Chefchaouen or Ronda?

Neither town is a place to swim, and in both the nearest sea is a winding drive of an hour or more. What you find there is different. From Chefchaouen it is the long grey-sand beach at Oued Laou, with a small village behind it, reached by grand taxi. From Ronda it is the long, sandy and heavily built-up Costa del Sol near Estepona, which is hard to reach without a car.

To cool off nearer town, Chefchaouen has the cold, shallow river pools at Akchour. In Ronda people use the pools at hotels and rural houses.

Ronda eats better. Its Serranía cooking has more range: oxtail stew, game, cured hams, mushrooms and chestnuts in autumn, and local wine with tastings at nearby wineries. The tapas bars of the Mercadillo also make an evening of grazing easy.

Chefchaouen's restaurants around Outa el-Hammam serve much the same tagines and couscous, and alcohol is scarce. The good things are small and local: Rif goat cheese wrapped in palm leaf, bissara for breakfast and bread from the communal ovens. A few days covers the menu in either town, but in Chefchaouen you reach that point sooner.

In both towns the town itself is the main sight, but Ronda has more to visit between the views. The Tajo gorge and the Puente Nuevo are dramatic, and close by are the Real Maestranza bullring and its museum, the Arab baths, the Mondragón palace and Santa María la Mayor.

Chefchaouen gives you its blue medina, made for slow wandering with a camera, and the kasbah with its small museum is the only formal visit. The two towns share some history: Andalusian refugees helped settle Chefchaouen after its founding in 1471, and Ronda fell to Castile in 1485.

Evenings in Chefchaouen end early. After dinner comes mint tea in the square and a stroll through the lit lanes, then the medina falls silent, and the only drink is in one of a couple of hotel bars.

Ronda stays up later, especially in summer, when tapas and late dinners keep the Plaza del Socorro and the streets around it busy and a few bars serve a drink afterwards. There is almost no club scene, though, so expect a long evening out rather than a night out.

Both are mountain towns where the walking starts at the edge of town, but Ronda's countryside is more varied and easier to explore. You have Grazalema's crags and vultures, the Spanish fir forests of the Sierra de las Nieves, the climbing cliffs of the Tajo, and the Caminito del Rey about an hour away. That is enough for a week of different outings.

Chefchaouen's Rif is wilder and less organised. There is the climb past the Spanish Mosque towards Jebel el-Kelaa, the gorge walk from Akchour to God's Bridge, and cedar forests with Barbary macaques. Trails are poorly marked, so most walkers take a local guide.

Day trips are where Ronda pulls clearly ahead. Setenil de las Bodegas, Grazalema, Zahara de la Sierra, the Roman ruins of Acinipo and the Pileta cave are all close. Seville, Málaga and Gibraltar make long but manageable days, especially with a hire car.

From Chefchaouen there is really one strong outing: Tetouan and its UNESCO-listed medina, with Martil just beyond. Quiet Ouezzane is the alternative. Fes and Tangier are better treated as the next stop on a route.

Chefchaouen gives children car-free lanes and locals who make a fuss of them. Ronda gives them more sights with a bit of thrill. In Chefchaouen the river pools at Akchour are the outing older children remember most, but the stepped lanes rule out a pushchair, and parents should expect offers of hashish in the lanes.

Ronda's steep cobbles are almost as hard on a pushchair, and some viewpoints are high and exposed. Older children get the bridge, the path down into the gorge, the rock stairway at the Casa del Rey Moro and the caves nearby, and they can stay out late in the squares as Spanish children do. A country house with a pool makes the easiest base.

Both are walking towns with steep lanes, though Chefchaouen's polished stairways are harder on knees and luggage. The bigger difference is getting in and out. Ronda has a railway station and buses to Málaga and Seville, and a hire car opens up the hills. Chefchaouen has no railway, so you arrive by long-distance bus or by road and rely on grand taxis or a hired driver beyond town.

Chefchaouen is the better place to buy something to take home. Its lanes sell Rif blankets and weavings, djellabas, leather slippers and baskets, much of it made in the region, sometimes on looms in the shopfront, and the haggling is gentle.

Ronda has ordinary shops along Carrera Espinel and souvenirs near the bridge. Its best buys are things to eat and drink: local wine, cured meats, olive oil and convent sweets.

Chefchaouen is the cheaper stay by a clear margin. Riads and guesthouses, meals in the square and shared taxis to the valleys all cost little, and the town's main attraction costs nothing to see.

Ronda is good value for Spain, with fairly priced tapas and set lunches in the Mercadillo. Hotels with gorge views, Easter and the September fair push costs up, though, and most visitors also pay for a hire car.

Ronda has a little more to watch in the evening. There is flamenco in small venues, an occasional programme at the municipal theatre and, at the September fair, the Corrida Goyesca in the old bullring. Chefchaouen has no venues at all, only occasional Andalusian music around festivals and the call to prayer over the rooftops.

Chefchaouen is the better choice for a slow, restful stay. Its neighbourhood hammams offer a proper steam and scrub. Roof terraces, mint tea and the Ras el-Maa spring set a pace that keeps people longer than they planned, though polished spa treatments are rare.

Ronda's Arab baths are a monument to visit, not somewhere to bathe, and pampering means one of a few hotel spas. For rest, Ronda's strength is the farmhouses in the hills around it, with pools and olive groves.