Ronda or Salamanca?

Neither is a beach destination, but Ronda can at least reach the sea. The long, built-up sandy beaches around Estepona and San Pedro de Alcántara are about 50km away down a winding mountain road, which is a full day out with a car.

Salamanca is far inland on the Meseta, so swimming means the municipal pools or a river beach on the Tormes on a hot afternoon. In both places most visitors simply cool off in a pool.

Salamanca eats better and more widely. Ibérico ham from nearby Guijuelo, hornazo pastry and roast suckling pig are served at busy bar counters around the Plaza Mayor and Calle Van Dyck, and the Mercado Central is a good stop for cheese and charcuterie. Wines from Toro and Ribera del Duero are close at hand.

Ronda's mountain cooking is hearty and distinctive, with oxtail stew, game and autumn chestnuts and mushrooms from the Genal valley, but the good tapas bars are concentrated in the Mercadillo, and the terraces by the gorge mostly sell set menus to day-trippers. A couple of evenings covers it.

Ronda's heritage is mostly its setting: the Puente Nuevo across El Tajo, the cliff-top paths, and a small group of monuments around them, including the old Maestranza bullring, the Arab baths and the rock-cut stairway of the Casa del Rey Moro. It is striking, but one or two days is enough.

Salamanca has far more to see. The whole old town is built in glowing sandstone, from the baroque Plaza Mayor to the carved University façade, the paired Old and New Cathedrals and the Casa de las Conchas, with the Casa Lis museum for Art Nouveau. It fills two or three days and looks finest after dark under floodlights.

Ronda's evenings are tapas and a late dinner around the Plaza del Socorro, a drink afterwards, and quiet streets by the early hours, except during the September fair.

Salamanca is one of Spain's classic student towns, and from Thursday to Saturday the old centre fills with bars around Calle Bordadores and Gran Vía, then dance bars and small clubs open well past 3am. It is young and cheap rather than sophisticated, and it quietens in high summer when term ends.

This is Ronda's strongest suit. A path drops straight from town to the foot of the gorge, climbers use its cliffs, and the crags and vultures of the Sierra de Grazalema and the fir forests of the Sierra de las Nieves are close by. The Caminito del Rey is about an hour's drive.

Salamanca stands on an open plain, with only the riverside paths of the Tormes nearby. The Sierra de Francia, Las Batuecas, Gredos and the granite canyon of the Arribes del Duero are fine country, but each is a drive of an hour or more.

Both make excellent bases, with a different flavour. From Ronda the outings are Andalusian: white villages such as Setenil de las Bodegas and Zahara de la Sierra, the Palaeolithic paintings of the Cueva de la Pileta, the dolmens of Antequera, and Seville or Málaga on a long day.

Salamanca opens up Old Castile instead: the walls of Ávila, Zamora's Romanesque churches, fortified Ciudad Rodrigo and the half-timbered villages of La Alberca and Mogarraz. Valladolid is an easy train ride, while in both regions the villages really need a car.

Salamanca is the easier town with children. Its centre is compact and largely pedestrian, and hunting for the frog on the University façade and the astronaut on the New Cathedral, climbing the towers and running along the Tormes paths keep younger visitors busy.

Ronda appeals more to older children who will enjoy the gorge walk, the rock-cut stairway and the caves nearby. Its steep cobbled lanes are hard with a pushchair and some viewpoints are exposed, so families usually do best in a country house with a pool.

Salamanca is the simpler place to manage without a car. You can cross the old town on foot in about 20 minutes, and trains to Madrid and Valladolid make arrival straightforward.

Ronda is walkable too, but the lanes down to La Ciudad and the gorge are steep, and its trains and buses are slow and infrequent. The villages, parks and gorges that make Ronda worth staying in are reached by car, and old-town parking is tight.

Salamanca has a little more choice. The pedestrian streets running north from the Plaza Mayor carry chains and a department store, and charro silver filigree is a local craft worth buying.

Ronda's Carrera Espinel is a modest high street, with ceramics and leather near the bridge. In both towns the best souvenirs are edible: ham and cheese from Salamanca, and wine, olive oil and convent sweets from Ronda.

The two cost much the same, and both are cheaper than Spain's big cities. In Ronda the spending goes on the hire car, which the surrounding area almost requires, and on rooms overlooking the gorge.

In Salamanca the student crowd keeps bar prices low, often with a free tapa alongside a drink, and no car is needed. Instead, admission to the cathedrals, towers and university adds up over a day of sightseeing.

Salamanca has the fuller evening programme. The Teatro Liceo and a municipal arts centre host touring theatre, dance and concerts, the university stages choral music in its historic halls, and the caped student tunas sing under the arcades of the Plaza Mayor.

Ronda offers flamenco in small venues and a modest municipal theatre, and its standout event is the Corrida Goyesca at the September fair. Neither has opera or a resident orchestra.

Salamanca has the edge for anyone who wants to bathe. The old balneario at Ledesma, built over mineral springs, is about half an hour away, and the Roman thermal springs of Baños de Montemayor are about an hour away. In town, the cloisters of San Esteban and Las Dueñas are quiet places to sit.

Ronda's Arab baths are a monument, not a spa, so treatments mean a hotel spa. Its strength is retreat instead: a farmhouse in the olive groves with a pool and a view, once the day-trippers have gone.