Granada or Santiago de Compostela?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Granada has the better sea within reach. The Costa Tropical lies about an hour south over the mountains, where the Mediterranean warms to around 23°C in late summer and the coves near La Herradura are clear enough for snorkelling. The trade-off is pebble and dark sand.

Santiago is closer to the coast, at about 35km, and the rías have finer white sand in sheltered inlets. The Atlantic stays cold, though, and the short Galician summer makes even July a gamble.

Santiago eats better, mostly because of Galician seafood. Octopus, razor clams, scallops and percebes come straight from the Abastos market, where some counters will cook what you buy, and they pair well with Albariño in the taverns of Rúa do Franco.

Granada's strength is how it eats rather than what. The free tapa with every drink turns an evening into a crawl through the Realejo and the lower Albaicín, with Alpujarras ham and fried aubergine with cane honey, and the Moroccan tea houses add a flavour Santiago lacks. Both cities are thin on international cooking.

Granada has the greater sights. The Alhambra's Nasrid palaces and Generalife gardens are among the great monuments of Europe, and the Albaicín, the Renaissance cathedral, the Royal Chapel and the Carthusian monastery mean several days of rewarding sightseeing.

Santiago's culture centres on one building. The cathedral with the Pórtico da Gloria and the granite squares around the Obradoiro are magnificent, and the Cidade da Cultura adds a modern contrast, but the whole old town is covered in two or three days, and it lacks the layers of Moorish and Christian history found in Granada.

Granada stays out later and offers more choice. The tapas round leads on to Calle Elvira and Plaza Nueva, then to the student clubs around Pedro Antonio de Alarcón, which run until dawn at weekends.

Santiago's nights are smaller and more pub-like, with bars around Rúa da Raíña, Thursday student nights and the odd folk session, plus only a handful of clubs. Both cities go quiet in summer when the students leave, though Santiago more so, since the pilgrims who replace them go to bed early.

Granada's landscape is on a different scale. The snow-capped Sierra Nevada rises over the city, with ski slopes about 45 minutes away in winter, summer routes towards Mulhacén, the highest peak in mainland Spain, and the terraced Alpujarras valleys on its southern side.

Santiago offers gentle, green country instead: oak woods, stone-walled fields and the Camino paths leading straight out of town. Its real wild places are further away, at the Costa da Morte cliffs and the Fragas do Eume forest, and rain is part of every walk.

Both cities make good bases, but for different kinds of outing. From Granada you go to other great Andalusian cities and towns, with Córdoba's Mezquita, the Renaissance towns of Úbeda and Baeza, and the Antequera dolmens, along with the white mountain villages of the Alpujarras.

Santiago's trips are shorter and more about the coast: A Coruña's Roman lighthouse half an hour away by train, the Albariño country and granaries of the Rías Baixas, the walls of Lugo, and the fishing villages at Fisterra and Muxía at the end of the Camino.

Granada is the easier city with children. The Parque de las Ciencias, with its planetarium and butterfly house, fills most of a day, the Alhambra's fountains keep younger ones interested, and a snow day in the Sierra Nevada is possible in winter. Bring a carrier rather than a pushchair for the steep Albaicín, and avoid the midsummer afternoons.

Santiago has little made for children beyond its parks, and rain can rule out several days in a row. Families usually see it quickly and then head for the coast or the aquarium in A Coruña.

Both are walking cities, and the difference lies in the ground underfoot. In Granada the challenge is the gradient: the flat lower town is easy, but the Alhambra and Albaicín hills are steep, and the small red minibuses that climb them save a lot of effort.

Santiago's centre is more compact and can be crossed in about twenty minutes. Its climbs are short, but the granite gets slippery in the rain. It also has the more useful trains for onward trips along the Galician coast.

Neither city is for fashion, and both reward the craft hunter in different ways. Granada's finds are Moorish in spirit: taracea inlaid woodwork, Fajalauza ceramics and handmade guitars, along with the souvenir lanes of the Alcaicería.

In Santiago the craft is pilgrim jet set in silver near the Azabachería, alongside Sargadelos porcelain. Its other strength is food to carry home, such as tetilla cheese, tinned seafood and tarta de Santiago.

The two are about equally affordable, and both cut costs with free tapas. In Granada the expense gathers around the Alhambra, in boutique stays in the Albaicín, terraces with palace views and flamenco shows aimed at visitors.

In Santiago, pensiones, pilgrim hostels and the free cathedral keep a stay cheap, and seafood costs less here than elsewhere in Spain. The pressure comes in summer, above all around the feast of Saint James in July.

Granada has far more to see on stage. Flamenco is a living art here, from the zambra danced in the Sacromonte caves to rawer evenings in the peñas, and the summer International Festival of Music and Dance puts concerts and ballet inside the Alhambra itself.

Santiago's live culture is modest by comparison: an orchestral season at the Auditorio de Galicia, theatre mostly in Galician, and the charm of bagpipe sessions and caped student tunas singing in the old-town streets.

Granada has the edge, mainly because you can bathe in the city itself. Hammams in the lower Albaicín recreate the Moorish sequence of warm and cold pools with massage, and the spa towns of Lanjarón and Alhama de Granada are within an hour.

Santiago's relaxation depends on a trip out of town. The old spa towns of Caldas de Reis and Cuntis and the open-air riverside pools of Ourense are the draw, a fitting rest after the Camino.