Anaheim or San Jose?

Anaheim is the better beach base by some way. Huntington Beach, Newport and the coves of Laguna are all within about half an hour, and from July to September the sea is warm enough for a swim without a wetsuit.

From San Jose the coast means crossing the Santa Cruz Mountains to Santa Cruz and Capitola, a drive that gets slow on summer weekends. The beach towns there have real character, but the water stays cold enough that most people paddle or sit on the sand rather than swim.

The two eat at a similar level, and both owe it to large Vietnamese communities: Little Saigon in Westminster and Garden Grove near Anaheim, and the east-side plazas of San Jose. In both, the good cooking is in suburban strip malls rather than walkable streets.

What differs is the rest of the table. Anaheim adds Little Arabia on Brookhurst Street, with Lebanese, Palestinian and Yemeni bakeries and grills, but the resort district itself is mostly chains and park counters. San Jose adds Indian and Korean corridors, a small historic Japantown and the wineries and smarter restaurants of Los Gatos and Saratoga.

San Jose has more to see, though neither city is a culture trip. The Winchester Mystery House, the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum and Mission Santa Clara are all in or near the city, and the Computer History Museum in Mountain View tells the valley's own story. A couple of days covers it.

Anaheim's landmark is Disneyland itself, the park Walt Disney saw completed, which counts as a piece of American history. Beyond the Mother Colony House and the old packing houses, the city has little, and the Bowers Museum and the Nixon Library both mean a drive.

San Jose gives you somewhere to go after dark. San Pedro Square has beer halls and a covered market for drinks before arena events, and the SoFA district on South First Street adds cocktail bars, dive bars and a few weekend dance clubs. It is lively only on Fridays and Saturdays, and San Francisco is a train ride away for a bigger night.

In Anaheim most evenings end with the park fireworks. The promenade between the parks has bars, central Anaheim a few brewpubs, and Fullerton some student bars, but going out properly means driving to Long Beach or Los Angeles.

San Jose sits in far richer country. The Santa Cruz Mountains hold old-growth redwoods at Big Basin and Henry Cowell, Alum Rock Park and the oak foothills are on the city's edge, and Monterey Bay brings sea otters, whale watching and the cypress headlands of Point Lobos.

Anaheim's outdoors are milder. The Santa Ana Mountains have chaparral trails and Crystal Cove has tide pools and bluff walks, and the whale boats from Dana Point are a real draw. The landscape is pleasant rather than dramatic, and as in San Jose, nearly all of it needs a car.

Both are good bases, but San Jose has the stronger set of trips. San Francisco is about an hour away by Caltrain, so you can spend a full day there without driving, and Monterey, Carmel and Santa Cruz are close. Napa and Sonoma are within range when the traffic allows.

Anaheim's trips are mainly by car: the spread-out sights of Los Angeles, the Queen Mary and aquarium at Long Beach, a ferry to Catalina, and Mission San Juan Capistrano to the south. San Diego is about two hours down the coast, or a direct train ride away.

Here Anaheim is in a class of its own. Two Disney parks stand side by side, Knott's Berry Farm is ten minutes away, and hundreds of family hotels are within walking distance or a shuttle ride, so a week can pass without a car. Queues at busy times are the main cost.

San Jose works well for families with a car. There is Great America in Santa Clara, Happy Hollow's small zoo and the downtown children's museums, with the Santa Cruz Boardwalk and the Monterey Bay Aquarium as day trips. Each one means time on the road.

Getting around is equally hard in both, and in both the answer outside a small core is a hire car or ride-hailing. The difference is which core you can manage on foot.

In Anaheim it is the resort district, where walking and the hotel shuttles reach the parks, with Metrolink and Amtrak to Los Angeles and San Diego. In San Jose it is the flat downtown with its light rail, plus Caltrain up the Peninsula, which suits a visitor more interested in the city and San Francisco than in the coast.

Shopping is much the same in both: large malls reached by car, with little in the way of markets or crafts. Anaheim's specialities are Disney merchandise on the promenade and the big luxury mall in Costa Mesa, about 20 minutes south.

San Jose's west-side mall and the open-air street beside it cover the international brands in one stop. It also has a little more independent browsing, in Japantown, Willow Glen, the main street of Los Gatos and the Asian supermarkets.

Neither is cheap, but Anaheim is easier to manage. Its biggest costs are park tickets and the premium on hotels near the gates, and both can be reduced by staying in a chain motel a short drive away and eating in the suburbs.

San Jose's high prices are spread across the whole region, so there is less escape. Hotels are priced for business travel and are dearest midweek, which makes a weekend stay the cheaper choice. The plaza eateries and free trails help.

The two are about even, each with a modest calendar and a big city nearby for anything more. Anaheim's evening shows are mostly Disney productions, and its formal venue, the Segerstrom Center with the Pacific Symphony, is a drive away in Costa Mesa.

San Jose keeps more of its arts downtown: Opera San José in the restored California Theatre, the symphony and touring shows at the Center for the Performing Arts, and a long-running summer jazz festival in the streets.

Neither is a place to unwind, and both rely on hotel spas and Korean-style bathhouses in the suburbs. Anaheim's real rest is a pool day between park days, or a drive to the clifftop spa resorts at Laguna Beach and Dana Point.

San Jose has a few calm corners closer to hand: the Japanese gardens at Hakone and Kelley Park, and the quiet streets of Los Gatos and Saratoga in the hills.