Bend or Santa Barbara?

Bend is a long way from salt water. Swimming there means tubing the Deschutes through the Old Mill District, or a cold, clear dip in Elk Lake or Sparks Lake in August. These are pleasant extras on a summer stay, but they do not make a beach vacation.

Santa Barbara has a real coastline. East Beach and West Beach lie on either side of Stearns Wharf, Arroyo Burro and Leadbetter are a few minutes west, and Carpinteria has shallow sand for small children. The Channel Islands keep the surf gentle, but the water is cool enough that most swims are short.

Both towns drink well, but they drink different things. In Bend, eating out centres on brewpubs and food-cart pods with fire pits. These are good for a casual evening after the trail, but there are only a few serious restaurants and little international food.

Santa Barbara has more to offer: spot prawns and sea urchin from the harbour boats, very well-stocked farmers' markets, Santa Ynez wines in the Funk Zone tasting rooms, and long-established Eastside taquerias as well as polished dining in Montecito. Neither town is good for late-night or international food.

Bend's sights fit into an afternoon, plus half a day at the High Desert Museum, which is worth the trip for its live animals and its Indigenous and pioneer history. Beyond that there are a few brick blocks downtown and the old mill smokestacks.

In Santa Barbara the town itself is the attraction. After the 1925 earthquake the whole centre was rebuilt in white stucco and red tile, and it includes the County Courthouse clock tower, the Old Mission and the Presidio. It fills two or three easy days rather than a full sightseeing programme, which is still far more than Bend offers.

Neither town stays up late, and evenings in both run on beer and wine rather than dancing. Bend's taprooms and food-cart courtyards fill early with people still in their hiking gear, and they empty early too.

Santa Barbara has a little more range, with Funk Zone wine bars, pubs on lower State Street and a few small dance floors that students fill at weekends. It is still a town for a long dinner and a nightcap.

Both are excellent bases for the outdoors, but Bend has the wider range. A big ski mountain, the Three Sisters Wilderness, alpine lakes for paddling, Smith Rock's climbing and the lava fields of Newberry are all within reach, and mountain-bike trails start at the edge of town.

Santa Barbara's strength is mountains meeting the sea. Trails such as Rattlesnake Canyon climb from suburban streets to views of the islands, boats go out for whale watching, and Rincon's surf and Channel Islands National Park are close by. There is no snow sport, and smoke from summer fires sometimes closes trails.

From Bend, most days out lead into scenery. You can visit the western-style main street of Sisters or the observatory at Sunriver, or drive a long way to Crater Lake or the Painted Hills. The nearby ranching towns offer little.

Santa Barbara has one excellent excursion over the mountains to the Santa Ynez Valley, with its wineries, Danish-founded Solvang and Mission Santa Inés. La Purisima, Ojai and Ventura are all within about an hour, so you have several good days out to choose from.

Both are relaxed, safe places to bring children, but they suit different families. Bend is for active ones: floating the river, walking through the Lava River Cave with a lantern, seeing the otters at the High Desert Museum and joining ski school at Mount Bachelor. You need a car for nearly all of it.

Santa Barbara is gentler and more compact. It has a small zoo above the beach, touch tanks at the Sea Center, the MOXI science museum and calm sand at Carpinteria, and the mild winter means all of it works year-round.

Outside the centre you need a car in both towns, but less so in Santa Barbara. Flat State Street, a shoreline path to the harbour, local buses, a downtown shuttle and a train station near the beach mean you can realistically arrive without a car.

In Bend, the riverside path and cycle-friendly streets serve the small core, but the buses are of little use to visitors. Apart from the winter ski shuttle, every lake, trailhead and lava field needs a hire car.

Santa Barbara is the better place to browse. It has the fountain courtyards of La Arcada and other paseos off State Street, galleries in the Funk Zone and upmarket fashion along Coast Village Road in Montecito. Wine and farmers' market produce are the best things to take home.

Bend's shops are mostly practical, with chain stores in the Old Mill District and a few boutiques downtown. Its real strength is outdoor gear, including consignment shops for used ski and bike equipment, and Oregon's lack of sales tax helps a little.

Bend costs less to stay in, though it is no bargain. Oregon has no sales tax, so meals, gear and souvenirs come without anything added at the till. Hotel and rental rates still jump in summer and on ski weekends, and the hire car you will almost certainly need adds a cost of its own.

Santa Barbara is the dearer of the two by some distance. Restaurant meals, wine tastings and boat tours are priced for a wealthy crowd. The most effective saving is to sleep outside the centre in Goleta or Ventura and drive in, and to eat from the taquerias rather than the polished dining rooms. Coming in the cooler months also helps.

Santa Barbara has far more stage life than its size suggests. The restored Granada hosts symphony, opera and ballet, the historic Lobero has chamber music and jazz, major bands play the Santa Barbara Bowl, and the Music Academy of the West gives concerts every summer.

In Bend, music is mainly a summer affair, at the Old Mill amphitheatre and free concerts in the parks. For the rest of the year the Tower Theatre carries comedy, film and touring acts, and there is no opera or professional orchestra.

Santa Barbara is the better place simply to slow down. It has mild sun, polished resort spas in Montecito, plenty of yoga studios, and the spa resorts of the Ojai Valley an hour's drive away.

In Bend, relaxing mostly means a hot tub after a ski or bike day, a resort spa at Sunriver, or a walk to the primitive hot springs at Paulina Lake. People come to Bend to be active, and the town is built around that.