Andalusia or Menorca?

These are two strong but quite different beach destinations, and Menorca edges ahead on quality. Andalusia offers a choice of coasts. The Costa del Sol is convenient and full of promenades, but often grey-sanded and built up. The Atlantic dunes at Bolonia and Zahara are golden, but the water is cooler and the levante can blow hard.

Menorca's best beaches are small and natural: Macarella, Turqueta and Mitjana are white-sand coves under pine cliffs, with nothing built on them and slightly warmer water. The price is planning. You bring your own shade, arrive early or walk in, because access to the southern coves is limited in high summer.

Andalusia is a real eating destination. You can spend an evening moving between counters in Triana, get a free tapa with each drink in Granada, eat oxtail in Córdoba and fried fish on the coast, and take bodega visits in Jerez and Sanlúcar, with fino served cold alongside prawns.

Menorca's cooking is honest but narrow. The lobster caldereta in Fornells, Mahón cheese from the farm door and a glass of pomada are worth seeking out. Beyond the harbours of Mahón and Ciutadella, though, resort menus are generic and many kitchens close out of season.

Andalusia is in a different league. The Alhambra above Granada, Córdoba's Mezquita and Seville's cathedral and Alcázar are each worth the journey on their own, and Ronda, Cádiz, Úbeda and Baeza add more. Seeing it properly takes a week spread over several cities.

Menorca's heritage is unusual rather than grand: UNESCO-listed talayotic monuments such as the Naveta des Tudons and the taula sanctuaries scattered across farmland. Add Ciutadella's palaces and the British-era streets above Mahón harbour, and two or three days covers the island.

Andalusia goes out late and often. In Seville, people sit on terraces in the Alameda and Triana until the small hours, Granada has crowded student bars, and in summer Marbella, Puerto Banús and Torremolinos supply the clubs and beach clubs.

Menorca's evenings are mostly drinks along the quays of Ciutadella and Mahón, with one well-known club set in a cliff cave near Cala en Porter. Its real party nights are the summer festes, above all Sant Joan in Ciutadella in June.

Andalusia's outdoors is bigger and more varied. You can ski or hike in the Sierra Nevada at nearly 3,500m, walk the Caminito del Rey gorge and the El Torcal limestone, look for lynx and birds in the Doñana marshes and kitesurf at Tarifa.

Menorca is gentle by comparison: a biosphere reserve of dry-stone walls and wild olive, with the Camí de Cavalls circling the coast for about 185km. It is at its best on the water, kayaking along the cliffs, snorkelling and sailing in Fornells Bay, rather than in the mountains.

Andalusia offers an almost endless list of days out: Itálica and Carmona from Seville, Ronda and Antequera from Málaga, the white villages of the Cádiz hills, Gibraltar, and even Tangier by ferry from Tarifa. A car opens up most of them.

On Menorca, a day out mostly means a visit to the other town or to Fornells and Binibeca. The one bigger excursion is a long day on Mallorca, with the ferry from Ciutadella taking at least an hour and a half each way.

Both work well with children, in different ways. Andalusia has more organised fun: water parks, the Fuengirola zoo, the Benalmádena aquarium, Granada's hands-on science museum and the Western film sets near Almería. Inland heat over 40°C in high summer means city sightseeing with children is best kept to spring or autumn.

Menorca is simpler and calmer. It has shallow, sheltered bays such as Son Bou and Arenal d'en Castell, low-rise family resorts and no long drives, but few attractions built for children. Some of the prettiest coves need a half-hour walk with all the gear.

Andalusia is easier for covering ground. High-speed trains link Seville, Córdoba, Málaga and Granada, and Seville and Málaga have trams and metro lines. Once you leave the cities, though, the villages and the Costa de la Luz are hard to reach without a car.

Menorca is small, about 50km end to end, and almost every drive takes under an hour, but a hire car is close to essential because buses miss most of the coves. The awkward part is the last stretch, where controlled car parks and shuttles at the southern beaches slow you down.

Andalusia offers more to buy and more of it is made locally: Triana ceramics, flamenco dresses and fans sold for real use, Ubrique leather, the lanterns of Granada's Alcaicería, plus Calle Larios in Málaga and the luxury boutiques of Marbella.

Menorca's shopping comes down to a few good local things, such as avarques sandals, shoes from Ciutadella and Alaior, Mahón cheese and gin, along with the summer craft markets. There are no fashion streets.

Andalusia is noticeably cheaper, especially for eating and drinking, with free tapas in Granada and Jaén and good set lunches. Rooms in inland towns and on the Almería coast cost little. The exceptions are Seville during Holy Week and the fair, and Marbella in high summer.

Menorca is expensive in July and August, when rooms, villas, car hire and harbour-front meals all cost more. Renting an apartment, coming in June or September and remembering that the beaches and most prehistoric sites are free keeps the bill down.

Flamenco gives Andalusia an art form you travel for. There are nightly performances in Santa Cruz and Triana, peñas in Jerez, the zambra in the Sacromonte caves and the Bienal in Seville, while the Maestranza and Teatro Cervantes cover opera and concerts.

Menorca has a small but genuine tradition. It centres on Mahón's Teatre Principal of 1829, summer organ recitals at Santa Maria and Ciutadella's classical festival, so for most of the year an evening here means dinner rather than a stage.

Andalusia has a little more to offer. There are Moorish-style bathhouses in Granada, Córdoba, Seville and Málaga, old spa towns such as Lanjarón and Alhama de Granada, and large resort spas around Marbella.

Menorca has no bathing culture, and its spas sit inside hotels and rural estates. What it does offer is calm: farmhouse stays, low-rise resorts and quiet harbour evenings, at their best in June and September.