Cascais or Santiago de Compostela?

Cascais is a beach town in a way Santiago is not. Conceição, Duquesa and Rainha lie right below the old centre and the promenade carries on to Estoril. Carcavelos and its surf are a few stops away by train, so a swim fits easily around everything else.

Santiago is inland, and its white sands on the Ría de Muros e Noia and the Ría de Arousa are about 35km away by bus or car. Both seas are cold Atlantic, a degree or two cooler in Galicia, so neither suits long days in warm water.

Both cities cook from the Atlantic, but Santiago does it with more depth. It has Galician octopus, scallops in the shell, razor clams and percebes. In the granite Mercado de Abastos, some counters will cook what you buy, and the taverns of Rúa do Franco pour Albariño. Here, eating is a main reason to come.

Cascais is good for grilled sardines and bream from its own harbour, or a long seafood lunch on the road to Guincho. But the old centre relies on tourist menus, and keen eaters take the train to Lisbon for dinner.

This is Santiago's strongest card. The cathedral has the Pórtico da Gloria and the shrine of Saint James. Around it are the grand square of the Obradoiro and a UNESCO-listed granite old town, which together fill two or three days. The Museo do Pobo Galego and the Cidade da Cultura add more.

Cascais has charm on a smaller scale: royal-era villas along the seafront, the Citadel, and Paula Rego's paintings in the red pyramid towers of the Casa das Histórias. A day covers it, and the major monuments are in Lisbon and Sintra.

Neither is a place for big clubs, but Santiago has more going on after dark. During term the university fills the bars around Rúa da Raíña and the Praza de Cervantes, and folk sessions turn up in pub-like rooms. Spanish hours keep a few old-town clubs open until morning, though summer is quieter once the students leave.

Cascais has wine bars and cocktail terraces in a few old-town streets, plus the casino at Estoril, and is mostly asleep by midnight. A proper night out means Lisbon and watching the time of the last train back.

Cascais has the more dramatic outdoors, starting at its door. The coastal path runs past Boca do Inferno and the dunes to Guincho, where kitesurfers and surfers make use of the wind and waves. The cliffs at Cabo da Roca and the misty forest trails of the Serra de Sintra are close by.

Santiago offers gentler green country: Camino paths leading out of town, oak woods and stone-walled fields, and parks with views over the roofs. Its wilder places, the Costa da Morte and the Fragas do Eume, need a drive of an hour or more, and rain is a constant companion.

Both make good bases, but Cascais has the bigger prizes close at hand. Lisbon is about forty minutes away on the coastal train and Sintra's palaces about half an hour over the ridge. Mafra, Ericeira and Óbidos are an easy drive.

From Santiago the outings are to Galician towns. A Coruña and its Roman lighthouse are half an hour by train, and Pontevedra, Vigo, Ourense and walled Lugo are also within reach, with the Albariño villages and the Costa da Morte by car. It is a fine circuit, but there is no capital city on the doorstep.

Cascais is the easier place with young children. Shallow, sheltered coves, a flat promenade for scooters and pushchairs, and the peacocks and playground of the Marechal Carmona park fill most days. The zoo and the Oceanarium mean a train to Lisbon.

Santiago is safe and welcomes children late into the evening. But its sights are churches and museums, the cobbled streets climb, and rain can wipe out several days. Most families see it quickly and head for A Coruña's aquarium or the coast.

Both are easy on foot, in different ways. Cascais stretches along the shore, so walking means a flat seafront path between coves, and the coastal train runs straight into Lisbon. Buses to Guincho and the hills are slower, and a car helps for a wider tour.

Santiago is compact rather than spread out. You can cross the whole old town in about twenty minutes, over granite that turns slippery in the rain and with some short climbs. Trains link the Galician cities well, but the beaches and wine villages need a car or a tour.

Neither is a shopping destination, and the difference is in what you bring home. Cascais leans towards beachwear, surf brands and Portuguese gifts such as azulejo tiles, cork and decorative tins of fish, with Lisbon for anything serious. Santiago sells pilgrim crafts, among a great many scallop-shell souvenirs: black jet set in silver in the Azabachería, Sargadelos ceramics, and tetilla cheese and tarta de Santiago from the delicatessens.

Santiago is clearly the cheaper stay. Free tapas with a drink, generous set lunches, free entry to the cathedral and plenty of pensiones and pilgrim hostels keep daily costs low. Rooms climb mainly around the feast of Saint James in July.

Cascais is an upmarket resort, and its seafront hotels and harbour restaurants are expensive for Portugal, above all in July and August. Back-street cafés and the cheap train help, and coming outside high summer saves the most.

Santiago has more to hear. The Real Filharmonía de Galicia plays at the Auditorio de Galicia, and two theatres stage drama in Galician and Spanish. Bagpipe sessions and student tunas in their black capes give the old town a sound of its own.

Cascais offers plays in Portuguese from the Teatro Experimental, cabaret at the Estoril casino and summer jazz on the coast. For fado, opera or an orchestra, you go to Lisbon.

Cascais has a slight edge for resting without leaving town. Estoril grew up around its thermal springs, and that spa past lives on in thalassotherapy and hotel spas. Quiet mornings on the seafront and yoga by the sea in summer suit an unhurried break, though summer weekends bring traffic from Lisbon.

In Santiago, the calm comes from slow evenings under the arcades. The real bathing is outside the city, in the old spa towns of Caldas de Reis and Cuntis or at Ourense's riverside thermal pools, a good outing for tired walking legs.