Granada or Jerez de la Frontera?

Neither city has a beach of its own, but Jerez is much better placed. Valdelagrana, El Puerto and the beaches of Cádiz are a short train ride away, and the wide sands at Sanlúcar, Chipiona and La Barrosa are within an hour. These are long, open Atlantic beaches of fine sand, though the Levante wind can make some days rough.

From Granada, the Costa Tropical means about an hour by road over the mountains, to pebble and dark-sand coves at Salobreña, Almuñécar and La Herradura. The calm, clear Mediterranean there suits snorkelling more than lazy beach days. In town, you are left with the hotel pool.

The two are level, but each is built on a different habit. Granada's custom of a free tapa with every drink turns an evening around Calle Navas or the Realejo into a cheap, roaming meal of Alpujarras ham and aubergine with cane honey. The Moroccan tea houses of Calderería Nueva add a Moorish note that Jerez lacks.

In Jerez, sherry leads. You taste fino and oloroso in the bodegas or from the barrel in old tabancos, and the cooking adds sherry-braised oxtail and fried fish from the nearby coast. Neither city has much range at the top end.

This is where the two differ most. Granada has the Alhambra, with its Nasrid palaces, the Alcazaba and the Generalife gardens. Across the valley is the Albaicín, and below lie the cathedral, the Royal Chapel with the tombs of Ferdinand and Isabella, and the Cartuja's sacristy. That fills a few full days.

Jerez has a smaller Almohad Alcázar, Gothic-Mudéjar parish churches and the old flamenco quarters. Its unique attractions are the sherry bodegas and the dancing horses of the Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art. These are rewarding, but the list is modest beside Granada's.

Granada's university gives it the livelier nights. The evening moves from tapas to the bars of Calle Elvira and Plaza Nueva, and on to student pubs and clubs around Pedro Antonio de Alarcón that run towards dawn at weekends. It does quieten in summer when the students leave.

Jerez is sociable but provincial, with late tabancos and copa bars around Plaza del Arenal and Calle Larga and only a few clubs. The exception is the week of the Feria del Caballo in May, when the casetas dance until morning.

Granada has the mountains right above it. The Sierra Nevada's ski slopes are about 45 minutes away, summer trails climb towards Mulhacén, and the terraced Alpujarras valleys and the Dílar valley give plenty of walking close to town.

Jerez's own setting is gentle, rolling vineyards of white albariza soil that are nice to cycle through. For more, you head out to the gorges of Grazalema, the cork forests of Los Alcornocales or the edge of Doñana for birds. The kitesurfing coast towards Tarifa is something Granada cannot match.

Both make strong bases, but they open onto different parts of Andalusia. From Granada, the fast train reaches Córdoba's Mezquita, and Antequera's dolmens, the Renaissance towns of Úbeda and Baeza and the Alpujarras villages are all close. Seville, though, is just too far.

Jerez has Seville about an hour away by train and Cádiz half an hour away. It also has the sherry towns of El Puerto and Sanlúcar nearby, and the white towns of Arcos, Vejer and Ronda by car. That gives it the edge if Seville is on your list.

The two are level for families, with different strengths. Granada has the one big attraction built for children, the hands-on Parque de las Ciencias with its planetarium, and a snow day in the Sierra Nevada is easy in winter. Its steep, cobbled hills are hard work with a pushchair, though.

Jerez is flat and easy to walk around. It offers a good zoo and botanical garden and the dancing-horse show, and its gently sloping sandy beaches make summer far easier with small children.

Both centres are walkable, and Granada is a little easier to manage without a car. Its small red minibuses climb to the Alhambra, the Albaicín and Sacromonte, which takes care of the steepest part of any visit. You only need a car for the mountain villages.

Jerez is flat and compact, and its central station has direct trains to Seville, Cádiz and the airport. But the white towns, Grazalema and many of the better beaches really call for a hired car, because the buses are slow and infrequent.

Neither is a shopping destination, though Granada offers a bit more. The Alcaicería beside the cathedral is fun to browse, and its real local crafts are taracea inlaid woodwork and Fajalauza ceramics. Calle Recogidas also has a department store and the main chains.

Jerez's Calle Larga is smaller and more provincial. The things worth taking home are sherry and brandy from the bodegas, leather riding boots and saddlery from its horse trade, and flamenco dresses and shawls.

Both are inexpensive by Spanish standards. Granada's free tapa with every drink makes eating out especially cheap, but stays and terrace meals near the Alhambra cost noticeably more. In Jerez, tabancos and bodega tours cost little, and rooms only get dear and scarce during the Feria, the flamenco festival and the motorcycle race weekends at the nearby circuit.

Flamenco leads in both, and Jerez has the slight edge as one of its birthplaces. Its own bulería rhythm lives on in the peñas of Santiago and San Miguel and in close-up sessions in the tabancos. The late-winter festival at the Teatro Villamarta brings major dancers to town.

Granada's flamenco is the zambra, danced in the caves of Sacromonte. The city has a broader classical life, with the summer festival of music and dance staged in the Alhambra's palaces and the Generalife, and the Lorca and Falla heritage.

Granada is the better choice for a restful trip. Several hammams in the lower Albaicín recreate the Moorish sequence of warm, tepid and cold pools, and the spa towns of Lanjarón and Alhama de Granada are within an hour.

Jerez has one Arab-style bathhouse and a few hotel spas. What it offers instead is a slow pace of shaded patios, long lunches and evening strolls.