Fes or Lagos, Portugal?

There is no contest here. Fes is inland, about three hours from either the Atlantic or the Mediterranean, so swimming means a hotel pool or a riad's small plunge pool, worth choosing your room around in the summer heat.

Lagos is built around its beaches. Coves such as Camilo and Dona Ana sit beneath honey-coloured cliffs and sea stacks, and Meia Praia across the river offers about 4km of open sand with room to spare. The Atlantic water is fresher than the Mediterranean, but the sheltered coves are clear and usually calm.

Fes has the deeper kitchen. Its Andalusian-influenced cooking gives pastilla with almonds and cinnamon and slow tagines with preserved lemon or quince, often served as long dinners in riad dining rooms. The medina feeds you all day, from bissara at breakfast counters to sfenj doughnuts and grilled skewers.

Lagos is simpler and built on fish: sardines and octopus off the charcoal grill, cataplana in its copper pan and the catch at the riverfront market. Many old-town menus are written for visitors, so the good meals are a street or two back. One clear difference is wine, which flows cheaply in Lagos but is hard to find in Fes outside hotels.

Fes is one of the great historic cities of the Islamic world, and the gap shows. Fes el-Bali is a living medieval medina whose trades and quarters have lasted for centuries, with the carved cedar and zellige of the Marinid madrasas, the Chouara tannery seen from the terraces, and the Royal Palace gates and Mellah beyond.

Lagos has a real story as a base for Portugal's fifteenth-century voyages, told by its old walls, the harbour fort, the gilded baroque interior of Santo António and the sobering slave market museum. It all fits into a morning's walk, after which you are back on the beach.

Lagos is the place to go out. In summer its old-town lanes fill with surfers and backpackers moving between small bars, cocktail places and pubs until well past midnight, and a few small clubs run towards dawn. Outside the season it settles to a handful of local haunts.

Fes barely has a night. The medina empties when the shops close, and an evening means dinner on a riad rooftop and mint tea, with only a few hotel bars and lounges out in the Ville Nouvelle.

Lagos puts dramatic coast on your doorstep. The arches and grottoes of Ponta da Piedade are a short walk away and best seen from a kayak, clifftop paths lead west to Luz and Burgau, and the wild Costa Vicentina, with its Fishermen's Trail, is within easy reach. The Serra de Monchique adds wooded hills for walking and cycling.

Fes has fine mountain country, but it takes more effort. The cedar forests around Azrou, home to wild Barbary macaques, and the caves and ridges of Tazekka National Park need a car or driver, and the summer plain is too hot for much outdoor activity.

Fes has the slightly stronger outings, thanks to one outstanding day: Meknes, the Roman mosaics of Volubilis and the holy town of Moulay Idriss, which a driver can link in a single trip, with Meknes alone an easy train ride. Ifrane's Alpine-style roofs and the cave houses of Bhalil make quirkier half days.

From Lagos the pick is Sagres and the lighthouse at Cape St Vincent, at Europe's south-western tip, followed by Silves's red Moorish castle and the river town of Tavira further east. These are pleasant rather than essential, and a hire car makes them far easier.

Lagos is by far the easier choice with children. Meia Praia's gently shelving water, ice cream by the marina, boat trips to the grottoes and Portuguese restaurants that welcome children late into the evening make for simple days, with water parks and a marine park a drive away. The steep stairs down to the coves and the cobbles are the main nuisances.

Fes is demanding with young children: a narrow maze shared with donkeys and handcarts, persistent touts, the smell of the tanneries and fierce summer heat. Older children who like watching craftsmen and getting lost can love it, but small ones need a riad with a pool and short outings.

Lagos is the simpler town to find your way around. The old town, marina and nearest coves are all within half an hour on foot, and a footbridge leads to Meia Praia. Beyond town, slow trains and infrequent buses mean most visitors hire a car.

Fes is walkable in a very different way. Inside the medina everything is on foot through twisting, climbing lanes where maps only half help, and many first-timers take a guide for the first day. Petit taxis link the gates, the Ville Nouvelle and the station, and the railway to Meknes is useful, but other trips need a driver.

Fes is a serious craft city where much is made as well as sold. Leather from the tanneries, copper and brass hammered in Seffarine square, blue-and-white Fassi pottery, zellige and carved cedar fill whole lanes, often with the workshop behind the counter. Expect to bargain, and wander on your own rather than follow a guide on commission.

Lagos is for browsing on the way to dinner: hand-painted Algarve ceramics, cork goods, sardine tins and surf shops, plus honey, figs and medronho brandy at the market. Neither town offers fashion or luxury shopping.

Fes goes much further for the money. Street food, mint tea, petit taxis and entry to the madrasas cost very little, and modest medina riads give real character for what you pay. Comfort, private guides and drivers raise the bill, and alcohol is the one thing that is expensive.

Lagos sits at an ordinary Western European level and swings with the season, with beachside rooms in high demand in July and August. Grilled fish lunches and local wine stay reasonable, and from October to May it becomes a good-value base for long stays.

Fes has the deeper musical roots, as a home of Andalusian classical music and Sufi devotional singing. If your dates match its annual Festival of World Sacred Music, with concerts in palace gardens and at the old city gates, your trip gets a musical high point that Lagos cannot match. At other times there are occasional Sufi or Andalusian evenings and music over a riad dinner, but no regular theatre.

Lagos is lighter fare. In summer there are guitar and fado evenings put on for visitors and cover bands in the bars, and the municipal cultural centre runs a modest programme of concerts, theatre and dance. Neither town has opera, and from Lagos the serious concerts are in Lisbon.

In Fes, unwinding comes with steam and a scrub. Every medina quarter has a public hammam with black soap and a vigorous scrub, riads offer gentler versions, and the thermal springs of Moulay Yacoub are about half an hour away. After the noise of the lanes, a riad courtyard with a fountain is a kind of rest in itself.

Lagos relaxes you with its slow pace rather than any bathing tradition: long lunches, sunset walks on the cliffs, and yoga, surf and wellness retreats out towards Luz and the west coast. Its nearest real spa is the old thermal village of Caldas de Monchique, about an hour inland.