Lagos, Portugal or Malaga?

The two are close as beach towns, but the beaches are very different. Lagos has the prettier coast: small golden coves like Camilo and Dona Ana sit under carved cliffs and sea stacks, reached by long wooden stairs, and Meia Praia gives you 4km of open sand. The catch is the Atlantic, which stays fresh even in high summer.

Malaga's city beaches, La Malagueta, Pedregalejo and El Palo, are plain grey-brown sand. What they offer instead is warmer water, a longer swimming season and the whole Costa del Sol strung along the suburban railway. For scenery like Lagos's coves, you have to travel an hour east to Nerja and Maro.

Malaga is the stronger place to eat. Its tapas bars around Plaza de la Merced, the espetos of sardines grilled over driftwood on the beach, plates of fried fish in El Palo, the Atarazanas market counters and the old bodegas pouring sweet wine from the barrel add up to a proper eating culture, and it costs little.

Lagos does grilled fish and cataplana well, and its riverside market is good. But the old town is lined with restaurants aimed at visitors, so a good meal means looking a street or two back or heading to the harbour.

Malaga has far more to see. The Alcazaba climbs the hill above a Roman theatre, Gibralfaro crowns the ridge, and the unfinished cathedral stands in the centre. Add the Picasso Museum, Picasso's birthplace and the Carmen Thyssen collection and you have two full days of sightseeing.

Lagos fits its history into a morning: the old walls, the harbour fort, the gilded interior of the Church of Santo António, and the slave market museum, which tells a hard story about the Age of Discovery.

Malaga has the fuller nights. Dinner starts at ten, the terraces and small bars around Plaza Uncibay and Calle Granada stay busy past two at weekends, and the crowd is mixed in age. For bigger clubs, Torremolinos is a short train ride away.

Lagos is younger and rowdier: backpackers, surfers, pub crawls and small bars in the old town lanes. But it is mostly a summer scene, and it goes quiet from November to March.

Both are strong for the outdoors, but in different ways: Lagos is about the sea, Malaga about the mountains. From Lagos you can kayak into the grottoes at Ponta da Piedade, walk the clifftops to Luz, follow the Fishermen's Trail on the wild Costa Vicentina or surf there all year.

Malaga's countryside is the high ground inland. There is the Caminito del Rey gorge walk, the limestone stacks of El Torcal, serious hikes in the sierras above Nerja, and skiing in the Sierra Nevada in winter.

Here Malaga is far ahead and is one of the great bases in southern Spain. The Alhambra in Granada and the Mezquita in Cordoba are both easy train trips, Ronda's gorge is under two hours away, and Antequera's dolmens are half an hour off.

From Lagos the best outing is to Sagres and Cape St Vincent, with Silves's Moorish castle and the Monchique hills inland. These are pleasant days out rather than major sights, and most of them need a car.

Malaga is a little easier with children. The centre is flat and pedestrianised, which makes it fine for pushchairs, the city beaches slope gently, and the zoo, aquarium and dolphin park along the coast are all on the suburban train.

Lagos has Meia Praia's shallow, roomy shore and a relaxed pace. But the prettiest coves are down steep stairs, the old town is cobbled, and the attractions built for children are outside town and need a drive.

Both are places you explore on foot, so the real difference is how well each connects to everything beyond it. Lagos is compact but not effortless: the old town's cobbled lanes climb and dip, and Meia Praia lies across the river by footbridge. The town is the last stop at the far western end of the Algarve line, and the trains towards Faro take their time, so it feels like the end of the road rather than a junction.

Malaga is the easier of the two by a clear margin. Its centre is flat and largely pedestrianised, a city bus spares you the one steep climb to Gibralfaro, and a suburban line strings the coastal resorts together. The main station is on Spain's high-speed network, so Seville and Madrid are a train ride away, and only the inland villages and gorges are hard to reach without driving.

Malaga offers real shopping: the marble Calle Larios lined with Spanish chains, El Corte Ingles, the shops along Muelle Uno and a few independents in Soho, with Puerto Banus not far away for luxury. Lagos is for browsing hand-painted ceramics, cork goods and surf gear, plus honey and medronho brandy from the market, and not much more.

Both cost about the Western European average, but they save you money in different ways. In Malaga, cheap tapas, cheap local trains and low-cost sights balance the price of rooms, which stay in demand from spring right through autumn.

In Lagos the swing between seasons is sharper: beach rooms are expensive in July and August, then much cheaper from October to May. That makes it a good-value base for a long off-season stay.

In Lagos, live performance mostly means guitar and fado evenings for visitors in summer, cover bands in the bars and a modest programme at the municipal cultural centre. For serious concerts or theatre you would have to go to Faro or Lisbon.

The Teatro Cervantes gives Malaga a proper stage. The nineteenth-century theatre is home to the Malaga Philharmonic and hosts touring drama and dance. Flamenco is played in the local peñas as well as in the tablaos, and during Semana Santa brass bands and processions fill the streets.

Neither town is a spa destination, and in both the slow pace does more for rest than the facilities do. Lagos leans towards yoga and surf retreats on its quieter fringes, with the Roman-era thermal springs of Caldas de Monchique an hour inland.

Malaga has an Arab-style bathhouse in the old town and large resort spas along the coast towards Marbella. Its sunny, mild winter is the calmest time to come.