Lagos, Portugal or Sintra?

Lagos is built around its beaches, and Sintra is not. The coves of Camilo, Dona Ana and Pinhão lie just below the walls, under honey-coloured cliffs and down long wooden stairways. Across the river, Meia Praia has 4km of open sand with room to spare even in August. The coves are sheltered, so the water is usually calm and clear.\n\nFrom Sintra, the beach is a separate outing over the hills to Praia Grande, Adraga or the tidal pool at Azenhas do Mar, with a historic tram running down to Praia das Maçãs in summer. The sea is colder and the surf heavier, fog can settle in on a sunny day, and most people treat it as an afternoon away from the palaces.

Neither town is a serious food destination, but Lagos has the edge for a proper meal. Its kitchen is built on the catch: charcoal-grilled sardines and octopus, cataplana and a market on the riverfront. The best tables are in the harbour fish restaurants and family places, not in the tourist lanes.

Sintra's strength is narrower and sweeter: warm travesseiros and queijadas from the old pastry houses. For good seafood you head out to Azenhas do Mar or Praia das Maçãs, and evenings in town offer little choice.

Sintra is in another league here. The Pena Palace on its peak, the ramparts of the Moorish Castle, the National Palace with its conical chimneys and the grottoes of Quinta da Regaleira fill two full days, all within a UNESCO-listed landscape.

Lagos offers a short, thoughtful walk instead. You see the old walls, the Ponta da Bandeira fort, the gilded interior of Santo António and the slave market museum, which deals with the town's part in the slave trade. It makes a good morning, but it is not a reason to travel.

Lagos is a summer bar town. Young travellers, surfers and backpackers fill the old town's lanes, pub crawls are part of the scene and a few small clubs keep going towards dawn, though it all quietens down in winter.

Sintra has almost nothing after dark. A few wine bars and café terraces stay open in the evening, but nothing runs late, and a real night out means the train to Lisbon and a plan for getting back.

Both are excellent for the outdoors, but the settings could hardly differ more. Lagos is about the edge of the sea: kayaking through the arches and grottoes of Ponta da Piedade, clifftop paths to Luz and Burgau, dolphin trips and the wild Costa Vicentina, with the Fishermen's Trail and surf schools open all year.

Sintra is about forest. Trails climb through mossy oak, cork and fern to Cruz Alta and Peninha, and the cool, damp microclimate keeps walking pleasant in summer, when the hills inland from Lagos turn hot and dusty. Cabo da Roca adds dramatic clifftops of its own.

Sintra has much the better range of excursions, and the best of them need no car. Lisbon is a short train ride away and Cascais a bus ride over the hills. Drivers can also reach Mafra, Óbidos, the monasteries of Alcobaça and Batalha, and Évora at the outer limit.

From Lagos the standout is Sagres and Cape St Vincent, with the red castle at Silves and the Monchique hills inland. Faro and Tavira make long days out, almost everything needs a car, and plenty of visitors are happy to stay on the beach.

Lagos is the easier family base, especially with small children. Meia Praia shelves gently, the town is relaxed, boat trips to the grottoes go down well, and water parks and a marine park are within driving range. The main drawback is the steep stairs down to the coves.

Sintra delights school-age children with its castle walls and the spiral of the Initiation Well, but it is hard work with toddlers. Steep cobbles defeat buggies, the hill buses are crowded and the beaches have heavy surf.

Both have a walkable core and a weakness further out, but the problems differ. In Lagos the old town, the marina and the coves are close together on foot, and a footbridge reaches Meia Praia. The trouble is the wider region, where slow trains and infrequent buses push most visitors into a hire car.

Sintra connects better to the outside world, as the suburban train from Lisbon arrives near the centre. Its own palaces, though, sit high above the town, reached by a stiff climb or a crowded circular bus, and driving the narrow hill roads is best avoided.

Both old towns sell hand-painted ceramics, cork goods and linen, so the difference is in what each adds. Lagos adds surf shops for boards and wetsuits, and its riverfront market sells local honey, figs, almonds and medronho brandy. Sintra looks to the past, with dealers in old azulejos and furniture and the long-standing Sunday fair at São Pedro de Penaferrim, and anyone after fashion goes into Lisbon.

Costs come out much the same, but the money goes on different things. In Lagos the season decides the bill. Rooms are expensive in July and August, October to May is good value for long stays, and most beaches cost nothing.

In Sintra the palaces are the main expense, since each has its own ticket. Rooms in the manor houses of the historic centre also run high, so staying in the outlying villages or near the coast saves noticeably.

What sets the two apart is Sintra's summer festival of classical music and dance, held in palace halls and quinta gardens. Lagos has nothing like it. It has a modest programme at the cultural centre, fado and guitar evenings for visitors and cover bands in the bars, and serious concerts are a long way off in Faro or Lisbon.\n\nOutside the festival, Sintra has little more to offer: concerts and theatre at the Olga Cadaval centre and the odd fado night in a restaurant. The real advantage is that Lisbon's opera and theatres are a short train ride away, not a long journey.

In Lagos you rest by the sea, and in Sintra you rest in the forest, since neither has a bathing tradition of its own. Outside the summer peak, Lagos slows down to long lunches and sunset walks along the cliffs, and yoga and surf retreats gather on the quieter edges towards Luz and the west coast. For thermal water, the springs at Caldas de Monchique, in use since Roman times, are an hour inland.\n\nIn Sintra, the calm comes in the evenings and early mornings. The most restful way to stay is in a quinta among old gardens, with mist in the trees and the town empty once the day-trippers have gone. Quiet estates such as Monserrate are at their best before the crowds arrive.