Costa del Sol or Ibiza?

Ibiza has the finer swimming. Its coast is a string of coves where offshore seagrass keeps the water turquoise and clear: sandbars at Cala Comte, dunes at Ses Salines and pine-backed inlets in the north. Formentera's Ses Illetes is half an hour away by ferry.

The Costa del Sol offers length rather than beauty. Coarse grey-gold sand runs almost without a break from Nerja to Estepona, lined with sunbeds and chiringuitos and packed at Torremolinos and Fuengirola in high summer. For Ibiza-like water, go to the coves below the cliffs at Maro.

The Costa del Sol eats better and more easily. Sardine espetos grilled in sand-filled boats, the old fishing districts of Pedregalejo and El Palo, barrel-wine taverns and the Atarazanas market make Málaga a proper food city. Marbella adds fine dining.

Ibiza has its own island cooking, such as bullit de peix and flaó, but you have to look for it in country restaurants around Santa Gertrudis. The coast leans towards expensive beach lunches and marina dinners, and there is little market life.

Málaga gives the mainland coast the edge. Moorish fortress walls climb above a Roman theatre, and the museum list runs from Picasso to a Pompidou branch on the port. Nerja's painted cave and Marbella's old town add a little more along the coast.

Ibiza's heritage is older in places but smaller. The Renaissance walls of Dalt Vila and the Phoenician tombs of Puig des Molins share a UNESCO listing, and the fortified village churches are worth seeing. Most people finish it all in a day or two.

Ibiza is in a league of its own for clubbing. Big rooms open every night from late spring, the world's best-known DJs hold residencies, and evenings move from sunset bars in Sant Antoni to boat parties to dancing past dawn. Once the season ends, most clubs close.

The Costa del Sol has a wider spread of styles: yacht-and-champagne Puerto Banús, the long-established gay scene in Torremolinos and cheap bar strips in Fuengirola. Málaga's late tapas terraces keep going all year, which Ibiza cannot match in winter.

The Costa del Sol wins on landscape, thanks to the mountains just behind it. You can wade up the Río Chíllar gorge above Nerja, climb La Concha behind Marbella, walk the fir forests of the Sierra de las Nieves, or go inland to the Caminito del Rey and the eroded rocks of El Torcal.

Ibiza is low and gentle, and its best scenery is along the coast, especially at Cala d'Hort facing Es Vedrà. Its real strength is under the water, with clear sea for diving, snorkelling and kayaking along the cliffs.

This is the biggest gap between the two. From Málaga the high-speed train reaches Córdoba in about an hour and Seville in about two, and Granada's Alhambra, Ronda and Gibraltar are all within driving range. White villages such as Frigiliana and Casares make easy half-days.

Ibiza has one real outing: the ferry to Formentera's flat lanes and long beaches. Beyond that there are the inland villages and the hippy markets near Es Canar.

The Costa del Sol is built for children. Between Torremolinos and Fuengirola you will find a tropical-forest zoo, an aquarium, a marine park, water parks and a cable car up Mount Calamorro, and Estepona has a drive-through safari park.

Ibiza can work well for a beach-only family vacation, with calm, shallow bays around Santa Eulària and Cala Llonga. Beyond that there is little aimed at children, and parts of the island are dominated by the nightlife.

They are about equally easy, in different ways. The Costa del Sol has a railway: the commuter line links the airport, Málaga and the resorts as far as Fuengirola, and high-speed trains run inland from Málaga. Beyond that, slow coastal buses take over.

Ibiza is small, with nowhere much more than 45 minutes from Ibiza Town, and summer night buses serve the clubs. In both places the coves, villages and trails really need a car, and August roads and parking test anyone's patience.

The Costa del Sol offers more choice. Calle Larios has the Spanish chains and a national department store, Puerto Banús lines up luxury labels for the yacht crowd, and you can take home almonds, olive oil and sweet wine from the Atarazanas.

Ibiza has the more distinctive style: loose white Adlib linen and boho clothing in Santa Gertrudis and below Dalt Vila, plus the hippy markets. Outside those, it is mostly beachwear and souvenirs.

The mainland coast is much kinder to a budget. Marbella can be steep, but the package resorts are full of mid-range apartments, beach-grill fish and weekday set lunches are fair, and the trains and buses cost little.

Ibiza in summer is among the most expensive places in the Mediterranean, with costly rooms, club entry, drinks, sunbeds and scarce taxis. East-coast apartments, inland country restaurants and June or late-September dates soften the bill, but only a little.

Málaga gives the Costa del Sol a real stage. The nineteenth-century Teatro Cervantes hosts the city orchestra, opera and dance, and the flamenco peñas put on weekend nights for aficionados that are far more genuine than resort dinner shows.

Ibiza's music is played by DJs rather than live performers. Live music there means summer open-air concerts, terrace jazz and folk dancing at village festivals, with nothing in the way of opera or theatre.

The two are close on rest and relaxation, but they offer it differently. Ibiza's version is the retreat: yoga and meditation in converted farmhouses among the almond groves around Sant Joan and Santa Gertrudis, a tradition that goes back to the hippy years.

The Costa del Sol relies on big spa hotels and residential detox clinics around Marbella, Moorish-style bathhouses in Málaga and mild winters that suit long, slow stays.