Fes or Granada?

Neither city is on the coast. From Fes the sea is about three hours away, too far for an ordinary stay, so swimming means a hotel pool or the small plunge pool in a riad courtyard.

Granada is better placed. The Costa Tropical is about an hour away over the mountains, with pebble and dark-sand coves at Salobreña, Almuñécar and La Herradura, where the clear water suits snorkelling. It works as a day out rather than a beach vacation.

The two cities are equally good for eating, but in very different ways. Fes is about the long sit-down meal: pastilla, tagines with quince or preserved lemon and several courses in a riad dining room. Its mornings bring bissara and sfenj from the stalls in the medina. Alcohol is hard to find.

Granada eats standing up, moving from bar to bar with a small plate served alongside every drink, from Alpujarras ham to fried aubergine with cane honey. Its tea houses on Calderería Nueva echo Morocco. Neither city has much international food.

Both are among the great cities of Moorish history. Granada was ruled by the Nasrid dynasty while the Marinids ruled Fes, and the two dynasties held power at the same time. In Fes the whole medina is the sight, a living medieval city of trades and quarters, with the Bou Inania and Al-Attarine madrasas as its finest buildings and the tannery seen from the terraces above.

Granada is built around one supreme monument, the Alhambra, with its palaces, fortress and gardens, and the whitewashed Albaicín faces it across the valley. Beneath them lies a Christian city of cathedral, Royal Chapel and Carthusian monastery that Fes has no equivalent to.

Granada is the place to go out. The evening runs from tapas to the bars of Calle Elvira and Plaza Nueva, and on weekends the student clubs around Pedro Antonio de Alarcón stay open until dawn. The scene is informal and quieter in summer when the students leave.

Fes has almost nothing to match it. The medina empties at dusk, a few hotel bars in the Ville Nouvelle are the only real option, and most evenings end with tea on a rooftop.

Granada has the mountains right on its doorstep. The Sierra Nevada is snow-capped for much of the year, with ski slopes about 45 minutes away in winter and summer routes towards Mulhacén, the highest summit in mainland Spain. The Alpujarras add terraced valleys and old mule paths between villages.

Fes has gentler country further out. The cedar forests around Azrou, home to wild Barbary macaques, lie about an hour south, and Tazekka National Park has caves and cork oak. Both need a car or a driver.

Granada has more choice and better connections. Córdoba's Mezquita and Málaga are both a train ride away, and Antequera's dolmens and the Renaissance towns of Úbeda and Baeza make full days out. The white villages of the Alpujarras are closer still.

Fes has one outstanding outing: Meknes, the Roman ruins of Volubilis and the holy town of Moulay Idriss, usually covered in one long day with a driver. After that the list thins to Ifrane and Sefrou, and Chefchaouen is too far for a day.

Granada is the easier city with children. It is compact and safe, children stay out late with everyone else, and the Parque de las Ciencias, with its planetarium and butterfly house, is built for them. The steep, cobbled hills are the main difficulty, especially with a pushchair.

Fes is much harder work. In the medina you share the lanes with donkeys and handcarts, touts are persistent and the tannery smell is strong. Older children who enjoy watching craftsmen at work may love it, but small ones need short outings and a riad with a pool.

Granada is simpler to get around. The flat lower town is easy to walk, and small red minibuses climb the lanes to the Alhambra, the Albaicín and Sacromonte, which saves you the steepest climbs.

In Fes the medina is a car-free maze where lanes twist, climb and end without warning, and many visitors hire a guide for the first day. Outside the walls you rely on petit taxis, and for most day trips you need a driver.

Fes is the better place to shop, as long as you want crafts. Whole lanes are given over to tannery leather, copper and brass from the Seffarine square, blue-and-white pottery and woven textiles, often with the workshop behind the counter. Expect to bargain, and to be steered to shops that pay guides a commission.

Granada's best buys are taracea inlaid woodwork, Fajalauza ceramics and handmade guitars. Much of the Alcaicería sells souvenirs, though, and Calle Recogidas is mostly Spanish chains.

Fes is the cheaper city. Street food, taxis and entry to the madrasas cost very little, and even a modest riad has real character. Money goes on grand riads, private guides and drivers, and above all on alcohol.

Granada is cheap for Spain rather than cheap overall. The free tapa keeps evenings affordable, but stays and meals near the Alhambra and spring weekends cost noticeably more.

Granada has far more live performance through the year. You can watch the zambra danced in the cave houses of Sacromonte or hear rawer flamenco in Albaicín bars. The summer International Festival of Music and Dance fills the Alhambra and the Generalife, and the city orchestra plays at the Auditorio Manuel de Falla.

Fes has deep musical roots in Andalusian classical music and Sufi devotional music. Its Festival of World Sacred Music is the high point of the year, but outside it there is mostly music over dinner in a riad.

Fes takes bathing more seriously. Every medina quarter has a working public hammam where locals go for steam, black soap and a hard scrub, and many riads have gentler versions of their own. The hot springs of Moulay Yacoub are about half an hour away.

Granada's hammams are recreations of the old Arab baths, calm and candlelit and pleasant after a day on the hills. The spa towns of Lanjarón and Alhama de Granada are both within an hour, and the city's siesta pace helps you slow down.