Granada or Tangier?

Granada has no sea of its own. A beach day means an hour's drive over the mountains to the Costa Tropical, where Salobreña, Almuñécar and La Herradura have pebble and dark-sand coves with calm water that suits snorkelling. In town you swim in a pool.

Tangier does better, if not by much. The bay beach below the modern town is close at hand, though the cleaner swimming lies west at Achakar and Cap Spartel, where the Atlantic beaches are wide, with surf and cooler water. Expect a local family scene and more modest dress than on Spanish beaches.

The two eat about equally well, in quite different ways. Granada's evening is a drink-led tapas round through Calle Navas, the Realejo and the lower Albaicín, with Alpujarras ham, fried aubergine with cane honey and remojón arriving free with each glass.

Tangier's food is Moroccan home cooking: fish chosen at the port, bissara for breakfast, harira and Friday couscous, with mint tea on terraces over the Strait as the social centre. Wine and beer are hard to find, while Granada's teterías on Calderería Nueva give a Moorish echo without giving up the bar.

Granada is in another league. The Nasrid palaces and Generalife gardens of the Alhambra rank among Europe's great monuments, and the Albaicín, the cathedral, the Royal Chapel with the tombs of Ferdinand and Isabella, and the Cartuja's sacristy would each anchor a lesser city.

Tangier's appeal lies more in mood than in monuments. The kasbah museum, the American Legation and the Art Deco Ville Nouvelle tell the story of an international port where Paul Bowles and the Beats once lingered. It rewards wandering, but it has fewer sights that stop you in your tracks.

Granada's students keep it going: tapas bars give way to Calle Elvira and Plaza Nueva, then to the pubs and clubs around Pedro Antonio de Alarcón, and weekends run towards dawn. The scene is informal and quieter in summer, but it is a real night out.

Tangier's evenings are a stroll along the seafront and another glass of tea. Drinking keeps to a few old international-era bars, hotel lounges and summer beach clubs on the bay, and the medina falls silent after dark.

The Sierra Nevada gives Granada the edge. Snow sits on the skyline much of the year, the ski slopes are under an hour away, and summer opens routes towards Mulhacén and the Veleta, with the terraced valleys and chestnut woods of the Alpujarras on the southern side.

Tangier's outdoors is coastal and gentler: the cliffs and pine paths of Cap Spartel, the wooded Perdicaris park, storks and raptors crossing the Strait in spring and autumn, and dolphin trips. The Rif is too far for a day out.

Both make excellent bases, so the choice comes down to what kind of outing you want. From Granada the trips are Andalusian heritage: the Mezquita in Córdoba, the Renaissance towns of Úbeda and Baeza, the Antequera dolmens and the white villages of the Alpujarras.

Tangier offers Moroccan medinas and a second continent. Asilah and Tetouan are close, Chefchaouen makes a long day, the fast train reaches Rabat, and a ferry puts you in Tarifa in about an hour.

Granada is the easier city with children. It is compact and relaxed, the Parque de las Ciencias with its planetarium and butterfly house fills a day, and the Alhambra's fountains hold young attention, though the cobbled hills and summer afternoons test small legs.

Tangier welcomes children warmly but has little made for them, with no zoo, aquarium or theme park. The promenade, the Caves of Hercules and the ferry to Spain make outings, but the medina's stairs and its touts wear on families.

In Granada you can walk almost everywhere. The lower town is flat, and the little red minibuses haul you up to the Alhambra, the Albaicín and Sacromonte, so a visitor rarely needs anything more.

Tangier's centre is walkable too, but the medina is steep and confusing at first, and anything further out, including Cap Spartel and the Atlantic beaches, means haggling over a petit taxi or hiring a driver. It makes up for this with the train to Rabat and a ferry port right in town.

Neither is a shopping destination, and the difference is in how you buy. Granada's finds are workshop crafts: taracea inlay, blue and green Fajalauza pottery, leather and handmade guitars, bought without haggling, while the Alcaicería is mostly souvenirs and Calle Recogidas covers the chains.

Tangier is a bargaining town. The medina lanes towards the kasbah sell rugs, lanterns, slippers and the striped cloth of the Rif, the Saturday market brings farm women in from the hills, and the hard sell is part of the deal.

Tangier is the cheaper of the two. Street snacks, port-side fish, café tea, taxis and medina guesthouses cost very little, and only alcohol and the sea-view hotels push the bill up.

Granada is good value by Spanish standards, thanks above all to the free tapa with each drink and modest rooms in the Realejo. Staying or dining within sight of the Alhambra, and booking a visitor flamenco show, is where it gets expensive.

Granada has a living stage. Flamenco runs from the close-quarters zambra in the Sacromonte caves to rougher nights in Albaicín peñas, the summer Festival of Music and Dance puts ballet and concerts inside the Alhambra, and the city orchestra plays at the Auditorio Manuel de Falla all year.

Tangier's music is mostly in its past and at festivals: Jajouka legend, Andalusian classical music and gnawa at occasional concerts, plus an annual jazz festival. On an ordinary night there is little beyond hotel entertainment and the old cinema on the Grand Socco.

Both have hammams, but of different kinds. Granada's are elegant revivals of the Moorish baths under vaulted ceilings in the lower Albaicín, made for visitors, and the spa waters of Lanjarón and Alhama de Granada are within an hour.

In Tangier the hammam is a neighbourhood habit: steam, black soap and a kessa scrub in simple local bathhouses, with riad spas for more comfort. Its slowest hours are spent on a terrace looking over the Strait.