Barcelona or Santiago de Compostela?

Barcelona has sand at the end of a metro ride. The beaches from Barceloneta to Mar Bella are man-made and crowded in high summer, but you can swim in warm water from June to late September and still be back in the Born for dinner. Sitges and the Maresme give you more space within the hour.

Santiago is inland, so a swim means a trip out to the Ría de Muros e Noia or the Ría de Arousa. The white sand and sheltered water there are lovely, but the Atlantic stays cold and the summer is short, so treat the beach as an outing rather than a reason to go.

Both cities eat around a great covered market: the Boqueria, Santa Caterina and Sant Antoni in Barcelona, and the granite Abastos hall in Santiago. Barcelona has far more range, though. It offers Catalan home cooking, the vermouth and tapas habit, seafood rice by the sea and a serious tasting-menu scene, spread across Sant Antoni, Poble Sec, Gràcia and the Eixample.

Santiago's strength is narrower but very deep: octopus, scallops, razor clams and percebes with a glass of Albariño along Rúa do Franco. If one excellent seafood cuisine is enough for you, it delivers. If you want variety across a week, Barcelona wins.

Barcelona has two layers of sights. The Modernista buildings of Gaudí and his contemporaries, from the Sagrada Família to the Palau de la Música, sit alongside a Gothic Quarter with Roman walls and Santa Maria del Mar. The Picasso Museum, the MNAC and the Fundació Miró add to that, and the whole easily fills a week.

Santiago puts its weight in one place: the cathedral with its Pórtico da Gloria and the shrine of Saint James, the Praza do Obradoiro and a compact UNESCO-listed old town of granite arcades and monasteries. It is deeply atmospheric, but two or three days are enough to see it.

Barcelona's nights run until dawn, and each district has its own style. There are cocktail bars in the Born's medieval cellars, scruffy bars in the Raval, outdoor drinking in Gràcia's squares, pintxos along Blai and serious electronic club nights. Summer weekends barely stop.

Santiago offers a university town's night out: wine along Rúa do Franco, pub-like bars around the Praza de Cervantes, Galician folk sessions and a few late clubs. It is friendly and lively in term time, but quiet in summer, when early-to-bed pilgrims take the students' place.

Barcelona has more on its doorstep and more variety within reach. The wooded Collserola hills and the Carretera de les Aigües start at the city's edge, and there is sailing and windsurfing off Mar Bella. Further out are the pinnacles of Montserrat, the Garraf cliffs and the Costa Brava paths, with the Pyrenees at the edge of range.

Santiago's landscape is gentler and greener: rain-fed oak hills, Camino paths leading straight out of town, the cliffs of the Costa da Morte and the ancient woodland of the Fragas do Eume. There are no high mountains close by, so the walking is rolling rather than steep, and you will need a waterproof more often than shade.

Both cities make good bases with fast trains, but Barcelona's list is longer and more varied. Girona's walled town is under forty minutes away, and Dalí's museum in Figueres, Roman Tarragona, the monasteries of Poblet and Montserrat, seaside Sitges and the cava cellars of the Penedès are all within reach.

Santiago opens up Galicia: the Tower of Hercules in A Coruña, Lugo's complete Roman walls, Pontevedra and Ourense by train, and the Albariño country and Fisterra further out. It is a strong list, but more of it depends on a car or a tour.

Barcelona is far easier with children. The aquarium, CosmoCaixa, the Ciutadella zoo and the Tibidabo funfair fill whole days, the beaches are a metro ride away and PortAventura is an hour south. Crowds in the old town and the summer heat are the main drawbacks.

Santiago is safe and relaxed, but little is made for children beyond the Alameda and Bonaval parks. The cobbles are hard work with a pushchair and rain can last for days, so most families see the city in a day and then head for A Coruña or the coast.

Santiago is the smaller place to walk: you can cross the whole historic centre in twenty minutes, though the granite gets slippery in the rain. Barcelona is bigger but still flat and easy on foot from the Gothic Quarter to Gràcia, and its metro, buses, trams and local trains share one ticket, which makes the outer sights simple to reach.

The gap shows beyond the centre. Barcelona's hilltops need a funicular or cable car, but you never need a car. Around Santiago, the beaches, wine villages and Costa da Morte are much easier to reach by car or with a tour.

Barcelona is a real shopping city. It has luxury and Spanish fashion on the Passeig de Gràcia, independent designers in the Born, small craft shops in Gràcia, vintage shops in the Raval and the Els Encants flea market.

Santiago's shopping is about crafts and food: black jet in the Azabachería, Sargadelos ceramics, tetilla cheese and tinned seafood. The fashion shops in the Ensanche are ordinary, and much of the old town sells pilgrim souvenirs.

Barcelona costs more, mainly because of hotels near the old town and seafront, the tourist tax and the steep entry fees at the Gaudí buildings. Set lunches and market counters help keep the spending down.

Santiago is clearly the cheaper stay. Tapas often arrive free with a drink, seafood and local wine cost less, the cathedral is free to enter, and pensiones and pilgrim hostels keep rooms cheap. The exception is the busy weeks around the feast of Saint James in July.

Barcelona is the place for a night at the theatre or concert hall. There is opera and ballet at the Liceu, concerts under the stained glass of the Palau de la Música, the symphony at L'Auditori, jazz cellars and flamenco, and Sónar, Primavera Sound and the Grec festival in early summer.

Santiago has an orchestra at the Auditorio de Galicia and drama mostly in Galician, but no real opera. Its most distinctive music is bagpipe and folk sessions in old-town bars and student tunas singing in the streets in black capes.

Neither city has a bathing tradition of its own. Beyond hotel spas, Barcelona has a few Arab-style bath houses in the old town, and its calm comes from long lunches in Gràcia's squares or evening walks on the Collserola paths.

Santiago is quieter in itself once the day's pilgrims have arrived, and Galicia's hot springs are close: the spa towns of Caldas de Reis and Cuntis, and the riverside thermal pools of Ourense.