Bend or Santa Monica?

In Bend, swimming means the river and the lakes. You can tube down the Deschutes through the Old Mill District or swim in the cold, clear water of Elk Lake or Sparks Lake in August. It makes a pleasant summer extra, but nobody goes to Bend for it.

Santa Monica has a real beach: a very wide band of pale sand with the pier in the middle and lifeguard towers along it. Zuma, El Matador and the coves at Point Dume are a short drive up the coast. The Pacific stays cool, so many visitors wade rather than swim, but for days on the sand it is far ahead.

Eating and drinking in Bend revolves around beer. Visitors walk or cycle between brewpubs and spend evenings at food-cart pods with shared fire pits. Downtown has some good Pacific Northwest farm-to-table cooking, but beyond that the international choice and fine dining are thin.

Santa Monica has a wider and more polished range. The Wednesday farmers market supplies kitchens across the region, and the town is good for seafood, brunch, Italian and Japanese food, with more creative places over the line in Venice. Neither has a cuisine of its own. Santa Monica's gap is the cheap immigrant food Los Angeles is known for, which is a long drive east.

Neither town is a place for sightseeing. In Bend the High Desert Museum, with its live animals and Indigenous and pioneer history, fills half a day. The old schoolhouse museum, the brick downtown and the Tower Theatre take an afternoon between them.

Santa Monica has the pier with its Route 66 sign, the galleries at Bergamot Station and some fine Art Deco buildings near the ocean. What gives it the edge is what lies just outside town: the Getty Center on its hilltop and the Getty Villa's antiquities are both a short drive away.

Both towns go to bed early, but Santa Monica has more choice. Bend's evenings are taprooms and food-cart courtyards that fill up early with people still in their hiking gear. A short run of downtown bars stays busy on summer weekends.

Santa Monica adds hotel rooftop bars with ocean views, wine bars around the Promenade, the pubs on Main Street and a looser crowd in Venice. It has no real club scene either, and a big night out means a long taxi ride to Hollywood.

Bend is in a different league for the outdoors. Mount Bachelor gives a long ski season, the Cascade Lakes are good for paddling, and Smith Rock is a major climbing area. The Newberry lava fields and caves are close by, and in spring or autumn you can ski and mountain-bike on the same day.

Santa Monica's outdoors is ocean and chaparral. There are canyon trails in Topanga and Temescal, a 35km beach path for cycling, surf lessons and whale-watching boats. Its mild climate means you can be outside on almost any day of the year, but the range and scale of what is on offer are smaller.

From Bend, day trips lead mostly into landscape. Sisters has a western-style main street, Sunriver has its observatory and the Warm Springs museum is devoted to the region's tribes. Crater Lake and the Painted Hills make long days out.

Santa Monica has far more variety within reach, as long as you plan around traffic. Santa Barbara's mission and wine country, quiet Ojai, the art-colony streets of Laguna Beach and Catalina Island by ferry all make good days out. The Huntington Library in Pasadena is another.

Both work well with children, and Santa Monica is a little easier. Bend suits active families: floating the river, exploring the Lava River Cave with a lantern, seeing the otters at the High Desert Museum and skiing in Mount Bachelor's beginner area. Almost every outing needs a car, though, and there is no zoo or amusement park.

Santa Monica has a lifeguarded beach for digging, rides and a Ferris wheel on the pier, a small aquarium under it and a flat path for family bike rides. The theme parks are long drives away, and the homelessness visible around downtown unsettles some parents.

Bend is hard to see without a car, while Santa Monica can be managed mostly on buses and light rail. In Bend a riverside path links downtown with the Old Mill District, and cycling around town is easy. But the lakes, trailheads and Smith Rock are all out of reach otherwise, and most visitors fly into Redmond or drive over the passes.

In Santa Monica the blue buses cover the town, and the E Line light rail reaches downtown Los Angeles in about an hour. Beyond that line, though, the Getty, Hollywood and the Malibu canyons mean ride-hailing or a hire car and jammed freeways.

Bend's shopping is practical. It is at its best for outdoor gear, with good ski, bike and climbing shops and consignment stores for used equipment. Oregon's lack of sales tax helps a little.

Santa Monica offers much more. The Third Street Promenade has the chains and flagships, Montana Avenue has upmarket boutiques, Main Street has surf shops, and Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice is known for design-led fashion. Rodeo Drive is a short drive away for luxury labels.

Neither is cheap, but Bend costs noticeably less. Its prices climb in summer and on ski weekends, and you will need a hire car. On the other side, there is no sales tax, food carts are cheap, the trails and rivers are mostly free, and midweek stays in spring or autumn are easier on the budget.

Santa Monica is expensive even by Californian standards. Oceanfront hotels cost a great deal, tax and tip push up restaurant bills, and parking adds more. The beach, the bike path and the cheap buses help, and staying further inland lowers room prices.

Bend's stage is mostly a summer one. Touring rock, folk and country acts play the riverside amphitheatre in the Old Mill District, and the rest of the year the Tower Theatre carries the calendar, with brewpubs filling the gaps with local bands.

Santa Monica comes out a little ahead because of what lies within reach. In town, the Broad Stage puts on chamber music and dance, and small rooms keep up a long-standing folk scene. Across the city are the Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl, worth the long drive.

In Bend, relaxing means a hot tub after a day on the slopes or the bike, a resort spa around Sunriver, or a walk out to the primitive hot springs at Paulina Lake. Most visitors come to be active rather than to rest.

Santa Monica is better for unwinding, through yoga and spas rather than any bathing tradition. Classes are held on the sand, mornings start with a walk along the ocean, the beachfront hotels have polished spas, and many people make a habit of watching the sunset over the bay.