Fes or Malaga?

Only Malaga is a beach destination. Its city sand begins beside the centre and runs through the old fishing quarters of Pedregalejo and El Palo, with resort beaches strung west to Fuengirola and clearer coves at Maro. The sand is plain and the Alboran Sea a touch cool, but swimming is a daily option for half the year.

Fes is inland, and the coast is too far for a normal stay. Swimming means a hotel pool or a riad's small plunge pool, so book with that in mind if you travel in the hot months.

The two are close, with Malaga a little ahead, but the eating is very different. Fes is about refined Moroccan home cooking: pastilla, tagines with preserved lemon and quince, long multi-course dinners in riad dining rooms, and bissara and sfenj at medina counters in the morning. Range is narrow and alcohol is scarce.

Malaga is casual and social: sardine espetos on the beach, plates of fried fish, tapas crawls around Plaza de la Merced and sweet moscatel poured from the barrel. It is the better pick for variety and for wine with dinner; Fes for one cuisine done with depth.

Fes is the stronger cultural trip. Fes el-Bali is a whole medieval city still at work, and the Bou Inania and Al-Attarine madrasas rank among the finest Marinid buildings anywhere; the museums are small because the streets themselves are the exhibit.

Malaga packs a lot into a compact core: the Roman theatre, the Alcazaba climbing to Gibralfaro, the unfinished cathedral, and a run of art museums led by the Picasso Museum and the Carmen Thyssen. It is a satisfying two days of galleries and monuments rather than the immersion Fes offers.

Malaga is the only real choice for going out. Dinner starts late, the terraces and small bars around Calle Granada and Plaza Uncibay stay full past midnight, and Torremolinos adds clubs and a gay scene a short train ride away.

Fes shuts down when the medina shops close. Evenings are a rooftop dinner and mint tea, with a few hotel bars in the Ville Nouvelle for a drink.

Malaga has the better outdoors, and it starts closer. The Montes de Malaga pine forest rises on the city's edge, the Caminito del Rey gorge walk and El Torcal's limestone formations are about an hour out, and the coast adds kayaking and snorkelling below the Maro cliffs.

Fes offers gentler country: cedar forests around Azrou with wild Barbary macaques, lake-dotted plateaux and Tazekka's caves. All of it needs a car or driver, and summer heat on the plain keeps outings to spring and autumn.

Malaga is one of the great bases for Andalucia. Fast trains reach Cordoba's Mezquita in about an hour and Granada's Alhambra is within reach too, with Ronda, Antequera's dolmens, Nerja and Frigiliana adding a long list beyond them.

Fes has one excellent outing: Meknes, the Roman mosaics of Volubilis and the holy town of Moulay Idriss, usually done together in a long day with a driver. Ifrane and Sefrou fill another day, but Chefchaouen and Rabat are too far to do comfortably.

Malaga is much the easier city with children. They are welcome everywhere into the late evening, the beaches shelve gently, the flat centre suits a pushchair, and the coast west has a zoo, an aquarium and a dolphin park on the train line.

Fes rewards older children who like craftsmen, street snacks and getting lost, but the narrow lanes, donkeys, tannery smells and summer heat wear out small ones. A pool at the riad and short outings with a guide are close to essential.

Malaga is simpler. Its centre is flat and largely pedestrianised, the suburban train reaches the airport and the coast resorts, and the main station sends fast trains on to Cordoba, Seville and Madrid.

Fes is also on foot inside the walls, but the medina's climbing dead-end lanes defeat most maps, and porters with handcarts carry your bags from the gate. Petit taxis link the gates, the Ville Nouvelle and the station, and almost every excursion beyond Meknes means hiring a driver.

Fes is the better place to buy something worth carrying home. Leather from the tanneries, Seffarine copper, blue-and-white Fassi pottery, zellige and carved cedar are made in the lanes where they are sold, though you bargain, and guides steer you towards shops that pay them commission.

Malaga's shopping is easier but more ordinary: Spanish chains on marble-paved Calle Larios, the port promenade at Muelle Uno and a few independents in Soho. Its best souvenirs are edible, olive oil, almonds and sweet wine from the Atarazanas market.

Fes is clearly the cheaper trip. Street food, taxis and madrasa entries cost very little and a modest riad gives a lot of character for the money; only alcohol, private drivers and the grandest riads push spending up.

In Malaga tapas, fried fish and local trains are fair for Western Europe, but rooms in the old town and by the beach are expensive through spring and autumn. Staying a little outside the centre or visiting in winter eases that.

Malaga offers more on an ordinary night. The Teatro Cervantes hosts the Malaga Philharmonic, drama and dance, flamenco plays in tablaos and in the locals' peñas, and small bar stages carry jazz and rock.

Fes has the deeper musical heritage in Andalusian classical and Sufi music, and its Festival of World Sacred Music fills palace gardens with concerts. Outside the festival, though, music is mostly an occasional Sufi evening or a performance at a riad dinner, with no regular theatre.

Fes wins on bathing. The hammam is daily life in every medina quarter, riads offer quieter steam and massage rooms, and the Moulay Yacoub hot springs lie about half an hour out. Rest also comes from the riad itself, a fountain courtyard set apart from the noise of the lanes.

Malaga has one Arab-style bathhouse in the old town and hotel and resort spas towards Marbella. Its calm is more about rhythm: a long lunch, a siesta and an evening stroll along the Paseo Maritimo, especially in its mild winter.