Santiago de Compostela or Segovia?

Neither is a beach city, but Santiago at least has the sea within reach. About 35km away, the Ría de Muros e Noia and the Ría de Arousa have sheltered white sand, worth a summer day out if you can accept cold water.

Segovia is on the Castilian plateau and the coast is a long drive away, so swimming means a pool or a chilly reservoir in the Guadarrama foothills. If you want even one beach day, lean towards Santiago.

Santiago has the stronger table, built on one excellent regional cuisine: pulpo á feira, scallops, razor clams and percebes, bought fresh in the Abastos market hall and eaten with Albariño or Ribeiro. Tapas along Rúa do Franco and a slice of tarta de Santiago complete it.

Segovia's cooking centres on the wood-fired oven, with cochinillo and lechazo as the big meals and judiones beans and ponche segoviano around them. It makes a memorable lunch, but beyond the roasts the choice narrows quickly. Both cities are thin on international cooking.

The two are evenly matched for sights, and both have UNESCO-listed granite old towns, but the focus differs. Santiago revolves around one great building, the pilgrimage cathedral with its Pórtico da Gloria on the Praza do Obradoiro, supported by the Museo do Pobo Galego and the Cidade da Cultura.

Segovia spreads its interest along a ridge: the Roman aqueduct, the late Gothic cathedral, the Alcázar and a string of Romanesque churches, with lighter museums. Santiago rewards two or three days of slow looking, while Segovia's essentials fit into a full day.

Santiago has much the livelier evenings, at least in term time. Wine and tapas on Rúa do Franco lead on to pub-like bars around the Praza de Cervantes, folk sessions and a few old-town clubs that stay open into the early morning, and Thursday is the student night.

In Segovia a night out means a tapas round on Plaza Mayor and a few later bars at weekends, and the old town goes quiet early in winter. Anyone after a real late night goes to Madrid. Santiago also calms down in summer, once the students have left.

Segovia has the more dramatic outdoors, with real mountains on its doorstep. The Sierra de Guadarrama offers pine forest at Valsaín, high passes at Navacerrada and Cotos and trails up towards Peñalara at 2,428m, as well as winter snow and the vultures of the Hoces del Duratón.

Santiago's landscape is softer and wetter: hills of oak and eucalyptus, Camino paths leading out of town and, within a drive, the cliffs of the Costa da Morte, the ancient woods of the Fragas do Eume and kayaking in the rías.

Both make good bases, but Segovia reaches more. La Granja's palace and fountains are twenty minutes away and Madrid is under half an hour by high-speed train. Ávila, El Escorial, Pedraza and Sepúlveda all make easy days, with Ribera del Duero wine country further out.

Santiago's day trips stay within Galicia: A Coruña and its Tower of Hercules, Pontevedra, Vigo, Ourense and walled Lugo by train, and the Rías Baixas or Fisterra by car. It is one region to explore in depth rather than a choice of capitals and castles.

Neither city is built around children, and both have cobbled, hilly streets that are hard work with a pushchair. What differs is the main attraction. Segovia has a turreted castle with a tower to climb and the gardens of La Granja to run in. Santiago relies on its parks, a short train ride to A Coruña's aquarium and science museums, and summer beach days when the rain holds off.

Santiago is the easier place to get about. You can cross the old town on foot in twenty minutes, buses link it with the station and the airport, and coastal trains reach the main Galician towns without a car.

Segovia's ridge is just as walkable but steeper, and the high-speed station is several kilometres out, so arriving means a bus ride. Its villages and mountain trailheads depend even more on a hire car than Santiago's coast does.

Santiago gives you far better things to take home. Black jet, the old pilgrim's amulet, is still carved and set in silver around the Azabachería beside the cathedral. Blue-and-white Sargadelos ceramics, tetilla cheese, tinned seafood and a wander through the Abastos market also make browsing worthwhile, even if the high street in the Ensanche is ordinary.

Segovia has less to offer: souvenirs along Calle Real, a few shops with local ceramics and embroidery, and boxed ponche segoviano or La Granja beans. For fashion, both cities fall short, and serious shoppers in Segovia take the train to Madrid.

Costs are much the same in both, and both are cheaper than Spain's big cities. What differs is where the money goes. In Santiago, free tapas with a drink, generous set lunches and pilgrim hostels keep spending low, though rooms cost more around the feast of Saint James in July. In Segovia the roast pig and lamb by the aqueduct are the splurge, and weekends bring visitors from Madrid, so midweek winter stays are the cheapest.

Santiago has more on through the year: the Real Filharmonía de Galicia at the Auditorio de Galicia, drama at the Teatro Principal, and Galician bagpipes and student tunas in the streets on almost any night.

Segovia's live culture comes in seasons. It is led by the Titirimundi puppet festival in spring and summer concerts in churches and palace gardens, with the Teatro Juan Bravo for touring shows. Outside those weeks there is little on, and neither city has opera.

Santiago comes out ahead because of what lies around it. Thanks to Galicia's hot springs, the spa towns of Caldas de Reis and Cuntis and Ourense's open-air thermal pools are an easy outing, a good cure for tired walking legs.

Segovia has no bathing tradition, so rest there comes from the pace: a quiet old town once the coaches leave, walks along the walls and pine-scented air from the sierra.