Sintra or Toledo?

Sintra has a real coast, and Toledo has none. Sintra's Atlantic shore offers broad sandy beaches at Praia Grande and Praia das Maçãs, the cliff-backed cove at Adraga and the tidal pool below Azenhas do Mar, and a historic tram runs down to the sea in summer. The water is cold and the surf is often heavy, so it works best as an afternoon out.

Toledo is far inland on the plateau of La Mancha. The Tagus runs through a rocky gorge that nobody swims in, so on a hot day the only option is a hotel or municipal pool.

Neither town is a food destination, and both have menus aimed at day-trippers around their main sights. What they do well is quite different. Sintra's strength is sweet and coastal: warm travesseiros and queijadas from the old pastry houses, then grilled fish and seafood in the villages by the sea.

Toledo eats heavier, from the plains and hills of La Mancha. There's partridge stewed in wine and vinegar, wild boar, carcamusas and Manchego, with convent marzipan for dessert and a small tapa with your drink in the taverns a few streets back from the cathedral.

Both towns carry a great deal of history in a small space, and each needs about two full days, but the experience is different. Sintra is a landscape of royal fantasies spread over a forested hill: the Pena Palace on its peak, the Moorish Castle ramparts, the grottoes and Initiation Well of Quinta da Regaleira, and Monserrate. You move between them by bus or on foot uphill.

Toledo is a single walled city where Roman, Islamic, Jewish and Christian Spain sit on top of one another. It has a cathedral full of El Greco and Goya, two medieval synagogues and a mosque. It also has the real museum content Sintra lacks, in the Sephardic Museum and the El Greco sites.

Toledo has the better evenings of the two. A late dinner turns into a round of tapas bars around Zocodover, and a handful of bars stay open later at weekends, some of them full of university students. It is still no clubbing town, and Madrid is a short train ride away for anything bigger.

Sintra closes up once the last trains leave for Lisbon. A few wine bars and café terraces stay open into the evening, but a proper night out means the 40-minute train ride to Lisbon and planning how you get back.

Sintra is far stronger for the outdoors. Its granite ridge is covered in mossy forest of oak, cork and giant fern, with trails up to Cruz Alta and Peninha looking over the Atlantic. The hills drop to the cliffs of Cabo da Roca, and there's surfing at Praia Grande. The cooler, damp microclimate keeps walking pleasant even in summer.

Toledo's best outdoor experience is the footpath around the Tagus gorge below its walls, with views back from the cigarrales on the far bank. Beyond that lie the dry plains of La Mancha, with the low Montes de Toledo and Cabañeros a drive away, and the summer heat limits walking to spring and autumn.

Both are excellent bases, and each has a capital on its doorstep. Lisbon is about 40 minutes from Sintra by suburban train, and Madrid, with the Prado and the Reina Sofía, is half an hour from Toledo by high-speed train. Beyond the capitals, Sintra adds the seaside at Cascais by bus, and with a car the palace at Mafra, walled Óbidos and the monasteries of Alcobaça and Batalha.

Toledo's options lean towards royal Spain and the countryside of La Mancha: Aranjuez and El Escorial, the windmills of Consuegra and Almagro's Golden Age theatre. Segovia and Cuenca make long but rewarding days out.

Neither town is built for children, and both have steep cobbled lanes that defeat pushchairs. Sintra's appeal is adventure in a cool setting: climbing castle walls, going down the Initiation Well's spiral into its tunnels, and shady parks on hot days. The beaches have strong surf, though.

Toledo has armour shops, the castle-like Alcázar and a large history-show theme park on its outskirts, but most of its sights are churches and paintings. Summer afternoons are fiercely hot, so long midday breaks are essential.

Sintra's train station is a short stroll from its small centre, but the Pena Palace and the Moorish Castle sit high above it. You reach them by a hard climb or on a tourist bus that fills up at peak times. Driving its narrow one-way hill lanes is frustrating, and there's very little parking near the palaces.

Toledo is the easier of the two, because nearly every sight is inside an old town you can cross on foot in twenty minutes. Its lanes are still steep, narrow and cobbled, so walking is tiring, though public escalators take the worst out of the climb from the car parks. The railway station is across the river, a bus ride or a steep walk from the centre.

Toledo has more worth taking home, because its crafts are still made in the city. Damascene jewellery of gold thread inlaid in black steel, Toledo blades, convent marzipan and painted Talavera ceramics are the best buys, as long as you look for workshops rather than souvenir stock.

Sintra's old-town shops sell hand-painted tiles, cork goods, linen and boxes of pastries, and a few dealers trade in antique azulejos. Its best outing is the long-established Sunday fair at São Pedro de Penaferrim. For fashion, both send you to the capital.

Toledo is a little easier on the wallet day to day. The free tapa with a drink and the good-value set lunches in the taverns keep eating costs down, though hotels inside the walls with views over the Tagus charge more at weekends.

Sintra's coffee, pastries and tasca meals are cheap, but each palace charges its own entry, so seeing four or five can cost more than eating. Its manor-house rooms are also expensive. In both places, staying outside the historic core saves money.

Both are quiet on an ordinary evening, and serious opera or theatre means a trip to the capital. The highlights are different, though. Sintra's long-running summer festival puts classical music and dance inside its palaces and quintas, which makes for memorable settings, and the Olga Cadaval centre programmes concerts year round.

Toledo has the nineteenth-century Teatro de Rojas just off Zocodover and organ or choral music in its churches. Its great occasion is Corpus Christi, when the monstrance is carried through streets hung with awnings and tapestries.

Sintra is the more restful place to stay, thanks to its setting rather than any bathing culture. A night in a quinta among old gardens and forest, with mist in the trees and the town empty after dark, is properly calming, and Monserrate's gardens are peaceful outside the busy hours.

Toledo offers a few Arab-style bath houses and hotel spas in vaulted rooms, and quiet lanes in the early morning and at night. The summer heat and the stone of the city make it better for a slow evening or two than for a restful stay.