Tangier or Toledo?

There is no real contest here. Tangier has a sandy city beach below the promenade and, better, the open Atlantic beaches around Achakar and Cap Spartel, with sea warm enough for a swim in late summer, though the beach is a side dish to the city.

Toledo sits on the plateau of La Mancha, hours from any coast, and the Tagus in its gorge is not for swimming. A hotel pool or a municipal pool is the only way to cool off.

Tangier has the more interesting table: fish picked at the port and grilled, tagines, Friday couscous, bissara at breakfast and street snacks around the Grand Socco, with tea on the clifftop terraces above the Strait as a ritual in itself. Wine and beer are confined to certain restaurants and hotels.

Toledo's cooking is the heavier inland fare of La Mancha: partridge, game from the Montes de Toledo, carcamusas and Manchego, with local wine everywhere and convent marzipan to finish. It makes for a few satisfying meals, but the set menus near the cathedral pull the average down.

Toledo is the richer sightseeing city by a wide margin. Within its walls the cathedral, the synagogues of Santa María la Blanca and El Tránsito, the mosque of Cristo de la Luz and the El Greco burial scene in Santo Tomé tell the story of Christian, Jewish and Islamic Spain in a few streets.

Tangier is more about mood than monuments: the kasbah museum looking across to Spain, the American Legation, the Art Deco Ville Nouvelle and the memory of Paul Bowles and the Beats. Both fill two or three days, but Toledo's are far fuller.

Neither city is made for a big night out, but Tangier has a little more going on. Summer evenings fill the seafront with families, and there are hotel lounges, a few old bars from the international era and beach clubs on the bay in season.

Toledo's evenings are a late dinner and a tapas round near Zocodover, with a handful of student bars open later at weekends. Anyone wanting more takes the train to Madrid.

Tangier has the better outdoors close at hand. The headland of Cap Spartel, where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean, gives cliffs, a lighthouse and pine woods, the Perdicaris park offers wooded walks above the Strait, and spring and autumn bring storks and raptors crossing between continents, with dolphin trips along the coast.

Toledo's best walk is the riverside path through the Tagus gorge, with the classic view back from the cigarrales opposite. Beyond lies the flat, dry plain of La Mancha, and the Montes de Toledo and Cabañeros need a drive.

Both are excellent bases, Toledo by a shade, and the difference is in kind. From Tangier the trips cross cultures: Asilah and Tetouan's medina within an hour, Chefchaouen on a long day, Rabat by fast train and a ferry to Tarifa in Spain.

From Toledo, Madrid and its great museums are half an hour away by train, with Aranjuez, El Escorial, the windmills of Consuegra and Almagro close behind, and Segovia and Cuenca on longer days. Toledo's list leans on a car, Tangier's on trains, shared taxis and the ferry.

Toledo is the easier choice with children, if not by a great deal. Its walls, armour shops and castle-like Alcázar catch young imaginations, and the history-show theme park on the outskirts is made for them, though steep cobbles and summer heat take their toll.

Tangier has nothing comparable built for children, and its medina stairs and touts are hard work with a pushchair. The city beach, the Caves of Hercules and the ferry to Spain make good outings, and its milder summer is kinder to small children.

Toledo is far simpler. Almost everything sits inside an old town you can cross on foot in twenty minutes, and public escalators lift you up from below the walls, even if the cobbled slopes tire the legs.

Tangier spreads further. The medina, kasbah and Ville Nouvelle can be walked, but Cap Spartel, the caves and the Atlantic beaches mean petit taxis or a hired driver, with no metro or tram to help.

Tangier gives the better browse. The medina lanes between the Petit Socco and the kasbah sell rugs, lanterns, leather slippers and the striped cloth of the Rif, with bargaining expected, and the Saturday market by the Grand Socco brings women down from the hills with produce and woven hats.

Toledo's shopping is narrower but more specialised: damascene gold inlay on black steel, Toledo blades, convent marzipan and Talavera ceramics. Much of what lines the streets near the cathedral is souvenir stock, so the workshops are worth seeking out.

Tangier is clearly the cheaper stay. Street food, café tea, taxis and museums cost little and medina riads are good value, with alcohol and sea-view hotels the main exceptions.

Toledo is moderate for Western Europe and kindest at the table, with a tapa alongside each drink and good set lunches in the taverns. Rooms inside the walls and separate entry to each monument make a full sightseeing day the bigger expense.

Tangier has the edge, though neither city fills an ordinary evening. Its strength is music with deep roots: Andalusian classical music, gnawa and Jilala at festivals and occasional concerts, a long-running jazz festival, and the legacy of the Jajouka musicians from the nearby Rif hills. The old art-house cinema on the Grand Socco is its best-known cultural venue.

What Toledo has that Tangier lacks is a theatre, the nineteenth-century Teatro de Rojas off Zocodover, with a modest regional programme of plays, concerts and dance. Organ and choral music sometimes fill its churches, and Corpus Christi brings processions and music, but for serious opera or drama the train to Madrid is the real answer.

Tangier has a living bathing culture. Neighbourhood hammams in the medina give the full ritual of steam, black soap and a kessa scrub, riad and hotel spas offer a gentler version, and long terrace hours over the Strait slow the pace.

Toledo's equivalent is a few Arab-style bath houses and hotel spas. Its calm lies in the quiet early mornings and evenings once the day groups leave, pleasant for a night or two but no reason in itself to go.