Cadiz or Santiago de Compostela?

Cadiz is a beach city in a way Santiago is not. The sea surrounds it: La Caleta sits between two castles in the old town, Playa Victoria offers kilometres of golden sand a short bus ride away, and the empty beaches of the Costa de la Luz lie beyond. The water is warm enough to swim in comfortably all summer, though the levante wind can blow sand across the beach for days.

Santiago lies about 35km inland, so swimming means a day out to the sheltered white-sand inlets of the Ría de Muros e Noia or the Ría de Arousa. The rías are calm and pretty, but the water stays chilly and the summer is short, so they are an outing rather than the point of the trip.

Both cities eat superbly from the sea, and neither offers much beyond its own region, so the choice is between two cuisines. In Cadiz the fish is fried: paper cones from the freidurías, shrimp tortillitas and marinated dogfish, plus almadraba bluefin tuna in the tapas bars of La Viña, all with a chilled manzanilla or fino.

Santiago keeps it simpler: octopus with paprika, scallops, razor clams and goose barnacles, with Padrón peppers, empanada and tetilla cheese, and Albariño to drink. Its granite Mercado de Abastos, where counters will cook what you have just bought, is a meal in itself, and tarta de Santiago gives the city a sweet to remember.

Santiago has the stronger sightseeing, even though Cadiz has the older story. Cadiz goes back to the Phoenicians and saw the signing of the 1812 constitution. You can climb the cathedral's bell tower, watch the rooftops in Torre Tavira's camera obscura and find the Roman theatre in the Barrio del Pópulo. Each is enjoyable, but they are separate visits rather than one great ensemble.

Santiago's cathedral, with the Pórtico da Gloria, the botafumeiro and the shrine of Saint James, opens onto the grand Praza do Obradoiro. The UNESCO-listed granite old town of arcades, monasteries and convent squares holds together around it. The Museo do Pobo Galego and the Cidade da Cultura add depth that Cadiz's museums do not quite match.

Neither city is a clubbing destination, and their evenings peak at opposite times of year. Cadiz is at its liveliest in summer, when late tapas in La Viña lead on to the terraces along Playa Victoria. In February, Carnival turns the whole city into a ten-day street party.

Santiago is busiest during the university term, with pub-like bars around Rúa da Raíña, Galician folk sessions and a big student Thursday night. In summer, when the students leave, the crowd is mostly pilgrims, and it goes to bed early.

Both have plenty of nature close by, but the landscapes could hardly be more different. Around Cadiz it is sun, wind and water: the flat salt pans of the Bahía de Cádiz full of flamingos and spoonbills, kitesurfing and whale-watching from Tarifa, and real mountain walking in the Sierra de Grazalema, with Doñana across the Guadalquivir.

Santiago is green and wet. Camino paths lead straight out of town through oak woods and stone-walled fields, and within a couple of hours lie the cliffs and lighthouses of the Costa da Morte and the ancient Fragas do Eume woodland. Bring a waterproof here and sun cream there.

Cadiz has the wider choice of outings. Jerez is half an hour away by train, a ferry crosses the bay to El Puerto de Santa María, and Seville is under two hours away. By car you can reach the hilltop towns of Vejer and Arcos, and the Roman ruins of Baelo Claudia beside Bolonia beach.

Santiago is a good base too. A Coruña's Tower of Hercules, Lugo's complete Roman walls, Ourense and Pontevedra are all easy by train, and the Rías Baixas wine country and Fisterra are a drive away. What it can't offer is a day in a great city like Seville, with a cathedral, a royal palace and whole quarters to wander. Porto is just too far for a comfortable return trip.

Cadiz is much easier with children. Playa Victoria is wide, sandy and has lifeguards, La Caleta is sheltered, and the flat, mostly car-free old town and the Alameda and Genovés parks suit pushchairs and children who want to run. Midday heat and the levante are the main things to plan around.

In Santiago the sights are mostly churches and museums, the cobbled lanes are hilly, and rain can keep everyone indoors for days. The aquarium in A Coruña helps, but most families will move on to the coast after a day or two.

Both centres are compact and best explored on foot, and both need a car for the countryside. The difference is the ground underfoot. Cadiz's old town is a flat grid closed to most traffic, buses run along the isthmus to the beach, and a catamaran crosses the bay.

Santiago's granite lanes have short climbs and turn slippery in the rain, but you can cross the centre in twenty minutes, and buses go to the station and the airport. Trains link both cities to their neighbours, but neither reaches the coast and villages well.

What you bring home from Cadiz comes from the Andalusian south: hand-painted fans, ceramics, flamenco dresses and bottles of sherry. The best places to look are the streets around Plaza de las Flores and the Mercado Central. For anything more ambitious, go to Seville.

Santiago's crafts have more history behind them. Black jet, the pilgrim's old amulet and often set in silver, is still sold on the Azabachería beside the cathedral. You will also find blue-and-white Sargadelos ceramics, and delicatessens selling tetilla cheese and tinned seafood. Expect plenty of scallop-shell trinkets alongside them, and an ordinary high street in the Ensanche.

Santiago is the slightly cheaper stay. Tapas often come free with a drink, set lunches are generous, entry to the cathedral is free, and pensiones and pilgrim hostels keep rooms affordable outside the feast of Saint James in July.

Cadiz is just as good for eating and drinking cheaply at freidurías and market counters. The cost is the room: the old town has few hotels, and they fill up and cost more in high summer and Carnival week. Staying near Playa Victoria or coming in spring or autumn makes a big difference.

Cadiz has more live music and theatre worth travelling for. It is one of the homes of flamenco, and the peñas of the Santa María quarter put on alegrías for audiences who know the art well. The Gran Teatro Falla hosts the satirical chirigotas at Carnival and an autumn festival of Ibero-American theatre.

Santiago's highlights are traditional bagpipe sessions in old-town bars and student tunas singing in the streets in black capes. It does have something Cadiz lacks: an orchestra, the Real Filharmonía de Galicia, which plays a season at the Auditorio de Galicia.

Cadiz relaxes you through its pace. Santiago does it through the hot springs around it. In Cadiz you walk the sea walls, sleep a siesta through the hottest hours and watch the sunset over La Caleta. For treatments you have to drive to the resort spas at Novo Sancti Petri or the Arab-style baths in Jerez.

Santiago itself is quiet once the day's pilgrims have arrived, but its real draw is the thermal water nearby. Caldas de Reis and Cuntis are old spa towns about half an hour away. Ourense's riverside thermal pools, some of them free, are about forty minutes by train, which makes a good rest for tired walking legs.