Casablanca or Malaga?

Malaga is the better beach city by a distance. La Malagueta is a short walk from the old town, the shore runs on through Pedregalejo and El Palo where families settle in for the afternoon, and the suburban train reaches the resort beaches of Torremolinos and Fuengirola. For clear water and coves, Nerja and Maro are about an hour east.

Casablanca's sand at Ain Diab faces the open Atlantic, where strong swell and currents make swimming something to do with care. Many locals use the pools of the beach clubs instead, or drive out to Dar Bouazza or Bouznika for a better day. Here the beach fills a spare afternoon, while in Malaga it can shape the whole trip.

Both are port cities where fish is the best thing to eat, but Malaga makes it easier to eat well casually. Its evening is a walk from tapas bar to tapas bar around Plaza de la Merced, with espetos of sardines grilled on the beach at El Palo and sweet moscatel poured from the barrel at old bodegas.

Casablanca's strengths are different: picking fish at the Marché Central and having it grilled next door, Friday couscous, msemen from street stalls in the Old Medina, and French-style pâtisseries in Gauthier. It cooks a little behind Morocco's imperial cities, and wine stays discreetly out of sight.

Malaga packs more into its small centre. A Roman theatre sits below the Moorish Alcazaba, Gibralfaro castle looks over the port, and the Picasso Museum, the Carmen Thyssen and the Museo de Malaga give the city real depth in painting.

Casablanca has one great monument in the Hassan II Mosque, which non-Muslims can enter on a guided tour, and otherwise its interest is twentieth-century: Art Deco and neo-Moorish buildings along Boulevard Mohammed V, the white former Sacré-Cœur cathedral and the 1930s Habous quarter. Both reward about two days, but Malaga's days are fuller.

Malaga's nights happen in the street. After a late dinner the old town around Plaza de la Merced and Calle Granada fills with people moving between terraces and small bars, and on summer weekends this lasts well past two. Bigger clubs and the gay scene are a short train ride away in Torremolinos.

Casablanca goes out more than any other Moroccan city, but behind closed doors. The evening means dressed-up lounges and beach clubs on the Ain Diab Corniche, hotel bars downtown and a taxi between each, with almost no life on the streets after dark.

This is where the two cities differ most. Malaga has hills straight behind it in the Montes de Malaga, the Caminito del Rey gorge walkway and El Torcal's limestone plateau about an hour inland, coastal cliffs at Maro for kayaking, and the Sierra Nevada for winter skiing.

Casablanca is flat. Its outdoor life comes down to the Corniche promenade, learner surf breaks at Ain Diab and Dar Bouazza, and eucalyptus trails in the Bouskoura forest. The Atlas mountains are too far for a day out.

Malaga is one of the strongest bases in southern Spain. Fast trains put the Mezquita of Cordoba about an hour away and Granada's Alhambra an hour and a half, while Ronda, Antequera's dolmens, Nerja and Frigiliana and the white villages fill out a long list.

Casablanca has fewer good options but a very good first choice. Rabat, with the Kasbah des Oudayas and the Chellah ruins, is an hour by train, and the Portuguese sea walls of El Jadida and the riverside medina of Azemmour lie down the coast. Marrakech and Fes sit too far away for a comfortable return trip.

Malaga is much easier with children. The city beaches shelve into calm water, the centre is flat and largely free of cars, and children are welcome late into the evening in the squares and tapas bars. The Bioparc in Fuengirola and the Sea Life and dolphin park in Benalmadena are a train ride along the coast.

Casablanca is warm towards children and has the aquarium in the Corniche mall and the old park at Ain Diab. Beyond those, the traffic, broken pavements and dangerous Atlantic currents make it best for a few days with older children.

In Malaga most of what a visitor wants is on foot. The cathedral, museums, market, port and beach all sit close together in a flat centre, and the suburban train reaches the airport in about ten minutes and runs on along the coast.

Casablanca is large and spread out, so every day involves the tram or a red petit taxi, with shared rides and a meter that is not always switched on. The Hassan II Mosque and the Corniche are a long way from the Art Deco centre on foot, and the traffic is hard work. Both have good trains onward, to Rabat in one case and to Cordoba and Madrid in the other.

The two are close here, and the difference is in what you buy. Casablanca has the deepest modern retail in Morocco, with a vast mall on the Corniche, Maarif's fashion streets, Derb Ghallef's sprawling flea market, and crafts such as leather, brass lamps and babouches in the calm shops of the Habous quarter.

Malaga's centre is the marble pedestrian Calle Larios lined with Spanish chains, plus a few independent shops in Soho. The best things to take home are edible: olive oil, almonds, cured ham and sweet wine from the Atarazanas market.

Casablanca is the cheaper place to spend a few days. Taxis, the tram, grilled fish at the market and mint tea on a terrace cost very little. The catch is the rooms, since many hotels are aimed at business travellers and good guesthouses are scarce.

Malaga is good value for Western Europe at the table, with tapas, fried fish and local transport all fairly priced. Rooms in the old town and near the beach are in heavy demand from spring to autumn. In both cities the budget traveller saves most by eating where locals do.

Malaga has a slight edge for a visitor on an ordinary week. The Teatro Cervantes hosts the Malaga Philharmonic, flamenco is performed nightly in tablaos and more genuinely in local peñas, and Semana Santa fills the streets with brass bands and processions.

Casablanca's live culture runs on highlights: a long-running jazz festival, an urban music and hip-hop festival and the big theatre on Place Mohammed V. Its chaabi, rap and gnawa scenes are rich but harder for an outsider to find, so check what is on before planning around it.

Casablanca has a real bathing culture. The neighbourhood hammam, with its black soap and kessa glove scrub, is daily life here, there are calmer spa hammams in Maarif, and thalassotherapy centres on the Corniche use Atlantic seawater. The noisy city around them is the drawback.

Malaga has only one Arab-style bathhouse in the old town, plus hotel and golf resort spas towards Marbella. Its restfulness comes more from the rhythm of the place: long lunches, a siesta and an evening walk along the Paseo Maritimo, especially in mild winter.