La Palma or Tenerife?

Tenerife is far better for a beach vacation. In the south, Costa Adeje, Los Cristianos and Playa del Duque have sheltered, pale-sand bays with calm water. Near Santa Cruz, Las Teresitas has golden sand under palms, and El Médano has a long natural beach for those who don't mind the wind.

La Palma has only a handful of black-sand and pebble beaches, at Puerto Naos, Tazacorte and Los Cancajos, and much of its coast is rough open Atlantic. The rock pools at Charco Azul are lovely, but here a swim is a break between walks rather than the reason for the trip.

The two islands share the same Canarian basics: wrinkled potatoes with mojo, grilled goat cheese, rabbit in salmorejo and fish straight from the harbour. Tenerife offers far more choice, from farmhouse guachinches in the northern hills to good tables in Santa Cruz and La Laguna and a few ambitious hotel kitchens in Costa Adeje. Just avoid the international menus of the southern resort strip.

La Palma's choice of restaurants is narrow, and there is little fine dining. Its wine is what stands out. There is Malvasia grown on black ash at Fuencaliente, and the piny vino de tea of the north-west, aged in Canary pine barrels, is something you won't find elsewhere.

Tenerife has more heritage worth a dedicated day. La Laguna's UNESCO-listed colonial grid served as a model for towns across Spanish America, and La Orotava has steep streets of balconied houses. Garachico was half buried by lava in 1706, and the museum in Santa Cruz holds Guanche mummies.

On La Palma, most of the heritage is on Calle Real in Santa Cruz de La Palma, with sixteenth-century churches and painted balconied houses on the seafront. Beyond the capital there are the spiral petroglyphs of La Zarza. That fills a few pleasant days, but no more.

Tenerife has nightlife and La Palma barely does. On Tenerife you can choose between the bars and clubs of Playa de las Américas, open until dawn all year, the student streets of La Laguna and late Spanish-style nights out in Santa Cruz, whose carnival is one of the largest anywhere.

La Palma has a few busy squares in Santa Cruz and Los Llanos at weekends and quiet resorts after dinner. Its one big party is the Los Indianos parade on carnival Monday, when people in white cover the capital in talcum powder.

Both islands are superb for the outdoors, and the difference is in character. La Palma is steeper, wilder and much quieter. You can walk down into the cliff-ringed Caldera de Taburiente, drive up to the Roque de los Muchachos above the clouds, cross the cinder cones of the Ruta de los Volcanes to the 2021 lava fields, and walk through the laurel ravine of Los Tilos. The whole island is a protected starlight reserve.

Tenerife's landscapes are bigger and more varied. Teide rises to 3,715m with a cable car near the top, and the island also has the laurel ridges of Anaga, the Masca gorge and the cliffs of Los Gigantes. At sea there are year-round whale watching, diving and kitesurfing at El Médano.

Tenerife is much the better base for excursions. La Gomera, with its terraced valleys, whistled language and the Garajonay cloud forest, is under an hour by ferry from Los Cristianos. Gran Canaria's Vegueta quarter makes a longer day out, and if you stay in the south, the green north offers a complete change of scene.

From La Palma, outings mostly stay on the island, to Tazacorte, San Andrés or the Fuencaliente wineries. The ferries to other islands are slow enough to make a long day, so most visitors plan those islands as separate stays.

For children, Tenerife is clearly ahead. The breakwater beaches of Costa Adeje and Los Cristianos, resort pools, one of Europe's best-known water parks, the zoo and marine park at Puerto de la Cruz and the Teide cable car keep a family busy, and a base in the south makes it all simple.

La Palma suits older children who enjoy walking, with short trails in Los Tilos, the pools at Charco Azul and the volcano visitor centres. For younger ones there is little beyond the animal park at Breña Alta, and the hairpin roads are hard on children who get car sick.

Both islands are slower to cross than the map suggests, but Tenerife is easier. It has motorways linking the south, Santa Cruz and the north coast, a tram from Santa Cruz to La Laguna, buses that reach Teide National Park and an airport next to the southern resorts. A car still helps, especially for Anaga and Teno.

On La Palma a hire car is close to essential. The central tunnel makes the trip between Santa Cruz and Los Llanos quick, but the north is a slow series of hairpins. Buses rarely reach the trailheads, so linear walks often end with a taxi back to the car.

Tenerife gives you more to browse. Santa Cruz has pedestrian streets around Calle del Castillo, a branch of the national department store and the arcaded Mercado de Nuestra Señora de África, and the southern resorts add low-tax malls. Lace and pottery from La Orotava are good to take home.

La Palma's shopping is limited to two small town centres and village markets. What is worth buying is distinctive: hand-rolled cigars, silk woven in El Paso, embroidered linen and Malvasia wine. Neither island is for fashion shopping.

The two cost about the same, and both benefit from the Canary Islands' low tax on fuel and drinks. The difference is in how you spend. On La Palma, a stay usually means a rural house or apartment and a hire car you can hardly do without, and budget rooms are few enough that winter stays need booking early.

Tenerife has a much wider range, from package deals and self-catering in Los Cristianos or Puerto de la Cruz to expensive hotels in Costa Adeje. Cheap buses make it possible to manage without a car.

La Palma's performing arts are small and local. There is the historic Teatro Circo de Marte in Santa Cruz, timple music and traditional dances at village fiestas, and the pageants of the Bajada de la Virgen once every five years. On most nights there is nothing to go to.

If you love concerts or opera, you will do far better on Tenerife. The Auditorio on the Santa Cruz seafront is home to the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra and stages a short opera season, while the Teatro Guimerá and La Laguna's Teatro Leal put on theatre and concerts. Both islands share the winter Canary Islands Music Festival. From the south, an evening in the capital means about an hour's drive each way.

Tenerife is ahead if you want treatments. The large resort hotels of Costa Adeje have proper spas with thalassotherapy pools and hydrotherapy circuits, and fincas in the north host yoga retreats. Its quiet corners are Garachico, Vilaflor and the hamlets of Anaga.

La Palma has only a few hotel spas on the coast. What it offers is its pace: a rural house among vineyards or avocado terraces, an empty trail by day and dark skies at night. It is a good place to switch off but has little to offer anyone looking for pampering.