Cadiz or Cascais?

Cadiz is the stronger beach destination. Playa Victoria gives you several kilometres of wide golden sand within the city, La Caleta is a sheltered cove in the old town, and in summer the water is warm enough for long swims. The open beaches of El Palmar, Zahara and Bolonia are close by, though the levante wind can make a beach day hard work.

Cascais has charming small coves just below its centre, calm water in a south-facing bay and Carcavelos for surfing. The sea stays cold, however, and Guincho is better for watching the waves than for swimming. It's a place for a quick dip, not a beach vacation.

Both towns eat from the sea, but Cadiz does it with more character and depth. Paper cones from the freidurías, shrimp fritters, bluefin tuna from the almadraba traps and cold manzanilla from the nearby sherry towns make tapas in La Viña a highlight of a stay.

Cascais does grilled sardines, clams and seafood platters well, and the long lunches along the Guincho road come with Atlantic views. Away from the harbour the old centre leans towards tourist menus, so keen eaters tend to go into Lisbon for dinner.

Cadiz has much more to see. A Phoenician foundation, the watchtowered merchant houses from its time running Spain's American trade, the gold-domed cathedral, a Roman theatre, Phoenician sarcophagi in the Museo de Cádiz and the 1812 constitution at San Felipe Neri fill two or three days.

The heritage of Cascais is lighter and more recent: aristocratic summer villas, the Citadel and the Paula Rego museum in its red towers. It can all be seen in an easy day, and the bigger monuments are in Lisbon and Sintra.

Cadiz stays up later. Tapas rounds in La Viña and Plaza de San Francisco stretch well into the night, and in summer the terraces along Playa Victoria stay open into the early hours. February's Carnival turns the whole city into a street party for ten days.

Evenings in Cascais are quieter: a few streets of pubs, wine bars and cocktail terraces, with the Estoril casino if you want to dress up. Outside high summer the town is mostly in bed by midnight, and a big night out means Lisbon and a late taxi back.

Cascais has the more dramatic landscape close at hand. The rock arch of Boca do Inferno, the dunes and wind at Guincho, the cliffs of Cabo da Roca and the cork and pine forests of the Serra de Sintra can all be reached from town by bike or on foot.

Around Cadiz itself it's mostly salt pans and tidal marsh, which are excellent for flamingos, spoonbills and kayaking but flat. Its bigger landscapes, such as Tarifa's kitesurfing, the cliffs of La Breña and the limestone gorges of Grazalema, are one to two hours away.

Both are excellent bases, but the outings differ. From Cadiz, the trips are a circuit of Andalusia: sherry bodegas in Jerez and El Puerto, Seville by train, hilltop white towns such as Vejer and Arcos, and the Roman ruins at Bolonia. Many of these work best with a car.

From Cascais, a capital is less than an hour away by the coastal train, and the palaces of Sintra are just over the ridge. Mafra, Óbidos and the Setúbal wine country add longer days out.

Families will be comfortable in either, and neither has a zoo, aquarium or theme park in town. Cadiz has the wider beach with lifeguards and the warmer water, plus a relaxed Spanish attitude to children at dinner late in the evening.

Cascais suits younger children with its shallow, calm coves, its flat promenade for scooters and the peacocks in Marechal Carmona park, and Lisbon's Oceanarium is a train ride away. Its cold sea and bumpy cobbles are the drawbacks.

Both centres are easy on foot. The old town in Cadiz is flat and mostly free of cars, with buses running along the isthmus to the beach, trains to Jerez and Seville, and a catamaran across the bay. In Cascais, the coastal train to Lisbon is the main link, and local buses reach Sintra and Guincho.

Beyond those routes, you'll need a car more around Cadiz, since the Costa de la Luz and white villages are poorly served. Around Cascais, many visitors manage without one.

Neither town is worth the trip for shopping, and both send serious shoppers to their larger neighbours, Seville and Lisbon. What differs is what you take home. In Cadiz that's hand-painted fans, flamenco fashion and sherry from the shops around Plaza de las Flores. In Cascais it's surf brands, azulejo tiles, cork goods and decorative tins of fish.

Cadiz is the cheaper stay overall. Tapas, fried fish, sherry and local transport cost little, and rooms are the one real expense, above all in the old town in summer and during Carnival.

Cascais is an upmarket resort with seafront hotels and harbour restaurants priced high for Portugal. Set lunches in the back streets and the cheap train to Lisbon help, but a stay there costs noticeably more.

Cadiz has a living tradition of its own. Flamenco peñas in the Santa María quarter, where alegrías was born, attract knowledgeable local audiences, and the Gran Teatro Falla hosts the satirical Carnival choirs as well as an autumn festival of Ibero-American theatre.

Cascais has less. There is Portuguese-language theatre in Estoril, cabaret at the casino and summer jazz by the coast, while fado, opera and orchestras mean an evening in Lisbon.

Cascais has a slight edge here because of Estoril's history as a spa town built around thermal springs, which lives on in its thalassotherapy, its hotel spas and summer yoga by the sea. Cadiz relies on hotel spas, the resort spas at Novo Sancti Petri and the Arab-style baths in Jerez.

Neither has a public bathing culture, and in both the real restorative draw is the pace. In Cadiz that means a long lunch and a siesta, and in Cascais early nights and quiet promenade mornings.