Coimbra or Jerez de la Frontera?

Jerez is much the better choice for swimming. Valdelagrana and El Puerto de Santa María are minutes away, and Cádiz with La Caleta is about half an hour by train. In August the sea is warm enough for long swims rather than quick dips.

From Coimbra, the beach means an hour's trip to Figueira da Foz, where the Atlantic is colder and often rough. On hot days the river beaches in the hills to the east are the gentler local alternative.

Jerez has the deeper food culture, because sherry runs through all of it. You can taste fino and oloroso in the bodegas and drink it from the barrel in the tabancos, and the kitchens cook kidneys and oxtail in it. Prawns and fried fish come in from the coast, and Sanlúcar is close by.

Coimbra's cooking is honest and hearty but narrow. Most of it is tasca set lunches in the Baixa, with suckling pig the reason to drive out to Mealhada, and convent pastries when you want something sweet.

Coimbra has the stronger set of sights, layered on one hill. The UNESCO-listed university and its baroque Joanina library sit at the top, the Romanesque Sé Velha and a museum built over a Roman cryptoportico come next, and the royal tombs at Santa Cruz lie below. Across the river is a Gothic convent half dug out of silt.

Jerez offers a pleasant Almohad Alcázar and some fine Mudéjar churches. Its real distinction is living heritage rather than monuments: the barrel-filled bodegas and the dressage horses of the Royal Andalusian School.

Neither city is a serious clubbing destination, and their nights follow different calendars. Coimbra's run on the academic year: student bars around Praça da República are full in term and quiet in July and August, and the Queima das Fitas takes over the city in May. Jerez keeps the Andalusian clock all year, with dinner late, tabanco and copa-bar rounds past midnight, and the Feria del Caballo going until dawn in May.

Both have fine countryside within reach, but of different kinds. Around Coimbra it is green and wooded: the Choupal by the river, kayaking down the Mondego valley, the ancient trees of Buçaco half an hour away, and slate villages in the Serra da Lousã.

Jerez sits in gentler, sunbaked vineyard country, with the drama further out. The limestone gorges of Grazalema, the cork-oak forests and the Doñana wetlands for birds all reward a car. Riding and kitesurfing are easier here than anything comparable near Coimbra.

Both are excellent bases. Coimbra's strength is the rail line: Porto and Aveiro are each about an hour or less away, and Conímbriga's mosaics are on the doorstep. By road you can reach the great monasteries of Batalha, Alcobaça and Tomar.

From Jerez, Seville and Cádiz are easy by train, and the sherry towns of El Puerto and Sanlúcar are close. The cliff-top white towns from Arcos to Ronda make the best road trips, so a hired car pays off.

Coimbra's old town is a climb on cobbles and stairways, which is hard work with a pushchair, but the city has two things built for children. Across the river, Portugal dos Pequenitos has miniature houses and monuments at their height, and the Exploratório by the Mondego is a hands-on science centre. When they need to run, there is the botanical garden or the Choupal woods.

In Jerez the centre is flat and easy with a buggy, but less in town is made for children. The zoo and botanical garden is one of the better ones in Spain, and the dressage horses at the equestrian school usually win children over. In summer, the wide, gently shelving beaches nearby make up for the heat in town, which in July and August is too much for long days of sightseeing.

Both are compact enough to walk, but how the walk feels is the difference. In Coimbra every visit involves the climb from the Baixa up to the university, eased in places by a lift and a funicular. Jerez's centre is level, with the bodegas, Alcázar and tapas streets a short stroll apart and the airport a few minutes away by train. In both, a car opens up the countryside that buses serve poorly.

Neither is a shopping destination, and what you take home is defined by the region. Coimbra offers hand-painted faience, convent sweets and Bairrada wine from its Baixa streets and market. In Jerez the buys are sherry and brandy from the bodegas, leather riding boots and saddlery from the horse trade, and flamenco dresses and guitars.

On cost the two are level. Both are among the cheaper cities in Western Europe for a short stay, and both have centres small enough that you rarely spend anything on getting about. The difference is where the savings come from. In Coimbra the large student population keeps everyday eating and drinking cheap almost anywhere in the centre, and only the university visit on the hill asks for real money. In Jerez the cheap things are the reasons you came: sherry by the glass and bodega visits cost little.

Both cities get dearer around their festivals, and in both the big one falls in May, with the end of the student year in Coimbra and the horse fair in Jerez. Coimbra's other busy spell is graduation. Jerez has more of these weeks spread through the year, with the winter flamenco festival and motorcycle racing at the nearby circuit, so check your dates there before you book.

Jerez has the richer live scene. Flamenco there is still a local art, heard close up in the peñas of Santiago and San Miguel and in the tabancos. The winter festival at the Teatro Villamarta draws major dancers.

Coimbra's draw is its own gentler fado, sung by caped students with the Coimbra guitar in small old-town houses. Beyond that it offers a modest university programme of theatre and touring concerts.

Neither city has a bathing tradition of its own, but Coimbra has a slight edge because Portugal's old spa country is close. You can reach the thermal waters of Luso and the Belle Époque park at Curia for a restful day or a night away. Jerez has only an Arab-style bathhouse and some hotel spas, so slowing down there means shaded patios and long afternoons.