Marbella or Seville?

This is where the two cities differ most. Marbella is built around its shore: more than two dozen beaches over roughly 27km, from La Venus and El Fuerte in town to the dunes at Cabopino. The sand is fine and greyish, the water is mostly calm, and it is swimmable from early summer well into autumn.

Seville sits inland on the Guadalquivir. A beach day means driving or taking a coach to Matalascañas or Mazagón on the Huelva coast, which takes most of the day, and in town you swim in a hotel rooftop pool. Anyone who wants the sea every day should stay on the coast.

Seville is the better place to eat in the everyday sense. Its tapas culture is the main event: standing at tile-fronted counters in Santa Cruz, El Arenal and Triana over spinach with chickpeas, salmorejo and pork cheek, with manzanilla or fino from the nearby sherry towns.

Marbella is more uneven. The beach sardines grilled over driftwood and the old-town tapas bars are good, and it has a top tier of tasting-menu kitchens along the Golden Mile that Seville cannot match. Between those two ends, though, the seafront and port menus are often expensive and dull.

Seville is one of the major heritage cities of Europe. The Mudéjar courtyards of the Real Alcázar, the cathedral with the Giralda, the Archivo de Indias, Plaza de España and the Murillos in the Museo de Bellas Artes easily fill three or four days, nearly all within walking distance.

Marbella's history is pleasant but slight. The Plaza de los Naranjos and its whitewashed lanes, the print museum, the Dalí bronzes on the Avenida del Mar and the Roman mosaics at Río Verde take about an afternoon. For more, you drive out to the bigger monuments elsewhere in Andalusia.

Both cities go out late, but the nights feel very different. Marbella is glamour and clubs: champagne bars facing the yachts in Puerto Banús, DJ beach clubs along the Golden Mile and dancing until dawn. The scene shrinks sharply from November to March.

Seville's nights are spent outdoors and talking rather than dancing. They drift from tapas counters to terraces on the Alameda de Hércules, Triana and around the Alfalfa, with riverside bars in summer. The club scene is mostly for students, apart from the all-night casetas of the April Fair.

Marbella has real mountains at its back. You can hike from town up Sierra Blanca to La Concha and look across to Gibraltar and Morocco, the fir forests and gorges of Sierra de las Nieves are under an hour away, and the coast adds paddleboarding, sailing and dolphin-watching boats.

Seville is surrounded by flat farmland and orange orchards, so the outdoors means María Luisa Park, river paths and kayaking in town. Its standout is Doñana, a great wetland for flamingos and migrating birds about an hour and a half away. The heat rules out most outdoor plans in summer.

Both are excellent bases, and the real difference is how you get around. From Seville most trips go by train: Córdoba's Great Mosque in under an hour on the high-speed line, Jerez for sherry bodegas, and onwards to Cádiz. Carmona and the Roman site of Itálica are even closer.

From Marbella you reach Ronda, Gibraltar, Málaga and the white villages of Casares and Mijas, but there is no train, so you really need a car. Granada is a long day from either city.

Marbella is easier with children, mainly because the vacation centres on lifeguarded town beaches and a flat promenade made for scooters. Many apartment complexes are built around pools, and there are water parks, a zoo and an animal park along the coast, although you need a car to reach most of them.

Seville has María Luisa Park with its rowing boats, the maze in the Alcázar gardens and a summer water park on La Cartuja. Its summers are much harder going, though, often passing 40°C, so walking around the city with small children is really only practical in spring and autumn.

Seville is far simpler to get around. The flat historic centre puts the cathedral, Triana and Plaza de España within a half-hour walk, and a tram, a metro line, buses and an extensive network of bike lanes with a public bike scheme fill the gaps. A car only gets in the way.

Marbella stretches thinly along the motorway from San Pedro to Cabopino. The old town and seafront are pleasant on foot, but the port, beach clubs and inland villages are far apart, so most visitors hire a car or rely on taxis.

The two are on a par for shopping but sell very different things. Marbella means luxury: international fashion and jewellery boutiques facing the yachts at Puerto Banús, a department store and malls, plus linen, leather and ceramics in the old-town lanes.

Seville means local craft. There are hand-painted tiles from the old pottery quarter of Triana, and flamenco dresses, shawls, fans and guitars around Calle Sierpes, made for locals as much as for visitors. Big luxury labels are few.

Seville costs noticeably less. A tapas evening and a cold beer are cheap, walking replaces transport, and rooms are moderate most of the year. The main exceptions are Holy Week and the April Fair.

Marbella is expensive by Spanish standards, especially in July and August, when villa and hotel rates rise and beach-club sunbeds and Golden Mile dinners cost far more than elsewhere. Eating in old-town tapas bars and visiting outside summer brings it closer to normal Andalusian prices.

Seville is the home of flamenco, with nightly performances in intimate tablaos and peñas where local aficionados gather, and the Bienal brings the leading performers to the city. The Teatro de la Maestranza stages opera in the city where Carmen and The Barber of Seville are set.

Marbella offers summer pop and rock concerts in a quarry amphitheatre and flamenco shows aimed at visitors. For anything more serious, people head to Málaga.

Marbella is the better place to come specifically to rest. Spa resorts, yoga retreats and detox clinics are spread across the Golden Mile and the hills, and from October to May the town is calm and sunny, good for promenade walks and golf. High summer is much less restful.

Seville's appeal is its slow pace rather than its facilities. There are a few atmospheric Arab-style baths in old mansions, cool courtyards, the Alcázar gardens and long lunches, but the narrow streets are noisy at night and very crowded during Holy Week.