Granada or Segovia?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Granada at least has the sea within reach. The Costa Tropical lies about an hour south over the mountains, and the pebble and dark-sand coves at Salobreña, Almuñécar and La Herradura make a good day out, with snorkelling included.

Segovia is a long day's drive from any coast. Summer swimming there means a pool or a cold reservoir in the Guadarrama foothills, so anyone who needs the sea should plan that part of the trip elsewhere.

Granada wins on how you eat. With a free tapa served with every drink, a round of bars through the Realejo and the lower Albaicín is both a meal and an evening out. Alpujarras ham, aubergine with cane honey and the Moroccan tea houses of Calderería Nueva add a strand that Segovia has no equivalent for.

Segovia is the place for one great meal rather than a whole eating scene: crisp-skinned cochinillo and roast lamb from wood-fired ovens, judiones beans from La Granja and Ribera del Duero wine. Away from the roasts the choice narrows quickly, and neither city goes far into fine dining or international cooking.

Both are UNESCO-listed old towns crowned by a fortress, but the Alhambra puts Granada ahead. The Nasrid palaces, the Generalife gardens and the Albaicín facing them across the valley fill a few unhurried days, with the Royal Chapel, the cathedral and the Sacromonte caves below.

Segovia has less, packed more tightly. The Roman aqueduct, the Gothic cathedral and the Alcázar on its cliff, with Romanesque churches such as San Martín in between, make a superb full day, but there is less to fill a third. In neither city are museums the main draw.

Granada stays out much later. A large university fills the bars around Calle Elvira and Plaza Nueva, and at weekends the student clubs off Pedro Antonio de Alarcón stay open until dawn, though the city quietens in summer when the students leave.

In Segovia an evening means a tapas round on Plaza Mayor, with a few later bars at weekends and very little after that, especially in winter. Night owls staying there usually take the train to Madrid.

Both cities sit below a mountain range, but the Sierra Nevada is the bigger and more varied one. From Granada you can ski above Pradollano in winter and climb towards Mulhacén, mainland Spain's highest summit, in summer. You can also walk the terraced valleys and chestnut woods of the Alpujarras.

Segovia's Sierra de Guadarrama is gentler and closer. The pine forests of Valsaín and the trails up Peñalara are within half an hour, and the Hoces del Duratón gorge, with its vultures, lies further out. Its cooler climate also makes summer walking easier than on Granada's baking valley floor.

Both make excellent bases, and the difference is in what lies around them. Granada's outings take you across Andalusia: the Mezquita in Córdoba by fast train, Málaga, the dolmens of Antequera, the Renaissance towns of Úbeda and Baeza, and the white villages of the Alpujarras.

Segovia's trips are shorter and more Castilian. There are royal palaces at La Granja and Riofrío, walled Ávila, and the medieval villages of Pedraza and Sepúlveda. Madrid is less than half an hour away by high-speed train, so a capital's museums are an easy day out.

Granada has more to keep children busy over several days. 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 the Sierra Nevada adds snow in winter.

Segovia has a storybook castle in the Alcázar and the giant arches of the aqueduct, but little else aimed at children, so a day or two is enough. Both old towns are steep and cobbled for pushchairs, and Granada's summer heat is its bigger drawback.

Granada's small red minibuses are its main advantage. They climb the lanes to the Alhambra, the Albaicín and Sacromonte so you don't have to, and the flat lower town is easy on foot.

Segovia's sights line up along one ridge and can all be walked in a morning, but nothing similar helps on the steep cobbles, and the high-speed station is about fifteen minutes out by bus. In both cities a car is only worth having for villages and mountain trailheads.

Granada is clearly the better of the two for shopping, though neither is a reason to make the trip. It has a living craft tradition, so you can come home with inlaid taracea woodwork, a piece of Fajalauza pottery or a guitar made in a local workshop. The streets around Puerta Real also give it a proper high-street centre, with the Spanish chains and a department store.

Segovia has far less to offer. The best things to take home are edible, such as a boxed ponche segoviano or a bag of La Granja beans. Beyond some local pottery and embroidery, the old town sells mostly souvenirs. For clothes or design, people staying in Segovia go to Madrid.

Costs are close, and the difference lies in where the money goes. In Granada the free tapa makes everyday eating unusually cheap, while the expense gathers around the Alhambra: boutique stays in the Albaicín, terraces with palace views and flamenco shows for visitors.

In Segovia the splurge is roast suckling pig by the aqueduct. Rooms cost more at weekends and in summer, when visitors arrive from Madrid, but midweek and in winter it is an easy place to stay cheaply.

Granada has a living performance culture that Segovia lacks. Zambra flamenco in the Sacromonte caves and rawer peña evenings run through the year, and the city orchestra plays at the Auditorio Manuel de Falla. The summer festival of music and dance, held since 1952, stages concerts and ballet inside the Alhambra itself.

Segovia's arts come in seasonal bursts: the Titirimundi puppet festival in spring, summer concerts in churches and gardens, and touring shows at Teatro Juan Bravo. Between festivals there is little on.

Granada has a bathing tradition to draw on. Hammams in the lower Albaicín revive the Moorish sequence of warm, tepid and cold pools. The spa towns of Lanjarón and Alhama de Granada, whose waters have been used since Roman times, are within an hour.

Segovia has no baths of its own and only a few hotel spas. What it offers instead is quiet: the old town empties once the coaches leave, and evenings along the walls with pine air from the Guadarrama are restful in a simpler way.