Casablanca or Lagos, Portugal?

Lagos has the far better beaches. Small coves of golden sand such as Camilo and Dona Ana lie below sea stacks within walking distance of the old town, and they are sheltered and clear in summer. East of the river, Meia Praia gives you about 4km of open shore with room to spare.

Casablanca's sand at Ain Diab faces a heavy swell with risky currents, and the water quality along the city front varies. A better beach day there means driving out to Dar Bouazza or Bouznika. The sea off Casablanca is a little warmer, but in Lagos the beach is the trip, while in Casablanca it fills an afternoon.

Both are ports where grilled sardines are everyday food, but Casablanca gives you more to eat. You can choose fish at the Marché Central and have it grilled next door, eat tagine and Friday couscous, and buy msemen from street stalls. The French-influenced brasseries and pâtisseries of Maarif and Gauthier add range.

In Lagos, good eating means charcoal-grilled fish, cataplana and cheap local wine. You have to look past the photo menus in the old-town lanes to the family places a street back and the grills by the harbour.

Casablanca has more to see. The Hassan II Mosque is one of the few in Morocco that non-Muslims can enter, and the downtown boulevards are lined with Art Deco and neo-Moorish buildings. Add the 1930s Habous quarter and the Museum of Moroccan Judaism, and you have two or three full days.

Lagos's history is older but smaller in scale. It covers the walls from the era of the voyages of discovery, the gilded baroque inside the Church of Santo António and the sobering slave market museum, all in a morning on foot.

Lagos is the livelier place for an evening out, though only in summer. Its old-town lanes fill with surfers and backpackers moving between small bars and pubs, and a few small clubs stay open until near dawn. From November it goes quiet.

Casablanca works the other way. It has little street life, but the Corniche at Ain Diab has smart lounges and clubs playing house and Arabic pop for a well-dressed local crowd, mostly at weekends, and you take a taxi between venues. Choose Lagos for bar-hopping and Casablanca for a dressed-up night of music.

Here Lagos is far ahead. You can paddle a kayak through the arches and grottoes of Ponta da Piedade, walk the cliffs west to Luz and Burgau, follow the Fishermen's Trail on the Costa Vicentina, or head into the wooded Serra de Monchique about an hour inland.

Casablanca sits on a flat coastal plain. Outdoor life there means runs along the Corniche towards El Hank lighthouse, eucalyptus trails in the Bouskoura forest and learner surf at Ain Diab. Both places suit beginner surfers, but only Lagos has real landscape on its doorstep.

The day trips are about equally good but very different. From Casablanca they are city trips by rail: Rabat's Kasbah des Oudayas and the Chellah are about an hour away by train, and the Portuguese cistern at El Jadida and whitewashed Azemmour lie down the coast.

From Lagos the best outings are to landscape and castles. You can drive to the clifftop fortress at Sagres and Cape St Vincent, or to Silves with its red sandstone Moorish castle. Most of them need a car.

Lagos is much easier with children. Meia Praia slopes gently into the sea, the town is calm and safe, and boat trips to the grottoes and evenings by the marina go down well. The steep stairs down to the coves and the cobbled lanes are the main nuisances for parents with pushchairs.

Children are just as welcome in Casablanca, which has a large aquarium in the Corniche mall and beach-club pools. But the heavy traffic, the broken pavements and the risky sea make it a better fit for a few days with older children.

Inside town, Lagos is simpler. The old town, the marina and the nearest coves are all within about half an hour on foot, with a footbridge across the river to Meia Praia. Casablanca is too spread out to walk, so you combine the tram with petits taxis that are often shared, and crossing the big roundabouts on foot takes nerve.

Beyond town it is the other way round. From Casablanca, fast trains reach Rabat and the rest of Morocco. Lagos sits at the slow end of the Algarve railway line, and most visitors hire a car.

Casablanca is the stronger place to shop. It has the country's biggest mall on the Corniche, local designers in Maarif, leather, brass and spices in the calm Habous quarter, and the jumble of Derb Ghallef. Carpets are a weaker area.

Lagos is for browsing while you stroll. Look for hand-painted Algarve ceramics, cork goods, surf gear, and honey and medronho from the market, but there is no fashion or luxury shopping.

Casablanca is the cheaper of the two day to day. Trams, taxis, market fish and café terraces cost little, although business hotels push room prices up and good guesthouses are scarce.

Lagos is priced like an average Western European town, and in July and August beachside rooms and main-street restaurants charge resort rates. From October to May it becomes much better value, which suits long walking or surfing stays.

Casablanca has more on stage. A large theatre on Place Mohammed V hosts concerts and dance, a long-running jazz festival and an urban music festival come round each year, and the city is a home of chaabi, rap and gnawa. Still, check the programme for your dates.

Lagos has a small municipal cultural centre, plus fado evenings and cover bands in summer. For serious concerts you would need to travel to Lisbon.

For treatments, Casablanca is ahead. Every neighbourhood has a public hammam for a black-soap scrub, there are calmer spa versions in Maarif, and Corniche centres offer seawater thalassotherapy. The city around them, though, is loud and full of traffic.

Lagos offers rest rather than ritual. Off-season it has long lunches, sunset walks on the cliffs and yoga retreats towards Luz, and the old thermal springs of Caldas de Monchique lie an hour inland.