Essaouira or Tangier?

Neither is a place for hot, lazy beach days, but the sand works differently in each. In Essaouira the wide pale crescent starts right below the medina walls and is part of every walk. The steady wind and cool water mean you spend your time there riding, watching kites or swimming on a calm morning by the port, more than sunbathing.

Tangier's city beach along the bay is more a promenade than a place to swim. The better sand lies west at Achakar and Cap Spartel, or south near Asilah, so a beach day means a taxi out of town. In return, the water there is a touch warmer in late summer.

Both cities cook Moroccan home food with fish from the port, but Tangier gives you more of it. Around the Grand Socco there are breakfast bowls of bissara, harira, snail broth, bakeries and small grill counters. Its terrace cafés looking over the Strait are a reason to visit in themselves.

Essaouira's best meal is simple: you choose sardines, bream or spider crab at the harbour stalls and they are grilled in front of you. Beyond that the choice soon narrows to riad dining rooms and European-style cafés, though the argan oil and amlou from the hills are worth seeking out. Alcohol is limited in both.

Tangier has more to see. The kasbah palace museum, the Moorish house of the American Legation, St Andrew's church and the Art Deco streets of the Ville Nouvelle tell the story of a city where Europe and Africa met, with Paul Bowles and the Beat writers in the background.

Essaouira has one main sight, and it is a fine one. The 18th-century medina, a planned grid of whitewashed houses behind sea walls, is on the UNESCO list, and walking the cannon-lined Skala ramparts and the old mellah is the point of a visit. It is atmospheric, but a day or two covers it.

Neither city stays up late, but Tangier gives you more to do after dark. There are a few old bars from the international era, hotel lounges in the Ville Nouvelle and beach clubs on the bay in summer, and the seafront fills with families strolling on warm nights.

In Essaouira the evening usually means a sunset drink on a rooftop, dinner, then a last walk along the ramparts. The medina is silent well before midnight, and only the surfers and kitesurfers linger in a couple of beach bars.

The outdoors is about equally good in both, but different in character. Essaouira's draw is wind and sand: kitesurfing and windsurfing schools on the bay, rougher waves at Sidi Kaouki, horse and camel rides towards the Diabat dunes, goats in the argan trees, and Eleonora's falcons over the offshore islands in summer.

Tangier's outdoors is greener and higher. You can walk among the pines and cliffs of Cap Spartel above the meeting of two seas, or in the wooded Perdicaris park. Storks and raptors cross the Strait in spring and autumn, and boats go out to watch dolphins. In both places real mountain hiking means a long trip inland.

Tangier is far ahead here. Asilah and Tetouan's UNESCO-listed medina are each about an hour away, and Chefchaouen makes a long but rewarding day out. The fast train puts Rabat within two hours, and a ferry crossing gets you to Tarifa in Spain in about an hour.

Essaouira is cut off by comparison. The outings are small ones: Sidi Kaouki, the thuya workshops at Ghazoua, the argan cooperatives and Safi's pottery quarter two hours up the coast. Marrakech is too far for a comfortable round trip in a day.

Essaouira is the gentler choice with children. The medina is small, flat and mostly free of cars, the beach is a few minutes away, and camels, horses, fishing boats and gulls keep small children busy. The cool sea and summer wind, and the steep stairs and open roof terraces in riads, are the things to watch.

Tangier works for a family with a pool hotel and short outings: the promenade, the Perdicaris park, the Caves of Hercules, and a ferry ride to Spain that children enjoy. Its steep, stepped medina and persistent touts make everyday wandering harder. Neither city has a zoo, aquarium or theme park.

In Essaouira you walk everywhere. The flat medina, the port and the beach promenade are all within about twenty minutes of each other, and porters with carts take your luggage from the gate to the riad. Only the villages and cooperatives outside town need a driver.

Tangier's walkable core is hillier and more confusing, so you will use the blue petit taxis often, and Cap Spartel and the western beaches need a car. Where Tangier does better is onward travel. The train links it with Rabat and Casablanca, and the ferry port sits in the city centre.

Both are craft towns rather than fashion destinations, and they offer the same kind of shopping on a similar scale. Essaouira's speciality is fragrant thuya wood, carved and inlaid in workshops under the ramparts, together with small galleries of naive and gnawa-inspired painting, and the sellers there are noticeably more relaxed.

Tangier's souk lanes near the Petit Socco sell slippers, lanterns and the red-and-white striped cloth of the Rif, and farm women bring produce and woven hats to the Saturday markets. The sales pitch is harder, but the Ville Nouvelle adds antique shops and modern malls on the bay.

The two are about equally cheap. Grilled fish, street snacks, mint tea and taxis cost little in both, and the medinas are free to wander. Costs rise in different places. In Essaouira it is the smarter riads, the rooftop restaurants and the festival weekends. In Tangier it is the sea-view hotels and the summer seafront, and in both alcohol is the one thing that is not cheap.

Neither has a theatre, opera or regular concert season, and each has its own musical identity. Essaouira is the home of gnawa trance music. Its yearly Gnaoua World Music Festival fills the ramparts with free concerts, while on other nights you hear gnawa informally in a few restaurants and squares.

Tangier's music is more varied but harder to find. It has Andalusian classical music, Jilala and the legacy of the Jajouka musicians, along with a long-running jazz festival. The historic art-house cinema on the Grand Socco is the steadiest cultural venue in the city.

Essaouira is the easier place to slow down. With no traffic in the medina, sea air and little to tick off, the days drift by, and yoga and surf-and-yoga retreats along the coast build on that. Riad spas offer argan oil massages, though the wind can spoil lounging outdoors.

Tangier's strength is its everyday hammam culture. Neighbourhood bathhouses offer the full ritual of steam, black soap and a kessa scrub, and hotel spas provide a more comfortable version. Its terraces above the Strait are calm, but the port and traffic below are a constant reminder that this is a working city.