Big Bear Lake or Santa Barbara?

Santa Barbara is the beach town. Its south-facing shore is sheltered by the Channel Islands, there are sandy beaches on either side of Stearns Wharf, and Carpinteria's shallow state beach is ideal for small children. The catch is the cold Pacific, so many people wear wetsuits.

At Big Bear the water is a high mountain lake with mostly rocky shores. The one supervised spot is the small swim beach at Meadow Park, and a dip there is a way to cool off rather than a beach day.

Santa Barbara is somewhere you can plan meals around. Spot prawns and sea urchin come in on the harbour boats, the farmers' markets are excellent, and the Funk Zone has pinot noir tasting rooms you can walk between. The taquerias on Milpas Street are good value.

Big Bear eats like a ski town: diner breakfasts, burgers and a brewpub pint. Many visitors simply cook in their cabins.

There is not much to compare. Santa Barbara's whole centre is the sight: after the 1925 earthquake it was rebuilt in white stucco and red tile, with the Courthouse tower and the Old Mission standing above it. Two good museums are enough for a couple of days.

Big Bear has a forest visitor centre, a small history museum and the gold-rush remains of Holcomb Valley along a dirt road.

Neither is a place for clubbing, but Santa Barbara has at least some evening life. Tasting rooms and brewery taprooms in the Funk Zone are busy early, and student bars on lower State Street are lively at weekends. At Big Bear, a night out means some après-ski in winter, then a hot tub and an early night.

For the outdoors the two are level, but the landscapes are very different. Big Bear is alpine. You get ski runs in winter that turn into bike trails in summer, a lake full of kayaks and sailing boats, the Pacific Crest Trail, wintering bald eagles, and the thin air you feel on every climb.

Santa Barbara runs from the mountains down to the sea. Canyon trails like Rattlesnake and Seven Falls start in suburban streets, there are whale-watching boats in every season, surfers head for Rincon, and Channel Islands National Park is a boat ride away. Summer wildfires can close trails on either side.

From Santa Barbara, the Santa Ynez Valley is about 45 minutes over the mountains. It combines wine tasting, Danish-built Solvang and La Purisima mission in one easy day, and Ojai and Ventura are also within reach.

Leaving Big Bear means slow, winding mountain roads. Lake Arrowhead is about an hour away and the Oak Glen orchards are the closest real change of scene, so most visitors stay up the mountain.

Both work well with children, in very different ways. Big Bear is about snow: sledding hills, beginner lessons and an alpine slide in summer, plus a small zoo that cares for rescued bears and bobcats.

Santa Barbara is gentler and works all year. It has touch tanks on the wharf, the MOXI science museum, calm water at Carpinteria and no thin mountain air. That gives it a slight edge for very young children.

Santa Barbara is the easier place to manage. You can arrive by the coastal train, walk flat State Street down to the sea and cycle the shoreline path, though you will still want a car for wine country.

At Big Bear, you need a car from the start. The steep highways may require snow chains and can crawl on busy weekends, and most cabins sit on hilly forest roads away from the walkable Village.

Santa Barbara is the better place to shop, though it is still modest. The paseos off State Street, such as La Arcada, hide galleries around fountain courtyards, and Montecito sells upmarket homeware. The best buys are local wine and market produce.

Big Bear's Village has fudge, bear souvenirs and outfitters renting lake and ski gear, and not much else.

Big Bear is the less expensive of the two, as long as you avoid winter weekends and school vacations. A cabin shared by a group midweek, with meals cooked at home, keeps costs reasonable. Lift tickets and equipment hire are where the money goes.

Santa Barbara is expensive almost everywhere near the water, and Montecito especially so. Taquerias, free hikes and staying in Goleta or Ventura help, but they don't change that.

Santa Barbara has a stage life well beyond its size. The Granada hosts symphony, opera and ballet, and the Lobero has chamber music and jazz. Big touring bands play the Santa Barbara Bowl, and the Music Academy of the West fills the summer with concerts.

In Big Bear, the highlights are a community arts centre, free summer concerts by the lake and the brass bands of Oktoberfest.

A private hot tub on a cabin deck among the pines is Big Bear's version of a spa. Add a wood stove and clear mountain air on a quiet midweek day and that is most of what relaxing means here. There are a few day spas in town but no thermal springs, and busy winter weekends undo the calm.

Santa Barbara offers far more ways to unwind. Montecito's resort hotels have polished spas, there are yoga studios all over town, and a trail above Montecito climbs to small natural hot pools. For a proper retreat, the spa resorts of the Ojai Valley are an hour's drive away, and the town's mild, unhurried pace does the rest.