Granada or Ronda?

Neither is a beach destination, but the sea is easier to reach from Granada. The Costa Tropical is about an hour south by bus or car. Its coves of pebble and dark sand at La Herradura and Almuñécar have calm, clear water that suits snorkelling.

Ronda's nearest coast is the Costa del Sol around Estepona, at the end of a road of hairpin bends that really needs a car and takes up the whole day. The beaches there are long, sandy and built up. In summer, swimming in either place usually means a pool.

Granada has the richer eating scene, mainly because of its tapas custom. A small plate comes with every drink, so dinner can be a walk from bar to bar, with Alpujarras ham, aubergine with cane honey and remojón along the way. The Moroccan tea houses on Calderería Nueva and convent sweets such as piononos add a Moorish note.

Ronda's cooking is plainer mountain food: oxtail stew, lamb, game, and chestnuts and wild mushrooms in autumn. The best eating is in the Mercadillo's tapas bars rather than on the terraces facing the gorge. Its strong point is local wine, with tastings at wineries just outside town.

Granada has one of the great monuments of Europe in the Alhambra, with its Nasrid palaces, the Alcazaba and the Generalife gardens. Around it are the Moorish lanes of the Albaicín, the cathedral and Royal Chapel, the Carthusian monastery and the Sacromonte caves, enough for several full days.

Ronda's chief sight is its setting: El Tajo gorge, crossed by the Puente Nuevo, with cliff-top paths and a trail down to the valley floor. Around it sit the old Maestranza bullring, some of the best-preserved Arab baths in Spain and the rock-cut stairway at the Casa del Rey Moro, all seen comfortably in a day or two.

Thanks to its university, Granada has a real night out. Tapas lead on to the bars of Calle Elvira and Plaza Nueva, then to the clubs around Pedro Antonio de Alarcón, which run towards dawn at weekends, though the city is quieter in summer once the students leave.

Ronda's evenings centre on a late dinner around the Plaza del Socorro and perhaps a drink afterwards. There is almost no club scene, and outside the September fair the town is asleep by the early hours.

Both are excellent bases for the outdoors, but the landscapes are very different. Granada has high mountains. The Sierra Nevada has ski slopes about 45 minutes away in winter, summer routes towards Mulhacén, the highest peak in mainland Spain, and the terraced valleys and chestnut woods of the Alpujarras.

Ronda's country is limestone and close at hand. The green crags of Grazalema, with vultures overhead, lie to the west and the Spanish fir forests of the Sierra de las Nieves to the east. Climbers use the gorge cliffs, and the Caminito del Rey is about an hour's drive away.

The two are about even here, but the outings differ. From Granada the big trips are to cities by fast train: Córdoba's Mezquita, Málaga and the dolmens of Antequera. Úbeda and Baeza and the Alpujarras villages make good outings by road.

Ronda's best trips are to white villages a short drive away, such as Setenil de las Bodegas under its overhanging rock, Zahara de la Sierra and Grazalema, plus the Palaeolithic paintings of the Cueva de la Pileta. Seville and Jerez are just reachable for a long day, which they are not from Granada, but a hire car does most of the work.

Children get more out of Granada. The Parque de las Ciencias, with its planetarium and butterfly house, fills most of a day, and the fountains of the Alhambra gardens hold young children's attention. Both places are steep and cobbled, so pushchairs struggle in either.

In Ronda, older children enjoy the gorge walk, the rock stairway and the nearby caves. Beyond those there is nothing aimed at them, and some of the viewpoints are high and exposed. A country house with a pool is the usual way to make Ronda work for a family.

Both centres are walkable, but Granada makes the steep parts easier. Small red minibuses climb to the Alhambra, the Albaicín and Sacromonte, the lower town is flat, and good train links mean many day trips need no car.

Ronda is smaller, with the bridge, bullring and old town only minutes apart on foot. Leaving town is the hard part, because trains and buses are slow and infrequent and the villages and natural parks are really car territory.

For things to take home, Granada is well ahead. The Alcaicería beside the cathedral recalls the old silk market, though much of what it sells is souvenirs. The better finds are local crafts: taracea inlaid woodwork, blue and green Fajalauza ceramics and handmade guitars. Calle Recogidas covers everyday needs with chain stores and a department store.

Ronda has one pedestrian shopping street, Carrera Espinel, and souvenir shops near the bridge. Its best take-homes are food and drink: local wine, cured meats and olive oil.

Both cost noticeably less than the coast or the big Spanish cities, but the savings come in different places. In Granada the free tapa keeps evenings cheap and buses cover the sights. Prices rise near the Alhambra, at Albaicín boutique stays, at view terraces and at flamenco shows.

In Ronda the town costs nothing to walk around and Mercadillo set lunches are cheap. A hire car is usually the biggest extra, though, and hotels overlooking the gorge charge more, as does the September fair.

Granada is far ahead. Zambra in the Sacromonte caves and the small flamenco clubs, called peñas, in the Albaicín give rawer flamenco evenings. The International Festival of Music and Dance, held since 1952, stages concerts and ballet in the Alhambra's palaces and the Generalife's open-air theatre. The city orchestra plays at the Auditorio Manuel de Falla through the rest of the year.

Ronda offers small flamenco shows and an occasional programme at its municipal theatre. Its one big event is the Corrida Goyesca, a bullfight in eighteenth-century costume held at the September fair.

Granada offers more ways to unwind. Hammams in the lower Albaicín recreate the warm and cold pools of the Moorish baths, with massage to follow. Within an hour are the spa towns of Lanjarón and Alhama de Granada, whose thermal waters have been used since Roman times.

Ronda's Arab baths are a monument rather than a place to bathe, and treatments are limited to a few hotel spas. What Ronda offers instead is quiet. The town calms down once the coach parties leave, and farmhouse stays among the olive groves suit a few days of doing very little.