Casablanca or Rabat?

Neither city is a beach destination, and both face the same strong Atlantic swell, so swimming means staying close to shore. Where they differ is the setting. Casablanca's sand runs below the beach clubs of the Corniche at Ain Diab, where many people swim in private pools rather than the sea, and the better beaches at Dar Bouazza and Bouznika need a drive.

Rabat's city beach lies right under the kasbah walls at the river mouth and belongs to football, surf lessons and family outings. The calmer, cleaner sand is south at Harhoura, Temara and Skhirat, a short taxi ride away.

Both cook the same Moroccan home food, with tagines, Friday couscous, harira and grilled sardines, and Atlantic seafood as the best thing on the table. Casablanca has more range: you can pick fish at the Marché Central and have it grilled next door, Maarif and Gauthier keep up a solid mid-range and upscale scene, and alcohol is a little easier to find.

Rabat eats more quietly, in simple medina eateries, plain seafood places by the port and the river, and terrace cafés with almond and honey pastries. Its embassy districts of Agdal and Hassan add French and Lebanese kitchens.

Rabat is the richer city for sightseeing. Its monuments are UNESCO-listed as a whole and cover nearly two thousand years, from the Roman and Marinid ruins of the Chellah, full of fig trees and storks, to the blue-and-white Kasbah of the Udayas and the unfinished Hassan Tower beside the Mohammed V Mausoleum.

Casablanca has one great monument, the Hassan II Mosque, which non-Muslims can visit on a guided tour. Beyond that its story is twentieth-century, told in the Art Deco and neo-Moorish boulevards downtown, the 1930s Habous quarter and the Museum of Moroccan Judaism. Each takes two or three days, but Rabat's days are fuller.

Casablanca is the clear choice for going out. The Corniche at Ain Diab has lounges, beach clubs and clubs playing house and Arabic pop until late at weekends, and Maarif and Gauthier add cocktail lounges and old protectorate-era bars. You take taxis between them, because there is no street to wander from bar to bar.

In Rabat an evening means a walk along the river and a café terrace, with drinks in hotel bars and a few lounges in Agdal. Anyone in Rabat who wants to dance usually heads down the coast to Casablanca.

Neither city has hills, but Rabat has more to do outdoors. The Bou Regreg estuary suits rowing and paddling, the Maamora cork oak forest has easy walking and cycling, and the lake reserve at Sidi Boughaba and the Bouknadel gardens draw birdwatchers.

Casablanca's outdoors is mostly the sea: runs along the Corniche towards the El Hank lighthouse, surf breaks at Ain Diab and Dar Bouazza for learners, and the shaded eucalyptus trails of the Bouskoura forest.

Both make good bases, and each is the other's best day out, about an hour apart by train. Rabat has a slight edge because the high-speed line north puts Tangier and Asilah within easy reach, Meknes is a manageable two hours, and Salé is just across the river by tram.

Casablanca looks south along the coast instead, to the Portuguese cistern and sea walls of El Jadida, the whitewashed riverside medina of Azemmour and the oyster lagoon at Oualidia.

Rabat is the easier city with children, mainly because it is calm. The medina has little hassle, the tram covers the distances, and the national zoo with its open enclosures and the Jardin d'Essais give children space to run.

Casablanca has more that is built for children, with the aquarium and indoor rides in the Corniche mall, the old amusement park at Ain Diab and calm beach-club pools. The traffic, broken pavements and long distances between these places make every outing more effort.

Rabat is much simpler to get around. The medina, the kasbah, the Hassan Tower and the Ville Nouvelle are within walking distance of one another on broad, flat streets, and the tram and blue petits taxis cover the Chellah, Agdal and Salé.

In Casablanca, walking works downtown but not much beyond it. The mosque and the Corniche are a long way out, the big roundabouts are hard to cross, and visitors combine the tram with red petits taxis whose drivers share rides and sometimes ignore the meter. Both cities have central stations on the national rail network.

The two are good for opposite kinds of shopping. Casablanca is Morocco's modern retail capital, with a vast mall on the Corniche, Maarif's fashion streets and local designers, a tidy crafts row in the Habous quarter and the Derb Ghallef flea market for curiosities.

Rabat is the place for traditional crafts, above all the covered Rue des Consuls with its carpet dealers, leather and brass, and the city's own dense, deep-coloured pile carpets. Haggling is gentle there, and Salé's pottery is close by. Its mall and the Agdal high streets are useful rather than a reason to visit.

Day-to-day costs are much the same. Taxis, trams, café terraces and market food are cheap in both, and rooms are the expensive part, since both cities have more business hotels than budget guesthouses. Rabat's main sights charge little or nothing, while in Casablanca the costs to watch are the mosque tour and the dining and drinks along the Corniche.

Neither city has much on in an ordinary week, so the festival calendar matters more than the venues. Casablanca's highlights are its long-running jazz festival and a festival of urban music and hip-hop that came out of the city's own rap and chaabi scene.

Rabat has the national stages, the Mohammed V National Theatre and the Grand Theatre on the Bou Regreg, and hosts Mawazine, which brings international pop stars alongside Gnawa, Arab and African musicians to open-air stages across the city.

Both offer the full hammam ritual, from neighbourhood bathhouses with black soap and the kessa glove to quieter hotel spas. Casablanca adds seawater thalassotherapy along the Corniche, but once you leave the spa the city is loud and full of traffic.

Rabat's advantage is its pace. Quiet medina lanes, the Andalusian garden inside the kasbah and evening walks along the river make the whole stay feel unhurried.