Barcelona or Carcassonne?

Barcelona has the sea at the end of the metro line. Sandy beaches run for kilometres from Barceloneta past Bogatell to Mar Bella, and the coastal trains reach roomier, cleaner sand at Castelldefels, Sitges or the Maresme. The city beaches are man-made and packed in high summer, but swimming is part of daily life.

Carcassonne is an inland town. Its swimming is the lifeguarded lake at the Cavayère, fine for an afternoon off from the walls, and the Mediterranean at Gruissan or Narbonne-Plage is about an hour's drive and often roughened by the tramontane.

Barcelona has a whole cuisine of its own to explore, from suquet and botifarra with white beans to calçots with romesco in late winter, plus late-morning vermouth, seafood rice by the sea and one of Europe's serious tasting-menu scenes. Skip the frozen paella on the Rambla and eat in Sant Antoni, Poble Sec, Gràcia or the Eixample, or at the counters of the Santa Caterina market.

Carcassonne eats well within a narrower range: cassoulet, solid southern French bistros, and Corbières, Minervois and Limoux wines at fair prices. The set menus inside the Cité are uneven, so for better meals go down to the Bastide. There you'll find the restaurants around Place Carnot, the square's morning market and, as a separate stop, the town's covered market hall.

Barcelona offers a week of sights in several layers: Gaudí's Sagrada Família, Casa Batlló and Park Güell, the Roman and medieval Gothic Quarter, Santa Maria del Mar, and museums from the Picasso to the MNAC's Romanesque frescoes.

Carcassonne has one tremendous set piece rather than depth. La Cité's double walls and towers, the Château Comtal and the stained glass of Saint-Nazaire are unforgettable, and the Bastide and Canal du Midi round them out, but museums are few and two days covers it.

Barcelona is one of the great late-night cities of the Mediterranean, with cellar cocktail bars in the Born, outdoor drinking in Gràcia's squares, pintxos on Blai and electronic club nights that run to dawn.

Carcassonne's evenings are for a floodlit walk on the walls and a glass of wine on a terrace in the Bastide. There are no real clubs, and anyone wanting a night out drives to Toulouse or Montpellier.

Barcelona's outdoors starts at the city's edge: the wooded Collserola hills and the Carretera de les Aigües above Gràcia, Montjuïc's gardens, and paddleboarding or windsurfing off Mar Bella. Montserrat's pinnacles and the Costa Brava's coastal paths are a train or short drive away.

Carcassonne's landscapes are wilder but harder to reach without a car: the forests of the Montagne Noire, the garrigue and castle ridges of the Corbières, and rafting in the Aude gorges. The Canal du Midi towpath is the easy exception, flat and shaded for cycling.

Both are excellent bases, but in different ways. From Barcelona, fast trains do most of the work, reaching Girona's Jewish quarter, Dalí's museum in Figueres and Roman Tarragona, with Montserrat, Sitges and the Penedès cava cellars closer still.

From Carcassonne the classic outings are by car: the Cathar castles of Peyrepertuse and Quéribus on their limestone ridges, the abbey village of Lagrasse, Minerve above its gorges and wine estates for tastings. Toulouse and Narbonne are the easy train trips.

Barcelona keeps children busy for days with the aquarium, CosmoCaixa, the Tibidabo funfair reached by funicular, city beaches and PortAventura about an hour south. Children are welcome in restaurants late into the evening.

Carcassonne has the better single thrill, a real castle with drawbridges, ramparts and summer jousting, plus the lake beach, water park and animal park. Beyond a few days it relies on car outings, and the steep cobbles of the Cité are as hard on pushchairs as Barcelona's old town.

Barcelona's flat centre and simple metro, with buses, trams and local trains on the same tickets, mean you never need a car. The only effort is the climb to Park Güell, Montjuïc or Tibidabo.

Carcassonne itself is small enough to walk, from the station by the canal through the Bastide and up to the Cité. Beyond the town, though, the castles and villages are poorly served by public transport, so a hire car becomes almost essential.

Barcelona is a proper shopping city, with fashion houses along the Passeig de Gràcia, independent designers in the Born, small makers in Gràcia, vintage and records in the Raval, and espadrilles and ceramics to take home.

Carcassonne offers souvenir swords in the Cité and a modest provincial high street in the Bastide. Its best buys are edible ones: tinned cassoulet, blanquette and wine from the Place Carnot market.

Carcassonne is the cheaper stay. Bastide rooms, local wine and set lunches are moderately priced, and walking replaces transport, though hotels inside the Cité and July and August prices push costs up, and car hire is the usual extra.

In Barcelona, hotels are the big cost, and the tourist tax and Gaudí entry fees add up on a sightseeing trip. Set lunches, market counters and transport passes help keep it manageable.

Barcelona has a year-round season: opera and ballet at the Liceu, concerts under the stained glass of the Palau de la Música, jazz cellars and flamenco, plus Sónar, Primavera Sound and the Grec festival on Montjuïc.

Carcassonne's stage life is mostly confined to July, when its festival brings headline acts to the open-air theatre inside the Cité walls, and to the Bastille Day fireworks. For the rest of the year the municipal theatre keeps a modest programme going.

Neither is a spa destination, and the calm in each depends on how you slow down. Barcelona has a few Arab-style bath houses and hotel spas, but its old town is noisy and late, and rest comes from long lunches in Gràcia or evening walks in Collserola.

Carcassonne is quieter by nature outside high summer, with plane-shaded walks along the canal and the Cité's ramparts empty at dusk. The small thermal villages of Rennes-les-Bains and Alet-les-Bains are within an hour's drive.