Seville or Toledo?

Neither city is on the sea, but Seville is the one that can manage a beach day. The Atlantic sands of Huelva, at Matalascañas and Mazagón, are about an hour and a quarter by car, and the Cádiz coast is further on. Some visitors split their stay with a few nights there.

Toledo sits on the high plain several hours from any coast, and the Tagus in its gorge is not for swimming. In both cities, cooling off in the city itself means a hotel or municipal pool.

Seville is a real place to eat. Tapas are the whole rhythm of the day: salmorejo, spinach with chickpeas, pork cheek and fried fish, eaten standing at tiled counters, with manzanilla and fino from the nearby sherry towns. The kitchens around the Alameda add some invention.

Toledo's cooking is the heavier food of La Mancha: partridge, game from the Montes de Toledo, carcamusas and Manchego, with convent marzipan to finish. It is worth a few meals, but the choice is narrow. Near the cathedral, set menus for day-trippers dominate, so it pays to walk a few streets away.

These are two of Spain's great historic cities, and the difference is one of scale and character. Seville's sights are grand and spacious: the Mudéjar courts and gardens of the Real Alcázar, the huge Gothic cathedral under the Giralda, the tiled curve of Plaza de España and Murillo and Zurbarán in the Bellas Artes. They are spread through a larger centre that needs three or four days.

Toledo is denser. On one granite hill you find a cathedral full of El Greco and Goya, the mosque of Cristo de la Luz and two medieval synagogues, layering Islamic, Jewish and Christian Spain within a few streets of each other. El Greco's own city is the draw, and two full days cover it.

Seville has proper nights out, mostly in the open air. People drift from tapas bars to squares, the Alameda de Hércules draws a young, mixed and LGBT-friendly crowd, Triana and Alfalfa stay busy until late, and in summer the bars along the river fill. Serious clubbing is limited.

Toledo ends the day with dinner and a few rounds of tapas around Zocodover. After that the old town goes quiet, which is part of its appeal. For anything more, you go to Madrid.

Seville has more to offer because of Doñana, about an hour and a half away. These marshes and dunes are among Europe's great wetlands, with flamingos and migrating birds. Closer to town there are gentle walks in the cork-oak hills of Aracena, and you can row or kayak on the old river channel.

Toledo's best outdoor experience starts at its walls: a path around the Tagus gorge with views back from the cigarrales on the far bank. Beyond that come the low Montes de Toledo and, two hours away, the red deer of Cabañeros. In both cities, outdoor plans are best kept to spring and autumn.

Both are excellent bases, and the choice depends on where you want to go. Seville opens up Andalusia, mostly by train: Córdoba's Great Mosque is under an hour away, Jerez's bodegas and the old port of Cádiz lie to the south, and Carmona and Itálica are close by.

Toledo's main asset is Madrid, half an hour away, which brings the Prado and the Reina Sofía within easy reach, along with Aranjuez and El Escorial. Its other trips, to the windmills of Consuegra, Almagro, Cuenca and Segovia, work far better with a car.

Seville is the easier city with children. The centre is flat, María Luisa Park has boats and carriages, the Alcázar gardens have a maze and fountains, and La Cartuja adds a theme park, a summer water park and an aquarium by the river.

Toledo's walls, armour shops and castle-like Alcázar fire young imaginations, and a large theme park of historical shows sits just outside town. The steep cobbles wear out small legs and pushchairs, though, and most sights are churches and paintings. Both cities are punishing with children in high summer.

Both centres are walkable, but Seville's is flat. You can reach the cathedral, Triana and Plaza de España on foot, and bike lanes and a public bike scheme make cycling easy, with a tram and metro line as backup.

Toledo's old town is smaller, but it sits on a steep hill of narrow, winding lanes, so walking it is tiring. Public escalators lift you from the car parks below the walls, and the station sits across the river at the bottom, a bus ride or a hard climb away.

Seville gives you more to browse. Triana's potters sell hand-painted tiles, the shops around Sierpes and Cuna sell flamenco dresses, shawls and fans made for locals, there is a long-running Thursday flea market on Calle Feria, and the main Spanish chains are there too.

Toledo's crafts are more specialised: gold-inlaid damascene work, swords from its old blade-making tradition, convent marzipan and Talavera ceramics. Much of the stock near the cathedral is souvenirs, and for clothes people go to Madrid.

Both cost about the same, and in both you save most by eating tapas. The difference is in when and where the bill rises. In Seville, hotel rates jump during Holy Week and the April Fair, and rooms are good value in the summer heat.

In Toledo, hotels with a view inside the walls cost more at weekends, and the separate entry charges for the cathedral, synagogues and El Greco sites add up. The free tapa with a drink helps balance that out.

Seville is one of the main reasons to plan a trip around live performance. Flamenco is on every night, in tablaos around Santa Cruz and Triana and in local peñas, and the Bienal brings the leading performers in autumn of even-numbered years. The Teatro de la Maestranza stages opera in the city where Carmen is set.

Toledo has the Teatro de Rojas, with a regional programme, occasional organ and choral music in its churches and the processions of Corpus Christi. On most evenings little is on, and serious opera or theatre means the train to Madrid.

Seville is slightly better for slowing down. It has Arab-style baths in old mansions, cool tiled courtyards, the shade of the Alcázar gardens and long lunches in the slow afternoon heat, although its narrow streets are noisy at night.

Toledo has a few similar bath houses and hotel spas. Its real calm comes early and late, when the tour groups have gone and the terraces over the Tagus fall quiet. Neither is a place to come specifically to recharge.