Barcelona or Toledo?

Barcelona has a real city beach: several kilometres of sand from Barceloneta to Mar Bella, a short walk or metro ride from the Born. It gets crowded in high summer, but the trains reach quieter, cleaner sand at Castelldefels, Sitges and along the Maresme in under an hour.

Toledo has nothing comparable. It lies far inland, the Tagus below its walls is not a river for swimming, and on a hot day you cool off in a hotel or municipal pool.

Barcelona is one of the great places to eat in Spain. Catalan dishes such as suquet and calçots with romesco, seafood rice by the sea, the vermouth hour and market counters at Santa Caterina and Sant Antoni all sit alongside cheap workers' set lunches and some of Europe's most ambitious tasting menus.

Toledo's table is narrower and heartier: partridge in wine and vinegar, wild boar, carcamusas, Manchego and convent marzipan. A few good regional meals in the taverns off Zocodover are the aim, not a week of eating out.

Both cities are strong for sightseeing, but Barcelona has more to see. Gaudí's Modernista buildings exist nowhere else, the Gothic Quarter and Santa Maria del Mar add a medieval layer, and the Picasso Museum, MNAC and Fundació Miró give it real museum depth, enough to fill a week.

Toledo is denser rather than bigger. Roman, Visigothic, Islamic, Jewish and Christian Spain are layered on one small hill, from the cathedral's El Greco and Goya canvases to Cristo de la Luz and the synagogues of Santa María la Blanca and El Tránsito. The main sights fit into two full days.

Barcelona's nights are long and varied. You can go from wine in medieval cellars in the Born to the Raval's scruffy bars, drinks outdoors in Gràcia's squares, the gay scene in the Eixample and electronic club nights that run until dawn.

In Toledo, an evening means a late dinner and a round of tapas bars near Zocodover. A few student bars stay open later at weekends, but there are no clubs to speak of, and a real night out means the train to Madrid.

Barcelona has more ways to get outdoors. The wooded Collserola hills begin at the edge of Gràcia, with the flat Carretera de les Aigües looking over the city, and the northern beaches have paddleboarding and windsurfing. Montserrat's pinnacles, the Garraf cliffs and the Costa Brava's coves are all within reach.

Toledo's best walk is the path around the Tagus gorge below the walls, with views back from the cigarrales on the far bank. Beyond that lies open plain, with the low Montes de Toledo and the deer of Cabañeros a longer drive away.

Both make excellent bases, but for different kinds of trip. From Barcelona, fast trains reach Catalonia's medieval and Roman towns: Girona's Jewish quarter, Dalí's museum at Figueres, Tarragona's amphitheatre on the sea, with Montserrat, Sitges and the Penedès cava cellars closer still.

Toledo's trump card is Madrid and its great art museums half an hour away by train. Beyond that, the trips lead into Castile and La Mancha, to Aranjuez, El Escorial, the windmills of Consuegra and the long days to Segovia or Cuenca, and most of them work better with a car.

Barcelona is far easier with children. The aquarium, the hands-on CosmoCaixa, the Tibidabo funfair reached by funicular and the beaches can fill a week, and PortAventura is about an hour away.

Toledo has its moments, with the castle-like Alcázar, shop windows full of swords and armour, and a history-show theme park on the outskirts. But steep cobbled lanes, a lot of churches and paintings, and fierce summer heat make a short stay the sensible plan.

Barcelona's centre is flat and walkable from the Gothic Quarter up to Gràcia, and a clear metro, trams and buses on shared tickets cover the rest. Only Park Güell, Montjuïc and Tibidabo need a climb or a funicular.

Toledo is tiny by comparison, crossable in twenty minutes, but it all sits on a steep hill of twisting cobbled lanes. Escalators help on arrival, and the station lies across the river, a bus ride or a hard walk below the old town.

Barcelona offers proper shopping. Luxury and Spanish fashion line the Passeig de Gràcia, and the Born's independent designers, Gràcia's small boutiques, the Raval's vintage shops and the Els Encants flea market give it range beyond the high street.

Toledo's shopping is about crafts: gold-inlaid damascene work, Toledo steel, Talavera ceramics and convent marzipan. It is worth seeking out workshops that make their own, but for clothes or department stores you go to Madrid.

Toledo is the gentler city on your wallet. A small tapa often comes free with a drink, tavern set lunches are fair, and rooms in the newer town below the hill are moderate, although view hotels inside the walls cost more.

Barcelona is pricier than most of Spain, and the extra is mostly hotels, the tourist tax and steep Gaudí entry fees. Set lunches, market counters and transport passes keep the rest of a trip manageable. In both cities, monument tickets mount up on a busy sightseeing day.

Barcelona has a full cultural calendar. The Liceu stages opera and ballet, the Palau de la Música Catalana turns any concert into an occasion, and there are jazz cellars, flamenco, Montjuïc's open-air Grec stage, and Sónar and Primavera Sound in early summer.

Toledo has the nineteenth-century Teatro de Rojas, occasional organ and choral music in its churches, and the Corpus Christi processions through streets hung with tapestries. On an ordinary evening there is little else on.

Neither city is somewhere to go mainly for rest, and both offer the same modest set of Arab-style bath houses and hotel spas. Barcelona still has more to work with: Collserola's quiet paths, the Montjuïc gardens at dusk and calmer seaside towns a short train ride away, even if the old town itself is noisy until late.

Toledo's calm is smaller in scale. It comes in the early mornings and evenings, when the tour groups have left and the terraces over the Tagus fall quiet, which is enough for a slow night or two.