Ronda or Toledo?

Neither is a beach destination, but Ronda can at least reach the sea. The Costa del Sol around Estepona is about 50km away down a winding mountain road, which takes a full day with a car.

Toledo sits deep in the interior of Castile, several hours from any coast, and the Tagus below its walls is not for swimming. In both towns, summer swimming in practice means a pool.

The two towns are about equal for food, and both serve hearty inland cooking rather than offering a food destination. Ronda's table comes from the mountains: oxtail stew, lamb, cured hams, and chestnuts and wild mushrooms in autumn, with local Sierras de Málaga wines you can taste at nearby wineries.

Toledo cooks in the La Mancha style, with partridge in wine and vinegar, carcamusas, Manchego and convent marzipan. A drink in its bars still often comes with a tapa. In both places, eat away from the main tourist spots: the Mercadillo rather than the gorge terraces in Ronda, and the side streets rather than the lanes around the cathedral in Toledo.

Toledo goes much deeper. Its entire old town is a monument, from the Gothic cathedral and its El Greco and Goya canvases to the synagogues of the Sephardic past and the cloister of San Juan de los Reyes. It fills two busy days without repeating itself.

Ronda's heritage is real but smaller. It includes the Puente Nuevo, one of Spain's oldest bullrings, fine Arab baths and the Mondragón palace. Most of its impact comes from the setting on the edge of the gorge rather than from its collections.

Neither town is for a night out, but Toledo has a little more after dark. A few bars stay open late at weekends, helped by university students, and Madrid is a short train ride away for anyone who wants clubs.

Ronda's evenings end with dinner and a drink around the Plaza del Socorro, and the town is quiet by the early hours except during the September fair.

This is where Ronda pulls far ahead. The town is ringed by limestone mountains. To the west, the Sierra de Grazalema has the Garganta Verde ravine and is unusually green, and to the east the Sierra de las Nieves protects rare Spanish fir forests. A path drops from the town into its own gorge, and the chestnut woods of the Genal valley turn copper in autumn.

Toledo's best outdoor walk is the riverside path around the base of its hill. Beyond it lies the flat farmland of La Mancha, and the nearest wilder country is the low Montes de Toledo or Cabañeros, two hours away.

Ronda and Toledo are close as bases, but their days out lead in opposite directions. From Ronda they head into the hills: Setenil with its houses under the overhanging rock, Zahara below its castle, the Palaeolithic paintings of the Cueva de la Pileta and the Roman ruins of Acinipo. Seville and Málaga can be done, but each makes a long day.

Toledo's outings lean towards cities and royal sites. Madrid is the one easy rail trip, with the Prado about half an hour away by high-speed train. Aranjuez, El Escorial and the Consuegra windmills are drives of around an hour. In both places a hire car opens up most of the list.

Toledo is the easier choice with children. The armour shops and the Alcázar spark young imaginations, and the history theme park on the edge of town gives them a day of their own, although the steep lanes and summer heat still call for short outings.

Ronda has the bridge, the gorge walk, the rock-cut stairway and nearby caves for older children, but nothing built for them. Families there usually rent a country house with a pool.

You walk everywhere in both towns, and both are hilly, but Toledo makes it easier. Public escalators climb from the car parks into the old town, local buses run up from the station, and the fast train to Madrid makes arriving without a car simple.

Ronda's centre is compact too, but its buses and trains are slow and infrequent, and the villages and natural parks around it are really only reachable by car.

Toledo has more worth buying. Damascene work in gold-inlaid steel and blades from a centuries-old tradition are made here, and Talavera ceramics and convent marzipan add to the choice, although it pays to look for real workshops among the souvenir stock.

Ronda's pedestrian Carrera Espinel offers everyday shops, so the best things to take home are edible: local wine, cured meats and olive oil.

Costs are broadly similar, with Ronda a touch easier on the budget. Its sights charge modest fees, and rural houses in the hills offer a lot for the money, although a hire car is the main extra.

In Toledo, cheap tapas and set lunches keep meals affordable, but the separate entry fees for the cathedral, synagogues and El Greco sites add up over a full day. Staying just outside the walls helps.

Neither town has much on an ordinary evening, and in both the highlight of the year is a daytime spectacle drawn from its own past. In Ronda it is the Corrida Goyesca at the September fair, an afternoon bullfight in eighteenth-century costume in the old bullring. The rest of the year brings small flamenco shows and the odd play at the municipal theatre.

Toledo's great occasion is Corpus Christi, when the cathedral's monstrance is carried by day through streets hung with awnings and tapestries. The nineteenth-century Teatro de Rojas has a regional programme and church concerts happen now and then, but for opera or major concerts the place to go is Madrid.

For a few slow days, Ronda's countryside does the job better than the town itself. Farmhouses and country hotels in the hills, with pools, olive groves and wide views, are made for doing very little. Its Arab baths, among the best preserved in Spain, are a monument to visit rather than somewhere to bathe, and spa treatments mean a hotel spa.

Toledo's calm lies in its own lanes, early in the morning and after the day-trippers leave. Its medieval baths survive only as ruins, but a few Arab-style bath houses offer warm pools and massage under vaulted ceilings. It suits a quiet night or two more than a longer stay.