Coimbra or Toledo?

Neither is a beach destination, but Coimbra at least has one within reach. Figueira da Foz is about an hour away by train, with a very wide sandy beach and quieter stretches further north at Quiaios. It is the open Atlantic, cool and often windy, and in summer the river beaches in the hills offer calmer, warmer water.

Toledo sits deep in the Castilian interior, hours from any coast. Nobody swims in the Tagus gorge, so in summer you cool off in a hotel or municipal pool.

Both cook hearty inland food, but Coimbra eats better and more cheaply. Its signature is the suckling pig of nearby Mealhada, washed down with Bairrada sparkling wine, along with goat stewed in clay pots. Day to day you eat at family tascas serving set lunches, and the pastry shops sell convent sweets.

Toledo's dishes are partridge, game from the Montes de Toledo, carcamusas and Manchego, with marzipan as its sweet. The lanes by the cathedral are full of tourist set menus, so the good meals are a few streets away, where a drink near Zocodover still comes with a tapa.

Coimbra has a rich, compact hill of heritage. At the top is the old university with its gilded Biblioteca Joanina, and on the way down come the Romanesque Sé Velha, the Machado de Castro museum over its Roman cryptoportico, and Santa Cruz with the tombs of Portugal's first kings.

Toledo goes further. The whole old town is the monument, with Roman, Visigothic, Islamic, Jewish and Christian layers side by side. A cathedral hung with El Greco and Goya, two medieval synagogues, the mosque of Cristo de la Luz and El Greco's own paintings around Santo Tomé add up to a heritage set of real European importance.

Coimbra has the livelier nights, at least in term. Students fill the bars around Praça da República and the upper town until late, drinking spills into the squares, and the Queima das Fitas takes over the city in May. In July and August it goes much quieter.

Toledo's evenings are a late dinner and a round of tapas near Zocodover. Once the day-trippers leave, the old town falls quiet. That is pleasant if you want calm, but for a real night out you take the train to Madrid.

Coimbra is clearly the greener base. The Choupal woods and the botanical garden are in town, kayak trips run down the wooded Mondego valley, and the ancient trees of the Buçaco forest are half an hour north. The Serra da Lousã and, two hours away, the Serra da Estrela add real hill and mountain walking.

Toledo's best outdoor moment is the path around the Tagus gorge below the walls, with the classic view back from the cigarrales. Beyond that you get open plain, the low Montes de Toledo and the red deer of Cabañeros two hours away.

Both are excellent bases, with different kinds of trip. Coimbra sits on the Lisbon to Porto line, so Porto and the canals of Aveiro are easy by train. Conímbriga's Roman mosaics are just south, and Batalha, Alcobaça and Tomar's Convent of Christ make a run of great monasteries by car or coach.

Toledo's trump card is Madrid, half an hour away by high-speed train, with its galleries and royal palace. By road you have Aranjuez, El Escorial, the windmills of Consuegra and longer days to Segovia, Ávila or Cuenca.

The two are much alike for families. Both have steep, cobbled centres that are hard work with a pushchair, and both suit a short stay. Coimbra does better for small children, with the miniature houses of Portugal dos Pequenitos, a hands-on science centre and riverside parks to run around in.

Toledo appeals more to older children who like castles and swords. The Alcázar and the armour-filled shop windows help, and so does the history-show theme park on the outskirts. The fierce summer afternoons mean planning around a long midday break.

Both are walking cities built on hills, and in both the cobbles are the challenge. In Coimbra the climb from the Baixa to the university runs up stairways like the Quebra-Costas, eased by a public lift and a funicular. The main-line station connects easily to the centre.

Toledo's walled core can be crossed in twenty minutes, and public escalators lift you up from the car parks below. Its station lies across the river, though, a bus ride or a stiff walk from the sights.

Coimbra shops like a working town, while Toledo shops like a craft quarter. Coimbra's pedestrian Baixa streets, Rua Ferreira Borges and Rua Visconde da Luz, have everyday clothes, shoes and old-fashioned specialist shops. The best things to take home are hand-painted Coimbra faience and a bottle of Bairrada wine.

Toledo sells what it has made for centuries: damascene steel inlaid with gold thread, Toledo blades and armour, and painted ceramics from nearby Talavera. Much of the stock around the cathedral is souvenir quality, so it pays to find a workshop that makes its own. In both cities, bigger shopping means leaving the centre. For Coimbra that is the shopping centres on the edge of town, and for Toledo it is Madrid.

Coimbra is the cheaper stay. Its cafés, tascas and bars price for students, rooms near the old town are fair outside May's festival and graduation season, and the university ticket is the one real expense.

Toledo is moderate. The free tapa with a drink and the tavern set lunches help, but hotels inside the walls with Tagus views cost more, and separate entry fees for the cathedral, synagogues and El Greco sites add up over a day.

Coimbra has a performance tradition you cannot hear anywhere else: its own fado, sung by men in black academic capes with the Coimbra guitar. You can hear it in small old-town houses most evenings and in serenades on the steps of the Sé Velha. The Teatro Académico de Gil Vicente and the arts centre in the former Convent of São Francisco fill out the programme.

Toledo has the Teatro de Rojas, occasional organ music in the churches and the great Corpus Christi procession. On an ordinary night, though, there is little on.

Coimbra has the edge because central Portugal's old spa country is half an hour away. Luso has a thermal spa below Buçaco, and Curia has a Belle Époque thermal park, either of which makes a restful day or overnight trip.

Toledo's options are a few Arab-style bath houses and hotel spas in vaulted rooms. Its real calm comes early and late, when the tour groups have gone and the terraces over the Tagus are quiet.