Andorra la Vella or San Sebastian?

Andorra la Vella has no shore at all. The Mediterranean is about three hours away by road and the mountain lakes are too cold for a real swim, so swimming means a hotel pool or the Caldea lagoons.

San Sebastian has a sandy bay in the middle of town: sheltered La Concha, quieter Ondarreta for families and Zurriola for surfers. The catch is the Atlantic, which gives a short July and August season with grey days even then.

Andorra la Vella feeds you well after a day outdoors. Escudella, grilled lamb and river trout are cooked over wood fires in the bordas, the old stone barns of the side valleys, but the tapas bars on the town's shopping avenues are uneven.

In San Sebastian the food is reason enough to go. Evenings are pintxo crawls through the Parte Vieja and Gros with a glass of txakoli. The markets of La Bretxa and San Martin supply the counters, celebrated restaurants sit in the surrounding hills and the Astigarraga cider houses open their barrels from January. Its only weakness is range, since nearly everything is Basque.

Andorra la Vella's heritage fits into a day. The Barri Antic holds the Casa de la Vall, the fortified house that was home to the old parliament, and Romanesque churches such as Santa Coloma lie out in the valleys.

San Sebastian gives you two or three days, more as a townscape than a list of major museums. There are the late 19th-century streets around the Buen Pastor cathedral, the Parte Vieja grid rebuilt after 1813, the castle on Monte Urgull, the San Telmo Museum and Chillida's Peine del Viento on the rocks at Ondarreta.

Neither is a city for big clubs. Andorra la Vella's evenings are short, with a few pubs and wine bars around the centre and Escaldes-Engordany, and the real après-ski happens up in the resort villages. San Sebastian has the clear edge, because its pintxo bars keep the old town noisy and sociable until late at weekends, and in summer and during Semana Grande the whole city stays out longer.

Andorra la Vella sits among real high mountains, at about 1,000m with peaks near 3,000m all around. Lift-linked ski areas are a short ride away, and the Madriu-Perafita-Claror valley begins at the edge of town. In summer the same slopes offer trails to glacial lakes, mountain biking and long road climbs.

San Sebastian's outdoors is coastal and gentler. The old funicular climbs Monte Igueldo, a cliff path runs from Ulia to Pasaia and on over Jaizkibel, Zurriola has surf and the bay is good for paddleboarding. The walking is fine, but there are no high peaks and no snow.

From Andorra la Vella the choice is short and you go by road. La Seu d'Urgell's cathedral and market are half an hour south, Puigcerdà and Llívia lie in the Cerdanya, and Ax-les-Thermes and the castle at Foix are over the pass in France.

San Sebastian sits on the edge of two countries and has easy links to both. You can reach Bilbao and the Guggenheim, Pamplona, walled Hondarribia, Biarritz and Bayonne across the border, and fishing towns such as Getaria. The Rioja Alavesa vineyards are under two hours away, enough for a week of outings.

Andorra la Vella works for families who come to ski or hike, with large ski schools, toboggan runs, rope courses and an animal park. Away from the mountains, though, the centre is a busy shopping street with heavy traffic, and older children soon get restless.

San Sebastian is easier, with calm beaches in the centre, a flat car-free promenade, the aquarium tunnel, the hands-on Eureka museum and the funfair on Monte Igueldo. For a wet day, Andorra has Caldea's family pools, while San Sebastian's rain can rule out the beach for days.

Andorra la Vella's centre is easy to walk, if steep in the old quarter, and national buses run up the valleys. But the country has no train, the airports are a long drive away, the main road jams in season and many trailheads are easier with a car.

San Sebastian is small, flat and made for walking, with waterfront bike lanes and buses to the outer districts. Euskotren trains run to Hendaye and towards Bilbao, so you only need a car for the cider houses and the inland hills.

Andorra la Vella is a shopping destination in a way San Sebastian is not. Low taxes fill the avenues into Escaldes-Engordany with department stores and shops selling perfume, electronics, spirits and, above all, ski and outdoor gear. It is about bargains and stocking up, not style.

San Sebastian has more character but less of it. There are fashion chains and independent boutiques in the Centro, espadrilles and berets in the Parte Vieja and surf shops in Gros. The best things to take home are edible, such as Idiazabal cheese and tinned anchovies.

Andorra la Vella is the cheaper place to stay, with mid-range prices for Western Europe and rooms that are good value outside the peak ski weeks. Duty-free spirits help, although ski passes, equipment hire and the spa cost what they would in any mountain resort.

San Sebastian is expensive by Spanish standards, mainly because hotel rooms are scarce and climb steeply in summer and festival weeks. Free beaches and walks, cheap buses and a carefully chosen pintxo crawl soften the cost, and going outside summer helps most.

Andorra la Vella's music comes mostly in summer, with jazz in Escaldes-Engordany and classical music in Ordino, and outside that season little is on. San Sebastian has a real calendar. Jazzaldia brings international names to the Kursaal and free concerts to Zurriola beach in July, and the Quincena Musical fills August with orchestras and opera.

The Kursaal and the ornate Teatro Victoria Eugenia keep a programme going for the rest of the year.

Each has one standout spa, but they are very different. Andorra la Vella's is Caldea, fed by the hot springs of Escaldes-Engordany, with thermal lagoons and an adults-only section that suit tired legs after skiing. The traffic-filled avenues outside are not restful, though.

San Sebastian offers seawater thalassotherapy in the old bathing pavilion on La Concha. Its bigger asset is pace: a calm, orderly town of evening strolls along the promenade and long lunches.