Lagos, Portugal or Tangier?

For beaches, Lagos is far ahead. Its golden coves under honey-coloured cliffs, and the open 4km of Meia Praia, start at the edge of the old town, and the water in the sheltered coves is clear and usually calm.

Tangier's city beach along the bay is better for a walk on the promenade than for a swim, so swimmers go west to Achakar and Cap Spartel or south to Asilah. The sea there is a degree or two warmer than at Lagos, but people dress more modestly on the beach, and in summer the sand belongs mostly to Moroccan families.

Both cities cook from the sea, and grilled sardines are common to both, but everyday eating is better in Tangier. Tagines, couscous on Fridays, bissara at breakfast and the grill counters and markets around the Grand Socco make simple meals a pleasure, and mint tea on a terrace above the Strait is a ritual of its own.

Lagos has cataplana, a good riverside market and cheap local wine. But the old-town lanes lean towards tourist menus, and the better meals are a street or two back. Wine is easy to find there, while in Tangier only a small set of restaurants and hotels serve it.

Tangier gives a curious visitor two or three days of sights: the kasbah and its palace museum, the medina between the Grand Socco and the Petit Socco, the American Legation and the Art Deco Ville Nouvelle. Behind them sits the city's literary past, from Paul Bowles to the Beat writers.

Lagos tells one strong story, its part in the fifteenth-century voyages along the African coast. You can see it in the town walls, the harbour fort, the gilded interior of Santo António and the slave market museum, but all of it fits into a morning.

Lagos is clearly the better place for a night out. On summer nights its old town fills with young travellers moving between bars and pubs, with pub crawls and a few small clubs that stay open until near dawn. From November to March, though, it goes quiet.

In Tangier, evenings mean café terraces and the seafront promenade. Drinking is limited to a few old bars from the international era, hotel lounges and summer beach clubs on the bay, and the medina is silent after dark.

Lagos has the finer outdoors close at hand. You can kayak under the arches of Ponta da Piedade, walk the clifftop paths towards Luz and Burgau, take the Fishermen's Trail along the wild Costa Vicentina, or head an hour inland to the hills of the Serra de Monchique.

Tangier's best is the headland at Cap Spartel, where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean, and the wooded Perdicaris park above the city. Its own speciality is the migration of storks and raptors across the Strait in spring and autumn, but proper mountain walking in the Rif needs a night away.

Tangier is much the stronger base for day trips. Asilah and the UNESCO-listed medina of Tetouan are each about an hour away, and Chefchaouen makes a long day. The high-speed train reaches Rabat in under two hours, and a ferry takes you to Tarifa, on another continent, in about an hour.

From Lagos, the highlights are Sagres and Cape St Vincent, the Moorish castle at Silves and the spa village of Caldas de Monchique in the hills. They are pleasant outings, and most of them need a hire car.

Lagos is the easier choice with children. The gently shelving sand of Meia Praia, boat trips to the grottoes, and the water parks and marine park along the coast give a family vacation a ready shape, although the stairs down to the coves and the cobbled lanes are hard with a pushchair.

Tangier welcomes children warmly but has little built for them, with no zoo or aquarium of note. Its steep medina and persistent touts wear out small legs and patient parents alike. Families there do best with a hotel pool and short outings to the promenade or the Caves of Hercules.

Lagos is the easier of the two to cover on foot. The old town, the marina and the nearest coves are all within half an hour's walk, and a footbridge crosses the river to Meia Praia. Beyond town, slow trains and infrequent buses mean most visitors hire a car.

The medina, kasbah and Ville Nouvelle of Tangier can be walked too, but the medina's stairways and tangled lanes take time to learn, and anywhere further needs a petit taxi. For longer journeys it is better connected, with trains to Rabat and Casablanca and a ferry port in the city centre.

Neither city is a shopping destination, but Tangier has more to browse and bargain for. The medina lanes sell leather slippers, rugs, lanterns and the striped cloth of the Rif, farm women bring their produce to the Saturday markets around the Grand Socco, and the Ville Nouvelle keeps some antique shops from the expatriate era. Expect to haggle and to face a hard sell.

In Lagos, shopping means Algarve ceramics, cork goods and surf gear, browsed on the way to dinner, plus honey and medronho brandy from the market.

Your budget goes much further in Tangier. Fish, tagines, street food, mint tea, petit taxis and medina guesthouses all cost little, and only alcohol and sea-view hotels bring the bill close to European levels.

Lagos costs about the Western European average, and prices swing sharply with the season. July and August bring resort prices, while from October to May rooms get much cheaper and a long stay becomes good value.

Neither city has a real stage, but Tangier has a little more to catch: Andalusian classical music, gnawa and Jilala at festivals, a long-running annual jazz festival, the legacy of the Jajouka musicians and a historic art-house cinema on the Grand Socco. Lagos offers a modest programme at its municipal cultural centre, fado evenings for visitors and cover bands in the bars, and for serious concerts you would have to go as far as Lisbon.

Tangier has a living bathing tradition that Lagos lacks. Neighbourhood hammams in the medina offer steam, black soap and a scrub with the kessa glove, and riads and hotels run more comfortable hammam spas. Riad rooftops and long hours over tea on a terrace do the rest.

Lagos relaxes you through its pace and landscape rather than ritual: sunset walks on the cliffs, yoga and surf retreats towards Luz, and the thermal springs of Caldas de Monchique, used since Roman times, an hour inland. For rest, go outside August.