Bilbao or Toledo?

Bilbao has real beaches within reach and Toledo has none. The metro runs from Bilbao to the sands at Getxo, Sopelana and Plentzia in under an hour. The Atlantic water is cool and the weather unreliable, so treat it as a summer afternoon out, but it is a proper sea swim.

Toledo is hours from any coast on the dry plateau, and the Tagus below the walls is not a river for swimming. On a hot day, cooling off there means a hotel pool or a municipal outdoor pool.

Food is one of the main reasons to choose Bilbao over Toledo. Bilbao's evenings revolve around pintxos and txakoli along the bar counters of the Casco Viejo and the Ensanche, and the Ribera market shows off the fish and produce. Bacalao al pil-pil and txuleta steak show the Basque way with ingredients, and several Michelin-starred kitchens sit above all that.

Toledo's cooking is rustic Manchegan fare: partridge in vinegar, game from the Montes de Toledo, carcamusas and Manchego, with convent marzipan to finish. It is good for a few hearty meals, but the choice is narrow, and the set menus near the cathedral are best avoided in favour of the taverns and Zocodover bars where a drink still comes with a tapa.

Toledo has the richer heritage. The entire old town on its granite hill is the monument, with Roman, Islamic, Jewish and Christian layers side by side. The Gothic cathedral and its El Greco sacristy, the synagogues of Santa María la Blanca and El Tránsito, Cristo de la Luz and San Juan de los Reyes fill two full days without leaving the walls.

Bilbao's strengths are more modern and more spread out. Gehry's Guggenheim and the Museo de Bellas Artes are the highlights, and the Vizcaya Bridge downriver adds an industrial UNESCO site. Its medieval Siete Calles, though, are pleasant rather than grand, so it cannot match the depth of Toledo's old town.

Bilbao is the place for a night out. The evening pintxo crawl turns into late drinking in the Casco Viejo, Licenciado Poza draws a younger crowd, and weekends run well past 3am. During Aste Nagusia in August the riverbanks become one long party for nine days, although clubs are few at any time.

Toledo's evenings end with dinner and a round of tapas around Zocodover. After that the old town goes quiet, apart from a few student bars at weekends. Anyone after more takes the train to Madrid.

Bilbao is far better for landscape. Hills rise straight from the city, with the Artxanda funicular and the Pagasarri hike on the doorstep. Urkiola's limestone peaks and Gorbea's beech forests are about an hour away, and the coast adds cliff walks, the Urdaibai biosphere reserve, Gaztelugatxe and the surf at Mundaka. The trade-off is rain in every season.

Toledo's best outdoor moment is the path round the Tagus gorge and the view back from the cigarrales on the far bank. Beyond that lie the olive groves and wheat fields of La Mancha, the low Montes de Toledo and, two hours out, Cabañeros for deer and birds of prey. All of it is best avoided at the height of summer.

Both make excellent bases, but they lead to very different places. From Bilbao the outings are Basque and coastal: San Sebastián's pintxo bars, Gernika's oak tree, fishing ports such as Lekeitio and Mundaka, the Rioja bodegas around Laguardia and the Cantabrian villages towards Altamira.

Toledo's trump card is Madrid, half an hour away by high-speed train, with the Prado on the far end. Around it lie royal and Castilian Spain: Aranjuez, El Escorial, the windmills of Consuegra, Almagro's theatre, and longer days out to Segovia, Ávila or Cuenca. In both cases a car opens up the full list.

Bilbao is the easier city with children, mainly because it is flat. The riverside promenade suits pushchairs and scooters, Doña Casilda Park has playgrounds, the funicular is a small outing, and in summer the metro beaches give children a day by the sea. Bilbao has no zoo, aquarium or theme park, so wet days need a plan.

Toledo has the one big children's attraction of the two, a history-show theme park on the outskirts, and its swords, armour and the castle-like Alcázar fire young imaginations. The steep cobbled lanes and fierce summer afternoons wear families out, though, so short visits with early starts work best.

Bilbao is the easier city to get around. Its main sights line a flat riverside stretch that is pleasant to walk, and a tram follows the same route. The metro, with Foster's glass entrances, carries on to the coast, and Euskotren and Bizkaibus cover the province.

Toledo's old town is tiny, but it sits on a steep hill of narrow, twisting cobbles, so even short walks are tiring. The escalators from the car parks help on arrival. The neo-Mudéjar station sits across the river, a bus ride or a hard climb from the centre.

Bilbao offers more choice: Gran Vía chains, a department store and a few boutiques, plus old family shops in the Casco Viejo selling berets, espadrilles and linen. The best things to buy are edible, such as anchovies, Idiazabal cheese and txakoli from around the Ribera market.

Toledo is all about craft. It is the place for damascene gold-inlaid steel, Toledo blades, Talavera ceramics and convent marzipan, provided you look past the souvenir stock to workshops that make their own. For fashion, both send serious shoppers elsewhere, Toledo all the way to Madrid.

Toledo is the gentler of the two on the budget. A free tapa with a drink and good-value set lunches in the taverns away from the cathedral keep daily eating cheap, and rooms just outside the walls are moderate. What adds up is the separate entry fee at almost every monument.

Bilbao is expensive by Spanish standards, with central hotels costing more, especially in Aste Nagusia week. A pintxo crawl is still fair value, and the compact centre keeps transport cheap, but meals at the asadores and starred tables cost accordingly.

Bilbao has a real stage calendar. ABAO's opera season and the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra play at the Euskalduna, the Arriaga and Campos Elíseos theatres host drama and dance, and BBK Live brings international bands to Mount Cobetas each July.

In Toledo an ordinary evening offers little beyond the regional programme at the Teatro de Rojas and the occasional organ or choral concert in a church. Its great spectacle is Corpus Christi, a procession through streets hung with tapestries. For opera or major concerts, you take the train to Madrid.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, so relaxation in both comes from the pace of the place more than from spas. Bilbao has hotel and day spas, and its calm is in long lunches and riverside strolls. Proper Basque balnearios are a separate trip into the interior.

Toledo adds Arab-style baths in vaulted rooms, and its quiet comes in the early mornings and late evenings, when the tour groups have gone and the terraces look out over the Tagus.