Ronda or San Sebastian?

Ronda has no beach of its own. The sandy, built-up Costa del Sol near Estepona is about 50km away down a winding mountain road and takes a whole day, so most visitors swim in a hotel or country-house pool instead.

San Sebastian has La Concha in the middle of town, a calm, sheltered bay, with the quieter Ondarreta beside it and Zurriola for surfing. The season is short and grey days come even in July. Still, if you want to swim during a city vacation, the two are worlds apart.

Ronda eats well but simply. Expect oxtail stew, mountain lamb and game, cured hams and autumn chestnuts and mushrooms, best in the Mercadillo's tapas bars with a glass of local Sierras de Málaga wine. A few days covers it.

In San Sebastian, food is a reason to go in itself. The pintxo counters of the Parte Vieja and Gros, the La Bretxa market, the cider houses of Astigarraga and some of Spain's most celebrated restaurants make eating the main event. Both cities have little to offer beyond their own regional cooking.

Ronda has the more striking sights. El Tajo gorge and the Puente Nuevo join the Moorish town to the Mercadillo, and close by are one of Spain's oldest bullrings and Arab baths in unusually good condition. It is a compact group, seen in a day or two.

San Sebastian is better enjoyed as a whole townscape than as a list of sights: the late 19th-century streets, the rebuilt grid of the Parte Vieja, the castle on Monte Urgull, the San Telmo Museum and Chillida's Peine del Viento. It is graceful rather than dramatic.

In Ronda the evening is dinner: tapas around the Plaza del Socorro, a drink afterwards, and quiet streets by the early hours except during the September fair. San Sebastian keeps going longer. Pintxo crawls fill the old town until late at weekends, there are a few clubs, and summer and the Semana Grande bring much later nights. Neither is a clubbing city, but only San Sebastian gives you a proper night out.

Both are fine bases for walking, but the landscapes are different. Ronda has the edge in mountain country. Around it are the crags and griffon vultures of the Sierra de Grazalema and the Spanish fir forests of the Sierra de las Nieves, climbers use the Tajo cliffs, and the Caminito del Rey is within reach.

San Sebastian's outdoors is mostly coast. There is the cliff path from Monte Ulia to Pasaia, the Jaizkibel walk to Hondarribia, surfing at Zurriola and paddling in the bay. Its hills are lower and greener, because the rain falls in every season.

San Sebastian reaches a little further. Within easy range are Bilbao and the Guggenheim, walled Hondarribia, the French Basque coast at Biarritz and Saint-Jean-de-Luz, Pamplona and the Rioja Alavesa vineyards, and many of them are easy by bus or train.

Ronda's best outings are the white villages, such as Setenil, Zahara and Grazalema, along with Roman Acinipo and the painted Cueva de la Pileta. Seville and Málaga are further off. These trips are superb, but for the villages you really need a hire car.

San Sebastian is far easier with children. It has sheltered beaches in the centre, a flat promenade, an aquarium with a walk-through tunnel, the hands-on Eureka museum and a small funfair at the top of the Igueldo funicular. Rain is the main drawback.

Ronda gives older children the gorge walk, the rock stairway at the Casa del Rey Moro and the nearby caves, but nothing built for them, and its steep cobbles are hard work with a pushchair. A country house with a pool is the way to do it.

Both centres are easy on foot, but San Sebastian is flat and has bike lanes along the bay. Its Euskotren trains run to the French border and towards Bilbao, so you rarely need a car.

Ronda's lanes down into La Ciudad are steep, and its buses and trains are slow and infrequent. The villages and natural parks that draw people there are really reached by car.

Neither city is a place to go shopping, but San Sebastian has more. There are independent boutiques in the grid of the Centro, Basque espadrilles and berets in the Parte Vieja and surf shops in Gros, while Ronda has chain shops on Carrera Espinel and souvenirs near the bridge. In both, the best things to bring home are edible: wine and cured meats from Ronda, and txakoli, Idiazabal cheese and tinned anchovies from San Sebastian.

Ronda is much the cheaper place to stay. Tapas and set lunches are good value and rural houses are fairly priced, and for most visitors a hire car is the main extra.

San Sebastian is one of the most expensive cities in Spain. Hotel rooms are scarce, and the famous restaurants are a real splurge. Pintxos, free beaches and walks soften the cost, and coming outside the summer makes the biggest difference.

San Sebastian has a real programme. Jazzaldia comes in July and the Quincena Musical in August, and the Kursaal and the Teatro Victoria Eugenia stage concerts, plays and dance through the year. Ronda offers flamenco in small venues and the Corrida Goyesca at the September fair, and little else to see in the evenings.

Of the two, only San Sebastian has a real spa tradition: a seawater thalassotherapy spa in the old bathing pavilion on La Concha. The calm pace of the promenade helps too. Ronda's Arab baths are a monument to visit, not somewhere to bathe. There, rest means a few days in a country hotel among the olive groves, doing very little.