Flagstaff or San Jose?

Neither city is a beach destination, but San Jose at least gives you a proper day at the seaside. Over the Santa Cruz Mountains are the sunny, sheltered sands of Santa Cruz, Capitola and the northern Monterey Bay, real beach towns where you can sit on the sand or surf in a wetsuit. The cold Pacific puts most people off a full swim.

From Flagstaff, the nearest water is the creek pools of Oak Creek Canyon, such as Slide Rock. They are fun on a hot summer afternoon but cold, slippery and crowded. Otherwise, swimming means a pool.

San Jose is the better place to eat. It has one of the largest Vietnamese communities in the country, so pho and banh mi on the east side are a real reason to go, along with good taquerias, Indian and Korean restaurants and the old family places in Japantown. The catch is that the best of it is spread across suburban plazas, so you drive from meal to meal.

Flagstaff's strength is beer, not cooking. Its breweries cluster around downtown and the Southside, and you will find Navajo tacos and green chile here and there. Otherwise the food is diners, burgers and coffee houses, fine after a long hike.

There is little to choose between them on sights, and both are covered in a day or two. Flagstaff's few sights are tied to the place itself. The Lowell Observatory, where Pluto was found, and the Museum of Northern Arizona's Hopi, Navajo and Zuni collections are the highlights, set against a railroad-era downtown on Route 66, with ancient pueblo ruins a short drive away.

San Jose offers curiosities instead: the maze-like Winchester Mystery House, the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum and a Spanish mission. The Computer History Museum tells the story of Silicon Valley, which Flagstaff has no equivalent for.

Both are quiet nights out that wind down well before the small hours, but the character differs. In Flagstaff it means walking between brewery taprooms, a few cocktail bars and old Route 66 saloons, with students livening things up in term time.

San Jose has a little more range. San Pedro Square's market and beer halls fill up around arena games, and the SoFA strip has dive bars and a few weekend dance clubs. San Francisco is close enough for a bigger night.

Flagstaff is the outdoor base of the two, and by a wide margin. It sits beneath the volcanic San Francisco Peaks, surrounded by vast ponderosa forest and trails that start in town. Lava flows, red rock canyons and the Grand Canyon are within easy reach. Its dark skies and winter snow add things San Jose cannot match.

San Jose's outdoors are gentler and more varied in a different way. There are redwood groves at Big Basin and Henry Cowell, oak foothills on the city's edge, and the Monterey Bay coast with sea otters and whales, all needing a car to reach.

San Jose is the better place to base yourself for day trips. San Francisco is an hour away by train, Stanford and Berkeley are close, and Monterey, Carmel and Santa Cruz make easy coastal days. Wine country runs from the Santa Cruz Mountains up to Napa and Sonoma.

Flagstaff's outings are more scattered and further apart, though rich in history. You can see Sinagua and Verde Valley cliff dwellings, the hillside mining town of Jerome, Sedona, and the Hopi mesas about two hours east. Every one of them is a drive.

Both suit families, but they appeal to different kinds of children. Flagstaff works for curious, outdoorsy kids, with telescope evenings, dinosaur displays, rope courses in the pines, winter sledding and the steam train to the Grand Canyon. The altitude and cold nights take some getting used to.

San Jose has more to offer younger children who want rides and animals. There is a full theme park next door, a small zoo and play park, and further out the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Santa Cruz boardwalk rides. Suburban hotels with pools help, but expect traffic.

In both cities a car is close to essential once you leave the small, walkable centre. Flagstaff adds paved urban trails that make getting around town by bike easy. Beyond town, though, the mountain, the national monuments and the canyon are out of reach of any bus, and winter ice can make the roads difficult.

San Jose has one real advantage: light rail and Caltrain, which give a dependable car-free link to Palo Alto and San Francisco. Elsewhere the valley's distances and rush-hour freeway traffic shape every plan.

For a shopping trip San Jose is the better choice, although the two sell very different things. Flagstaff's shops are few and mostly practical: outdoor gear, bookshops and Route 66 souvenirs. What sets it apart is Native American work, including Navajo rugs, Hopi kachina carvings, pottery and silver and turquoise jewellery, sold in downtown galleries and at trading posts on the roads out of town. Come here to buy one piece with a story behind it, not to spend a day browsing.

San Jose is where you shop for brands. Its big west-side mall and the outdoor shopping district next to it put the major international and designer names side by side, with far more choice than Flagstaff's regional mall and big-box chains. What San Jose can't offer is anything made locally, so its independent shops in Los Gatos, Willow Glen and Japantown are a pleasant extra rather than a reason to go.

Flagstaff is noticeably cheaper. It is moderately priced by American standards, with Route 66 chain motels and casual brewery meals keeping a basic stay manageable, though rooms rise on summer weekends when it fills with Grand Canyon visitors.

San Jose lies in one of the most expensive regions in the country. Hotels priced for business travel, costly restaurants and parking push a stay well above Flagstaff, though weekend room rates and the suburban Vietnamese and Mexican eateries soften it. Both cities add the cost of a hire car.

San Jose has the fuller programme, though it is not deep. Opera San José performs in a restored 1920s movie palace, touring Broadway shows and the symphony share the performing arts centre, and the arena draws big tours. The summer jazz festival takes over the downtown streets.

Flagstaff's calendar is smaller and more local. There is a symphony and university concerts, touring folk and indie bands at the restored Orpheum, and outdoor music in the pines in summer.

Neither is a spa destination, and they relax you in different ways. Flagstaff's calm comes from the setting: a slow mountain town with pine air, cool evenings and bright stars. For proper treatments, Sedona's resort spas are about an hour away.

San Jose has more actual facilities, including Korean-style bathhouses with saunas and soaking pools and day spas in the wealthier suburbs. For a quiet hour there are the Japanese gardens at Hakone and Kelley Park.