Benidorm or Jerez de la Frontera?

In Benidorm the sand is right on the doorstep. Levante and Poniente run for kilometres in front of the towers, with shallow, clear water, and Mal Pas and the coves under the Serra Gelada give you a change of scene. The catch is the summer crowd, packed in from morning to sunset.

From Jerez the beach is an outing. The Atlantic sands at El Puerto, Cádiz, Sanlúcar and La Barrosa are wider and wilder, but the water is a few degrees cooler and the Levante wind can make it rough. They suit a day by the sea rather than a week on it.

You eat better in Jerez. Sherry runs through everything, from fino poured straight from the barrel in the tabancos to oxtail and kidneys cooked in it, and the tapas streets around Plaza del Arenal and San Miguel fill late with locals.

Benidorm's seafront feeds the package crowd with full breakfasts and roasts. The good food is in the old town's tapas lane and in rice dishes such as arroz a banda, and you have to look for it.

The gap here is wide. Jerez has a real historic centre: the Almohad Alcázar with its Arab baths, the Baroque cathedral and the old gypsy quarters where flamenco took shape. It also has two things found nowhere else, the barrel-lined bodegas and the dressage horses of the Royal Andalusian School.

Benidorm has a few whitewashed lanes, the blue-domed church and the Balcón del Mediterráneo. Its most memorable sight is the skyline of towers at sunset.

Benidorm is the place for a big night out. The pubs, karaoke bars and drag cabaret around the Rincón de Loix are full of stag and hen groups well past midnight, and the clubs on the edge of town go on until dawn, though things quieten a lot outside summer.

Evenings in Jerez are slower and more local: tapas, then sherry in the tabancos and copa bars, with a handful of clubs. The exception is the Feria del Caballo in May, a week of dancing in the casetas until morning.

Both have good countryside within reach, but it is of different kinds. Benidorm's is steep and close. The Serra Gelada cliff path starts at the end of Levante beach, Puig Campana, Bernia and the Aitana range offer serious hiking within half an hour, and you can snorkel and kayak around the island off the beach.

Around Jerez itself the land is gentler, chalky vineyards good for cycling, but the bigger landscapes are further out: the gorges of Grazalema, the cork oaks of Los Alcornocales, the Doñana wetlands across the river from Sanlúcar, and kitesurfing on the coast towards Tarifa. In both places, summer is too hot for hiking.

Jerez has the stronger list. Seville is an hour away by train and Cádiz half an hour. The white towns from Arcos to Ronda, and Sanlúcar for manzanilla and fried fish, give you a different outing each day.

Benidorm's trips are pleasant but smaller in scale: Altea and Villajoyosa next door, Guadalest on its rock, Alicante by tram and the palm grove at Elche. Valencia is the big prize, but it is two hours each way.

Benidorm is made for families. The beaches shelve gently, the promenades are easy with a stroller, and a theme park, water park, marine park and zoo sit on the edge of town. If you stay near Poniente, you avoid the adult nightlife streets behind Levante.

Jerez welcomes children at late dinners and has a fine zoo and the horse show. But reaching the beaches means a trip, and the summer heat in town is hard on small children.

Benidorm's public transport reaches further. Buses run the length of the seafront and out to the theme parks, and the coastal tram runs south to Alicante and north to Altea, so you can go a fair way without a car. That suits the town, because parking is scarce. Walking is easy along the flat promenades between the beaches and the old town, but if your hotel sits high on the hills behind Levante, expect a climb.

Jerez is even easier on foot. The Alcázar, the bodegas and the tapas streets are all a short walk apart, and trains from a station near the centre go straight to Seville and Cádiz. Away from the rail line, though, the white towns, the sierra and many of the beaches really need a hired car.

Neither city is a shopping destination, so the difference is in what you bring home. Benidorm sells beachwear, souvenirs and market fakes, with ceramics and turrón in the old town and Alicante for anything more serious. Jerez has real local crafts: sherry and brandy from the bodegas, saddlery and riding boots, flamenco dresses and guitars.

Both make a budget go a long way, in different ways. In Benidorm the sheer number of rooms and the all-inclusive deals keep costs low, especially in winter, though a few days at the parks adds up for families. In Jerez tapas, sherry and bodega tours are cheap and central hotels are moderately priced, but rooms get scarce and dearer during the Feria, the flamenco festival and the motorcycle race weekends.

Benidorm puts on an evening's entertainment, while Jerez has a living art that grew up in its own streets. In Benidorm that means a big dinner-show spectacular with song and dance, and dozens of bars with drag acts, comedians and tribute singers, many of them with loyal followings among visitors who come back every year. It is cheerful and undemanding, but there is no theatre or classical music.

Jerez goes much deeper. In the peñas of Santiago and San Miguel, and in some tabancos, you hear the bulería sung close up and unpolished, while the tablaos put on more polished shows. The festival in late winter brings major dancers to the Teatro Villamarta, which also has a modest season of opera and zarzuela.

Neither has a bathing tradition, but Jerez is the better place to unwind. It has an Arab-style bathhouse in the old town, and its shaded patios and slow afternoons set an easy pace, especially in spring and autumn.

Benidorm relies on hotel spas, and summer there is loud. Its restful season runs from November to March, when the town slows down and the Poniente side is quiet and sunny.