Granada or San Sebastian?

San Sebastian has the beach Granada lacks. La Concha is a bay of pale sand in the middle of town, sheltered by Santa Clara island, with Ondarreta beside it for families and Zurriola across the river for surfers. The catch is the Bay of Biscay: a short season and grey days even in summer.

Granada is inland, and the sea is a day out to Salobreña, Almuñécar or La Herradura on the Costa Tropical, an hour south over the mountains. Those coves of pebble and dark sand have warmer, clearer Mediterranean water that suits snorkelling, but in the city itself swimming means a pool.

Both cities eat in small plates on the move from bar to bar, but San Sebastian takes it much further. Its pintxo counters in the Parte Vieja and Gros, each bar with its own speciality, sit beneath a fine-dining tier of national renown, and the cider houses of Astigarraga add a winter and spring ritual.

Granada's appeal is generosity and character rather than refinement: the free tapa with each drink around Calle Navas and the Realejo, Alpujarras ham, aubergine with cane honey, and Moroccan tea houses on Calderería Nueva. It has little at the top end, though neither city offers much beyond its own regional cooking.

Granada holds one of Europe's great monuments in the Alhambra, with its Nasrid palaces, Alcazaba and Generalife gardens, and the Albaicín facing it across the valley. Add the cathedral, the Royal Chapel with the tombs of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Carthusian monastery and the caves of Sacromonte, and there is far more to see.

San Sebastian is enjoyed as a townscape: the Belle Époque streets, the rebuilt grid of the Parte Vieja, Monte Urgull's castle and the Miramar Palace. The San Telmo Museum and Chillida's Peine del Viento are the highlights, and two or three days cover it.

Granada's large student population gives it the longer nights. Tapas lead on to Calle Elvira and Plaza Nueva, then to the pubs and clubs around Pedro Antonio de Alarcón that run towards dawn at weekends, though it quietens when the students leave in summer.

San Sebastian's best hours are early: the pintxo bars of the old town are full and sociable, but after that there are only a few late bars and clubs. Its season runs the other way, with summer and the fireworks of Semana Grande in August keeping the city out latest.

Granada has the bigger landscape. The Sierra Nevada rises behind it, with ski slopes at Pradollano under an hour away in winter and summer routes towards Mulhacén, mainland Spain's highest summit, while the Alpujarras offer terraced valleys and old mule paths.

San Sebastian's outdoors is greener, gentler and tied to the sea. The cliff path from Monte Ulia to Pasaia and over Jaizkibel to Hondarribia is superb, Zurriola suits surfers and the bay suits paddleboarding, but the inland hills are for walking rather than high peaks, and the rain is a constant companion.

From Granada the day trips go deeper into Andalusia's past: Córdoba's Mezquita by fast train, the dolmens at Antequera, the Renaissance towns of Úbeda and Baeza, and the white villages of the Alpujarras, where a car makes the mountain roads easier.

San Sebastian sits a short ride from France, so one stay can take in Biarritz and Bayonne as well as Bilbao's Guggenheim, walled Hondarribia and the Rioja Alavesa vineyards, most of them by bus or train. That gives a mix of two countries and wine country, where Granada's list follows a single history.

San Sebastian is the easier choice with children. Calm town beaches, a flat car-free promenade, the aquarium's walk-through tunnel, the Eureka science museum and the funicular up to the little funfair on Monte Igueldo fill several days, weather permitting.

Granada has one strong draw in the Parque de las Ciencias and gardens at the Alhambra that hold young attention, but the steep cobbled lanes are hard work with a pushchair and summer afternoons are very hot. A snow day in the Sierra Nevada is its winter bonus.

San Sebastian is flat and compact, with the old town, La Concha, Gros and Zurriola strung along the river and promenade, bike lanes on the waterfront, and Euskotren trains running to the French border and towards Bilbao.

Granada is also walkable, but its best parts sit on hills. The lower town is easy, while the Alhambra, Albaicín and Sacromonte mean steep cobbles or the small red minibuses, and its light rail serves the suburbs more than the sights.

Neither city is a shopping destination, and what to take home differs. Granada's finds are crafts: taracea inlaid woodwork, blue and green Fajalauza ceramics, leather and guitars, with the Alcaicería for atmospheric browsing.

San Sebastian's best buys are edible, from Idiazabal cheese and txakoli to tinned anchovies from La Bretxa, plus espadrilles, berets and a few independent boutiques in the Centro and surf shops in Gros.

Granada is far easier on the wallet. The free tapa makes eating out cheap, rooms in the lower town and the Realejo are reasonable, and the costs only climb around the Alhambra, in Albaicín boutique stays and view terraces.

San Sebastian is among the dearest places to stay in Spain, with scarce rooms that soar in summer and festival weeks, and its famous restaurants are a real splurge. Free beaches and walks help, and visiting outside the summer peak helps most.

Granada has the stronger year-round live culture, rooted in flamenco: the zambra in the Sacromonte caves and rawer evenings in Albaicín peñas, with the legacy of Lorca and Falla behind it. Its summer festival puts music and ballet inside the Alhambra and the Generalife.

San Sebastian's reputation rests on two summer festivals, Jazzaldia in July and the Quincena Musical in August. Outside them the Kursaal and the Teatro Victoria Eugenia keep a quieter programme.

The two are about level, with different traditions. Granada recreates Moorish bathing in hammams in the lower Albaicín, and real spa towns at Lanjarón and Alhama de Granada lie within an hour.

San Sebastian's heritage is the seaside cure, kept alive in the thalassotherapy spa on the La Concha promenade with seawater pools facing the bay. Beyond that it relies on hotel spas and the calm of an evening stroll.