Jerez de la Frontera or Lisbon?

Neither city has a beach of its own, but Jerez's coast is better for a swim. Valdelagrana and El Puerto de Santa María are a short trip away, and Cádiz's La Caleta and Playa de la Victoria are half an hour by train. The broad sands at Sanlúcar and La Barrosa are within an hour. The water is a few degrees warmer, although the Levante wind can make some days rough.

From Lisbon, the Cascais line runs past Carcavelos and the calmer bays of Estoril, and Costa da Caparica stretches out across the river. The sea is cooler, and swell often makes these beaches better for surfing than swimming. The sheltered Arrabida coves are the best water, but you need a car to get there.

Lisbon offers more variety. Grilled fish and bacalhau in family tascas, clams and crab in seafood beer halls, warm custard tarts at every pastelaria, and cheap glasses of Douro, Alentejo and vinho verde wine make eating out a daily pleasure. Markets such as the Mercado da Ribeira mix produce stalls with places to eat.

Jerez is narrower but very deep. Everything centres on sherry, poured from the barrel in tabancos with chicharrones or cheese, or tasted in the bodegas themselves. Kidneys and oxtail cooked in sherry, and fried fish from Sanlúcar, round out a cuisine built on one strong tradition.

Lisbon has far more to see. Belem alone has the Manueline Jeronimos Monastery, the Belem Tower and the Coach Museum. The rebuilt Baixa grid, the medieval lanes of Alfama below the castle and museums such as the Gulbenkian and the National Tile Museum easily fill three or four days.

Jerez's heritage is smaller and more particular to the place. It has the Almohad Alcázar with its Arab baths, Gothic-Mudéjar parish churches and the old flamenco quarters of Santiago and San Miguel. Two experiences you will not find elsewhere are the cathedral-like sherry bodegas and the dressage horses of the Royal Andalusian School, but two or three days cover it all.

Lisbon is where you go out. On warm weekends Bairro Alto's lanes become one large standing crowd, Cais do Sodre's bars carry on later, and the warehouse clubs along the river do not fill until after 2am. Principe Real adds cocktail bars and the heart of the gay scene.

Jerez keeps to late Andalusian hours, but its nights are provincial: tapas, copa bars and tabancos around Plaza del Arenal and Calle Larga, with a few clubs. The exception is the Feria del Caballo in May, when the casetas dance until dawn for a week.

Lisbon has wilder landscapes closer to hand. The forested Sintra hills run down to the cliffs at Cabo da Roca and the dunes of Guincho, Ericeira draws surfers all year, and the steep limestone of Arrabida offers hiking, kayaking and dolphin trips from Setubal. Within the city there is shade in the Monsanto forest park.

Around Jerez, the white vineyard country is gentle, so the bigger scenery takes a drive. The gorges of the Sierra de Grazalema are over an hour away, and boats from Sanlúcar cross to the edge of Doñana's wetlands. Horse riding and birdwatching in the Bay of Cádiz marshes are the local outdoor activities, and the summer heat limits hiking.

Both cities are excellent bases, but the trips are different. From Jerez, Seville is an hour away by train and ancient Cádiz half an hour, and the sherry towns of El Puerto and Sanlúcar are close. With a car you can reach the cliff-top white towns from Arcos to Ronda, and even Gibraltar.

From Lisbon, the palaces of Sintra fill a full day forty minutes away by train, and Cascais and Mafra are easy half days. Further out, walled Evora and the UNESCO monasteries of Alcobaca, Batalha and Tomar make up a longer heritage circuit.

Pushchairs move easily around flat Jerez, where the zoo and botanical garden is one of the better ones in Spain and the horse show at the equestrian school usually holds children's attention. Beyond those two, little is built for children, and July and August in town are very hot.

Lisbon is harder on parents' legs but gives children more to do. The Oceanario's huge central tank, the science centre and the riverside cable car are all together at the Parque das Nacoes, and the yellow trams and the Santa Justa lift are rides in themselves. The train to the Cascais beaches makes a hot day easy, though the stairways and slippery limestone mean a baby carrier works better than a pushchair.

Both centres can be done on foot, but they feel very different. Jerez is small and flat, with the Alcázar, the bodegas and the tapas streets a short stroll apart. The station and airport are close, but you need a hired car for the white towns and the sierra.

Lisbon makes you climb. Its seven hills mean steep stairways and polished stone, eased by a clear metro, funiculars and the slow, crowded trams. Suburban trains to Sintra and Cascais and the river ferries all run on one card, so you rarely need a car.

Lisbon is the better place to shop. You can choose between the luxury boulevard of Avenida da Liberdade, Chiado's old bookshops and glove makers, and the designers and antiques of Principe Real. The flea market and the LX Factory add more, and azulejo tiles, cork goods and Burel wool are worth carrying home.

Jerez's Calle Larga is a modest high street. What makes shopping there worthwhile is local: sherry and brandy from the bodegas, saddlery and leather riding boots, and flamenco dresses and guitars near the old quarters.

Jerez is the cheaper of the two, mainly because central hotels stay moderately priced, apart from the Feria, the flamenco festival and the motorcycle race weekends. Sherry in the tabancos and bodega tours cost little, and you rarely need to pay for transport.

In Lisbon, coffee, set lunches, house wine and fares are cheap, but rooms in the central quarters cost about what they would in other southern European capitals. Visitor restaurants in Baixa and Chiado also add to the bill.

Each city has its own song, and both are best heard where it began. In Jerez, that means flamenco and the bulería in the peñas of Santiago and San Miguel and in unpolished tabanco sessions, with the late-winter festival at the Teatro Villamarta as the year's highlight.

Lisbon's fado is sung nightly in the casas of Alfama and Mouraria. It also has a broader formal scene, with the Gulbenkian orchestra, the São Carlos opera house and the Centro Cultural de Belem.

Neither city is built for a spa break, and both rely on a slow pace. Jerez does have an Arab-style bathhouse with warm pools in the old town, plus shaded patios and quiet afternoons in the heat.

Lisbon has no baths of its own, only hotel spas, and its old quarters are noisy. Real rest usually means staying out on the Cascais coast or in the Sintra hills.