Paris or Madrid?

Neither city has a beach, and what differs is how each copes with summer. Madrid relies on its large municipal open-air pools and on the reservoirs below the Sierra de Guadarrama, which you reach by car.

Paris covers stretches of its riverbanks in sand and deckchairs and opens swimming spots in the Bassin de la Villette and the Seine. The cool Channel coast at Deauville and Trouville is about two hours away by train, so a day by the sea is possible from Paris but not from Madrid.

Madrid eats late, on its feet and in company. The tapas crawl along Cava Baja, around Plaza de Santa Ana and through Lavapiés, Sunday vermouth, cocido and callos, and churros before bed are the local habit. Being the capital, it also draws in the rest of Spain, so Galician seafood houses and Basque grills sit beside a serious top tier of tasting menus, and the midday menú del día makes lunch the meal to plan around.

Paris goes deeper and reaches wider. Madrid's best eating happens at the bar counter, but in Paris much of it starts in the shops. A baker, a cheesemonger and a weekly market in every district make even a riverside picnic a good meal, and its pastry goes far beyond Madrid's churros. Madrid brings together the regions of Spain, while Paris brings in much of the world, with North African, Vietnamese, Lebanese and West African cooking in Belleville, the 13th and the north-east. Between the simple bistro and the grand table there are also far more wine bars and small, inventive kitchens to choose from. Near the big sights the set menus are tired, so eat a few streets away.

Madrid's strength is painting. The Prado's Velázquez and Goya, Guernica at the Reina Sofía and the Thyssen all sit along the Paseo del Prado. Around them the city is Habsburg and Bourbon grandeur, with the Plaza Mayor and the Royal Palace, and very little from the Middle Ages.

Paris covers far more. The Louvre and Orsay are joined by a long list of other major museums, from Cluny to the Pompidou. The Gothic Sainte-Chapelle and Notre-Dame sit on the Île de la Cité, the Marais keeps its old townhouses, and Haussmann's boulevards give the whole centre a rare unity. The price is the queues, so book ahead.

Both cities are excellent at night, but they keep different hours. Madrid starts later and finishes later. Bars fill after midnight, the clubs around Gran Vía and Sol run past dawn, and the plazas of La Latina and Lavapiés stay busy deep into the night, with each district from Malasaña to Chueca having its own crowd.

A Parisian evening is more measured. It starts on a terrace or in a wine bar and moves to the busy bars of Oberkampf, Belleville and the Canal Saint-Martin, which mostly close around 2am before the house and techno clubs take over. Paris is chic rather than wild, door policies can be selective and drinks cost more.

Inside the city the two are similar. Madrid has the Retiro, the woods of Casa de Campo and the riverside paths of Madrid Río, and Paris has the Luxembourg, the Buttes-Chaumont and the large Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes.

The difference lies beyond the city edge. About an hour from Madrid, the Sierra de Guadarrama rises above 2,400m, with real mountain hiking and some winter skiing at Navacerrada. From Paris the best you can do is the oak and pine woods of Fontainebleau, which are lovely for bouldering and gentle trails but nothing like mountain country.

Both are superb bases, but they lead to different kinds of history. From Madrid, high-speed trains reach old Spain: Toledo above the Tagus gorge, Segovia's Roman aqueduct and Alcázar, Ávila inside its walls, and Salamanca and Cuenca a little further. These trips fill the gap left by the city's lack of medieval streets.

From Paris, the trips are mostly about palaces, cathedrals and painters. There is Versailles, Fontainebleau and Chantilly, the glass of Chartres, and Monet's garden at Giverny, while Champagne at Reims and the Loire châteaux beyond Tours are within a fast-train ride.

Madrid is easygoing with children. Families are out in the plazas until late, the Retiro has rowing boats and puppet shows, and Casa de Campo has the zoo, a cable car and a funfair. The flat centre and the metro lifts make pushchairs manageable, but July and August are punishing, and the big museums are aimed at adults.

Paris has more to fill the days. Disneyland and Parc Astérix are a short train ride away, and the city has the hands-on Cité des Sciences, the skeletons of the Jardin des Plantes and the toy boats on the Luxembourg pond. The cost is in the practical side: stairs at many stations, cramped hotel rooms and long queues.

Both centres are easy to cover on foot, backed by large metro systems, and neither needs a car. In Madrid the stretch from the Royal Palace to the Prado is flat and compact. The metro is air-conditioned, has lifts at many stations and runs a line straight to the airport, so the only real strain is the summer heat.

Paris is the more rewarding city to walk, especially along the river from the Louvre to the Eiffel Tower, and its metro stations are closer together. Travel there is more of a struggle, though, with long corridors and stairs, crowded lines at rush hour, confusing metro-RER changes and pickpockets on the tourist routes.

Madrid shops well by district. There are luxury labels on Calle Serrano, flagships around Gran Vía and Preciados, and independent and vintage shops in Malasaña and Conde Duque. Its most distinctive buys are the traditional ones: guitars, painted fans and espadrilles, plus the Sunday crush of El Rastro.

Paris is on another level. The great fashion houses still have their flagships on Avenue Montaigne and the Faubourg Saint-Honoré, and Galeries Lafayette and Le Bon Marché are sights in their own right. Add the covered passages, the vast Saint-Ouen flea market, the bouquinistes along the Seine, and chocolate and cheese from long-established specialist shops.

Madrid is noticeably kinder on the wallet. Hotels cost what you would expect in a capital, but the menú del día, tapas with a drink and a cheap metro keep daily spending down, and the great museums have free hours.

Paris is expensive from the moment you check into a small room. Terrace drinks, restaurant meals and full-price admissions add up quickly. You can cut costs with bakeries, markets, riverside picnics, the free permanent collections of the city's own museums and a hotel in the outer arrondissements, but the gap remains.

Madrid's stage life is broad. Opera at the Teatro Real, the national orchestra at the Auditorio Nacional, zarzuela and Gran Vía musicals cover a lot of ground. Its great draw is flamenco, which the best tablaos in the old centre present seriously every night, and there is jazz and indie music around Malasaña too.

Paris has more depth. Ballet at the Palais Garnier, opera at the Bastille, the Philharmonie and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées fill a full classical calendar, alongside candlelit concerts in the Sainte-Chapelle, cellar jazz around the rue des Lombards and Pigalle cabaret. Its large theatre scene is mostly in French.

Neither city is a place for a real wellness break, and both offer bathing borrowed from other traditions. Madrid has a handful of Arab-style bathhouses with pools under brick vaults, while Paris has the tiled steam rooms and mint tea of the hammam at the Grande Mosquée.

Otherwise, rest comes in short breaks. In Madrid that means a long lunch, the Botanical Garden or the empty streets of a summer afternoon. In Paris it means a chair in the Luxembourg gardens or an evening walk by the Seine.