Girona or Ronda?

Neither town is on the sea, but Girona is much the better placed for it. The Costa Brava begins about 40 minutes away, with a choice between long sandy bays and pine-backed rocky coves, and the water around Begur and L'Escala is some of the clearest on the Spanish Mediterranean. Buses reach the main resorts, though a car opens up the smaller coves.

Ronda's nearest beaches are the long, built-up strips of the Costa del Sol around Estepona, reached down a road of hairpin bends over the Serranía. That makes the sea a full-day outing rather than an afternoon, and most visitors settle for a pool.

Girona is the stronger place to eat. Catalan cooking such as mar i muntanya and weekend rice dishes sits alongside an international fine-dining reputation, the Mercat del Lleó brings in Empordà produce, and local wine and cava are on every list. Its weak point is range, with little street food or foreign cooking.

Ronda's table is plainer and heartier: oxtail stew, lamb, game, cured hams and autumn chestnuts and mushrooms from the Genal valley, with Sierras de Málaga wines from nearby cellars. The best meals are in the Mercadillo's tapas bars rather than the gorge-view terraces, and a few days covers the choice.

Both reward a day or two of unhurried walking, but the appeal differs. Girona's draw is a complete walled medieval quarter: the cathedral with its vast Gothic nave, the Call, one of Europe's best-preserved Jewish quarters, the Romanesque cloister and a walk along the walls.

Ronda's great sight is its setting, the Puente Nuevo spanning the deep Tajo gorge between the Moorish old town and the Mercadillo. Around it sit the Real Maestranza bullring, Arab baths that outclass Girona's, and the rock-cut stairway of the Casa del Rey Moro. Neither has major museums.

Girona's evenings begin with a long dinner on a terrace. In term time students carry on in the bars around Plaça de la Independència and the old quarter, and at weekends a few music bars and small clubs on the edge of the centre stay open late. For a proper night out, Barcelona is a short train ride away.

Ronda has almost no club scene. An evening there means tapas and a late meal around the Plaza del Socorro, then a drink in one of a handful of bars. Outside the September fair the town is asleep by the early hours.

Both are excellent bases for the outdoors, and the choice comes down to how you like to move. Girona is a road-cycling centre, with quiet lanes, the climbs of Rocacorba and Els Àngels and flat greenways to Olot and the coast. It also mixes landscapes, from the Garrotxa volcanoes to the Costa Brava cliff paths, sea kayaking and the Pyrenees.

Ronda is a walker's and climber's place. Limestone mountains ring the town, with the green crags of Grazalema, the fir forests of the Sierra de las Nieves, the path into the Tajo and the Caminito del Rey within an hour.

Girona has the richer and easier choice of outings. Barcelona is a short high-speed train ride away, Figueres and the Dalí Theatre-Museum are close, and Besalú, Peratallada, Empúries and Cadaqués fill further days. Even Perpignan in France is under an hour by fast train.

Ronda's outings centre on the white villages, from Setenil de las Bodegas under its rock to Zahara and Grazalema, plus the Palaeolithic paintings of the Cueva de la Pileta. The big cities, Seville and Málaga, are a long day there and back, and almost everything needs a car.

Girona is the easier town for a family, though neither is built for children and neither has a zoo, aquarium or theme park. The Devesa park has shade and play areas, walking the city walls feels like an adventure, and the Costa Brava beaches are close enough to fill the days. The stairs and cobbles of the Barri Vell are hard going with a pushchair.

Ronda asks more of a family. What it has suits older children far better than small ones: the walk down into the gorge, the stairway cut through the rock at the Casa del Rey Moro and the caves nearby. Its high, exposed viewpoints need a firm hand with toddlers, and with the sea so far away, families do best in a country house with a pool and short outings into the hills.

Both are towns you cover on foot, with steep lanes in their old quarters, so the difference lies in leaving town. Girona's station gives fast trains to Barcelona and Figueres, which makes car-free day trips practical, though the coves and wineries still favour a hire car.

Ronda's trains and buses are slow and infrequent, fine for arriving but limited for exploring, and the villages and natural parks are really car territory.

Girona offers more to browse, with independent fashion and shoe shops, bookshops and delicatessens around the Rambla, plus plenty of cycling kit. Ronda has little beyond Carrera Espinel's ordinary shops and souvenir ceramics and leather near the bridge. In both the best purchases are edible, Empordà cheeses and wine in Girona, cured meats, olive oil and convent sweets in Ronda.

Ronda is the cheaper stay. Its Mercadillo tapas bars and set lunches are good value, entry fees are modest, and rural houses in the hills are fairly priced. Only the gorge-view hotels and the Easter and September fair periods push costs up.

Girona sits around the Western European middle, with good weekday set lunches but limited old-town rooms that get expensive in summer and the cycling season. In both, a hire car is the main extra cost.

Girona has more to attend. The Auditori brings touring orchestras and jazz, the old Teatre Municipal stages drama and dance, and the autumn Temporada Alta festival draws international theatre, though many plays are in Catalan.

Ronda's stage is mostly flamenco in small venues, plus the costumed Corrida Goyesca in the old bullring during the September fair. Beyond that, evenings offer little.

Neither has a living bathing culture, and both towns' Arab baths are monuments rather than places to bathe. Girona has the better option for actual soaking, at the thermal-spring hotels of Caldes de Malavella about 20 minutes away. Ronda's strength is stillness instead: once the day-trippers leave the town falls quiet, and farmhouse hotels with pools and olive groves suit a few days of doing nothing.