Girona or Madrid?

Neither city has a beach on its doorstep, but the gap is large. From Girona the Costa Brava is about 40 minutes away, with sandy bays at Platja d'Aro and pine-backed coves near Begur and L'Escala. That makes an easy add-on to a city stay, although without a car the buses limit how far along the coast you get.

Madrid sits on its plateau, too far from the sea for a day out. Swimming there in summer means the municipal open-air pools or the reservoirs below the Guadarrama, so if you want a beach you will need to add separate days on a coast.

Madrid wins on range and on how much fun it is to eat out. There is the standing tapas crawl along Cava Baja and around Santa Ana, cocido and calamari sandwiches, Galician and Basque cooking from across Spain, and market halls such as San Miguel and Antón Martín for grazing. Meals run late, which suits a trip built around evenings.

Girona is narrower but still rewarding. It has Catalan home cooking, mar i muntanya plates, xuixos and a fine-dining reputation well beyond its size, with Empordà wine close at hand. There is little street food or foreign cooking, and the better neighbourhood places are across the river from the old town.

Madrid holds one of the world's great collections of painting. The Prado, the Reina Sofía with Guernica and the Thyssen are a short walk apart, and the Royal Palace and the arcaded Plaza Mayor are close by. An art lover can fill several days here.

Girona has the other kind of history, the medieval streets that Madrid lacks. The walled Barri Vell, the cathedral with its huge Gothic nave and the lanes of the Call make a day or two of rewarding walking, but its museums are small collections.

The gap is wide. Madrid's night gets going after midnight and runs past dawn, with rock bars in Malasaña, the gay scene in Chueca, bar-hopping in La Latina and big clubs around Gran Vía.

Girona's evenings are terraces and long dinners, with student bars in term time and a few late music bars at weekends. Anyone in Girona who wants a big night takes the train to Barcelona.

Girona is the stronger outdoor base. Road cyclists come for the lanes up Rocacorba and Els Àngels, and greenways on old railway lines run to Olot and the sea. Within an hour you reach the Garrotxa volcanoes, the coast-guard trail along the Costa Brava and Cap de Creus, with the Pyrenees further on.

Madrid's outdoors is mostly city parks such as the Retiro and Casa de Campo, plus the Sierra de Guadarrama about an hour north, where La Pedriza's granite and the lakes below Peñalara make good hikes. Beyond the sierra the plains are open farmland.

Both are first-rate bases, and the difference is in kind. Madrid's fast trains fan out to a ring of great historic cities, including Toledo, Segovia, Ávila, Salamanca and Cuenca, and you need no car for any of them.

From Girona the trips are more varied. Barcelona is under 40 minutes by train, and you can also reach Dalí's Figueres and Cadaqués, stone villages such as Besalú and Peratallada, the ruins at Empúries and even France. Many of the villages and coves are much easier with a car.

Madrid gives children far more to do: rowing boats and puppet shows in the Retiro, the zoo, aquarium and funfair in Casa de Campo, and theme parks further out. Its flat centre and the metro, with lifts at many stations, make a pushchair manageable. The heat of July and August is the catch.

Girona is calm and safe but has little built for children, and its stepped old town is hard going with a pushchair. Families there tend to spend their days on the Costa Brava beaches, which Madrid cannot offer.

Both centres are walkable, but Madrid also has a large air-conditioned metro with a line to the airport, and Atocha and Chamartín stations connect to the fast trains, so a car is unnecessary.

Girona is small enough to cross on foot in about twenty minutes, though the Barri Vell is mostly stairs. The station is handy for Barcelona and Figueres. Buses are infrequent, though, so the coves, wineries and hill villages are far easier with a hire car.

Madrid is a real shopping city. The international luxury houses are on Calle Serrano in Salamanca, the department stores and flagships are around Sol and Gran Vía, independent and vintage shops fill Malasaña and Conde Duque, and El Rastro runs on Sunday mornings.

Girona's shops are few and local: independent shops around the Rambla, Empordà cheese, sausage and olive oil from the Mercat del Lleó, and plenty of cycling kit. Anyone looking for more goes to Barcelona.

Overall costs are much the same, with both in the middle for Western Europe, but the costs fall in different places. In Girona the old town has few rooms, and they get expensive in summer, during the flower festival and in the cycling season. A hire car adds to the bill too.

In Madrid, hotels cost what you would expect in a capital. The menú del día, tapas with a drink and the inexpensive metro keep daily spending modest, and the great museums have free entry at set times.

Madrid has a full stage calendar. There is opera at the Teatro Real, the national orchestra at the Auditorio Nacional, zarzuela, musicals along Gran Vía and serious flamenco in the tablaos every night, plus long-established jazz clubs.

Girona's highlight is Temporada Alta, its autumn festival of international theatre and dance. Touring concerts play at the Auditori, and summer brings music festivals on the coast. The rest of the year the programme is thin, and many plays are in Catalan.

Neither is a spa destination, and the two are close. Girona's edge is its slow pace, with quiet lanes in the morning and walks along the river. The thermal town of Caldes de Malavella is about twenty minutes away, with spring-water pools in its hotels.

Madrid is late and noisy by nature. Relaxing there means one of the Arab-style bathhouses in the old centre, a hotel spa or a lazy afternoon in the Retiro or the Botanical Garden.