Santiago de Compostela or Toledo?

Neither city is on the coast, but Santiago at least has beaches within reach. About 35km away, the Ría de Muros e Noia and the Ría de Arousa have white sand in sheltered inlets, which make a good outing on a warm summer day, although the water stays cold.

Toledo sits on the high plateau, several hours from any sea, and the Tagus in its gorge is not a river for swimming. Cooling off there means a hotel pool or a municipal one.

Santiago has the better table, thanks to Galician seafood: pulpo á feira, scallops, razor clams and percebes, bought in the granite Mercado de Abastos or eaten in the taverns with Padrón peppers and a glass of Ribeiro. It is one cuisine rather than many, but it is excellent.

Toledo's cooking is the hearty food of La Mancha, partridge, game from the Montes de Toledo, carcamusas and Manchego, finished with convent marzipan. It is worth seeking out, but the lanes by the cathedral are full of tourist set menus, and good meals take some searching in side streets and around Zocodover.

Toledo has the greater richness of sights. Its hill layers Roman, Visigothic, Islamic, Jewish and Christian Spain: the cathedral with its El Greco sacristy, the mosque of Cristo de la Luz, two synagogues, San Juan de los Reyes and the Alcázar, with El Greco's work spread across the town.

Santiago's culture centres on one great subject, the pilgrimage cathedral with its Pórtico da Gloria and the grand Praza do Obradoiro, set in a granite old town of arcades and monasteries. It is deeply moving, but narrower in range than Toledo's mix of faiths and eras.

Santiago is plainly the place for a night out. Its large university fills the bars around Rúa da Raíña and Praza de Cervantes, with folk sessions in pub-like rooms, a busy Thursday student night and a few clubs open into the early morning, though summer is quieter.

Toledo's evenings end after dinner and a tapas round near Zocodover. A few bars stay open late at weekends, but there are no clubs to speak of, and for a real night out people take the train to Madrid.

Santiago is surrounded by green, rain-fed hills, and the Camino paths lead straight out into them. Within an hour or two lie the cliffs and lighthouses towards Cape Fisterra, the old woodland of the Fragas do Eume and the inlets of the Rías Baixas for kayaking.

Toledo's best outdoor walk is the path along the Tagus gorge below the walls, with views back from the cigarrales on the far bank. Beyond that lies the dry plain of olives and wheat, the low Montes de Toledo and, two hours off, Cabañeros national park, with summer heat limiting walking to the cooler seasons.

Both make good bases, but Toledo has a slight edge because Madrid, with the Prado, the Reina Sofía and the royal palace, is half an hour away by fast train. Aranjuez, El Escorial, the windmills of Consuegra, and longer days to Segovia, Ávila and Cuenca round out a strong list.

Santiago's outings stay within Galicia: A Coruña's Roman lighthouse, Lugo's complete Roman walls, Ourense's hot springs, Pontevedra, and by car the Albariño country around Cambados and the villages of Fisterra and Muxía. It is a coherent regional tour rather than a run of famous names.

For children the two are much the same: safe and welcoming, but built around churches and museums, with cobbled lanes that are hard on pushchairs. The difference is the weather and the extras. Toledo has swords, armour and the castle-like Alcázar to fire imaginations, plus a big history-show theme park on its outskirts, but summer afternoons are very hot.

Santiago's risk is days of rain. Its parks help, and A Coruña's aquarium and science museums are a short train ride away, so families often spend most of the stay on the coast.

Both centres take about twenty minutes to cross on foot, and almost every sight sits inside them. Santiago is a little easier: its granite streets get slippery in rain and have short climbs, but trains run straight from the city to A Coruña, Pontevedra, Vigo and Ourense.

Toledo is perched on a steep hill of twisting, cobbled lanes that tire the legs. Public escalators lift visitors from the car parks below the walls, and the station sits across the river, a bus ride or a climb from the centre.

Neither is a fashion destination. Both sell crafts with deep local roots, surrounded by a lot of souvenir stock. In Santiago that means jet amulets on the Azabachería, silver, Sargadelos ceramics and Galician tinned seafood and cheese. In Toledo it means damascene steel inlaid with gold, swords and blades, Talavera pottery and convent marzipan, with Madrid an easy trip for proper shopping.

Santiago is a little easier on the budget. Free tapas, generous set lunches, free entry to the cathedral and plenty of pensiones and pilgrim hostels keep costs down, except in July around the feast of Saint James.

Toledo's everyday eating is just as kind, but most monuments charge separate entry, so a full day of sights adds up, and hotels inside the walls with Tagus views cost more, especially at weekends.

Santiago offers more for an evening out. The Real Filharmonía de Galicia plays at the Auditorio de Galicia, there is theatre at the Teatro Principal, and bagpipe sessions and caped student tunas give the streets a sound of their own.

Toledo has the nineteenth-century Teatro de Rojas, occasional organ and choral music in its churches, and the Corpus Christi processions through streets hung with tapestries. On most nights, though, serious performances mean going to Madrid.

Neither city has its own bathing tradition, but Santiago lies close to Galicia's hot springs: the spa towns of Caldas de Reis and Cuntis are about half an hour away, and Ourense's riverside thermal pools are an easy train trip. Toledo has a few Arab-style bath houses and hotel spas in vaulted rooms. Its real calm comes in the early mornings and evenings, when the tour groups have left and the Tagus views are quiet.