is spring and autumn country.

The Costa Brava's outdoors is mostly the shore itself. The Camí de Ronda between the coves is some of the finest coastal walking in the Mediterranean, the Medes Islands are excellent for snorkelling and diving, and Cap de Creus is a bare, wind-carved headland. The Garrotxa volcanoes and the Pyrenees are within reach inland.

Wherever you base yourself in Andalusia, there is a long list of days out. From Seville you can reach the Roman ruins of Itálica, Carmona and Jerez, Málaga is handy for Ronda and Antequera, and from Tarifa a ferry crosses to Tangier in about an hour, which adds a second continent to the trip.

The Costa Brava has a shorter list, though Barcelona is within easy reach and is one of the best day trips anywhere. Across the French border are Collioure and Perpignan, and inland are Besalú's Romanesque bridge and the Empordà wine villages. Most of these need a car.

Andalusia gives children more organised days out. On the Costa del Sol there are the zoo at Fuengirola, the aquarium at Benalmádena and resort hotels geared to families, and Granada's hands-on science museum makes a good change from the beach. The catch is the heat, since inland cities in July and August are hard going with small children.

On the Costa Brava, family vacations mean simple seaside summers. Families stay at campsites behind the shallow, sandy bays of Roses, Pals and L'Estartit and take glass-bottom boats out to the Medes Islands. The steep steps down to the prettier coves suit older children better, and Lloret's party strip is best avoided as a base.

Andalusia is much easier to tour without a car. High-speed trains link Seville, Córdoba, Málaga and Granada, Seville and Málaga have trams and metro lines, and a coastal train runs along the Costa del Sol. You still want a car for the white villages, the mountains and the Costa de la Luz.

On the Costa Brava a car is close to essential. The rail line runs inland through Girona and Figueres and no beach town has a station, coastal buses are sparse, and in high summer the narrow roads down to the coves near Begur and Cadaqués jam up. Once you have parked, the villages and coastal paths are easy to walk.

Andalusia has more to buy, and much of it is made locally. There are ceramics from the Triana workshops and flamenco dresses, shawls and fans sold for real use on Seville's Calle Sierpes, Ubrique leather, Málaga's Calle Larios and the luxury boutiques of Marbella.

The Costa Brava offers less: pottery in La Bisbal d'Empordà, weekly markets with cheese, sausages and oil, and Girona's independent shops. Anyone who wants serious shopping goes to Barcelona for the day.

Andalusia is the cheaper of the two, especially for eating and drinking. Granada and Jaén give a free tapa with every drink, lunch menus are generous and regional trains are modestly priced. Prices jump in Seville during Holy Week and the spring fair and on the Costa del Sol in high summer.

The Costa Brava charges average Western European rates in summer, when nearly everyone visits. Begur and Cadaqués are at the expensive end, while Lloret de Mar and the big campsites are the budget options. The hire car and coastal parking add to the cost too.

Andalusia is the home of flamenco, and that alone puts it far ahead. You can see shows every night in small venues in Santa Cruz and Triana, at the peñas of Jerez and the zambra in the Sacromonte caves, and Seville stages the Bienal every other autumn. Seville's Teatro de la Maestranza and Granada's summer festival in the Alhambra add opera and concerts.

On the Costa Brava, live performance mostly happens in July and August. That means opera and ballet at the castle of Peralada, big international acts in the cliff-top gardens at Cap Roig, and havaneres sea songs in the harbours, sung most famously on one early-July night at Calella de Palafrugell.

Neither is a classic spa destination, though Andalusia has a little more. Granada, Córdoba, Seville and Málaga have bathhouses modelled on the old Moorish baths, Lanjarón in the Alpujarras offers an old-fashioned thermal cure, and Marbella has large resort spas.

The Costa Brava's main option is the spa town of Caldes de Malavella near Girona, with its mineral springs, while elsewhere you rely on hotel spas around S'Agaró and Begur. The real rest here comes from Empordà farmhouses and quiet coves in June or September.