Huntington Beach or Tijuana?

Huntington Beach is a true beach town, with about 14km of flat sand, volleyball nets, fire rings and lifeguard towers along the whole front. The water is cold for much of the year and rips are common, but this is still a beach you can build a vacation around.

At Playas de Tijuana the sand is better for a promenade stroll and a seafood lunch beside the border fence than for swimming, because runoff often spoils the water. A proper beach day means driving to Rosarito, and even there the surf is just as strong and the sea no warmer.

This is where Tijuana pulls well ahead. Its adobada and birria tacos, ceviche and sea urchin tostadas, Baja Med cooking in Chapultepec and Valle de Guadalupe wine lists add up to a regional cuisine worth travelling for, and it is also where the Caesar salad was invented.

In Huntington Beach you mostly eat casually: fish tacos by the pier, surfer breakfasts and brewpubs with sea views, with plenty of chains. Its best food is a drive away in Little Saigon's pho houses and banh mi bakeries, and for fine dining you have to go to Newport Beach or Costa Mesa.

Neither is a sightseeing destination, but Tijuana has more to show. The Centro Cultural Tijuana and its Museo de las Californias give a solid grounding in the peninsula's history, Avenida Revolución keeps its Prohibition-era face and the Jai Alai palace, and the mural-covered border fence is a sight few places can match.

Huntington Beach's culture is surf culture: the pier, the International Surfing Museum and the handprints of the Surfers' Hall of Fame. That fills a morning, and anyone wanting museums or history will end up driving to Los Angeles or the missions.

Tijuana has been a place to go out since Prohibition and offers far more range. There are rowdy balconies on Revolución, cantinas and small dance spots on Calle Sexta, and taprooms and cocktail bars in Zona Río and Colonia Cacho, with nights running late. Stick to these areas and take ride-hailing after dark.

In Huntington Beach the nights centre on one Main Street strip of sports bars and rooftop decks. It gets lively on summer weekends, is quiet midweek and closes at 2am.

Huntington Beach makes the outdoors part of everyday life: surfing either side of the pier, paddling in the harbour channels, cycling the beach path and watching herons and terns at the Bolsa Chica reserve. Crystal Cove's canyon trails are within half an hour.

Tijuana itself is dry, scrubby hills with few green spaces. The rewards lie further out along the cliff road to Ensenada, with its surf breaks, winter whale watching and vineyard walks, so nature there means a drive rather than a stroll from the hotel.

Both make good bases, but they point in different directions. Huntington Beach opens up Southern California by car, from Los Angeles and Laguna Beach to Mission San Juan Capistrano and ferries to Catalina Island, with freeway traffic the main obstacle.

Tijuana gives you two countries: Rosarito, Puerto Nuevo, Ensenada's fish market, Tecate and the wineries of the Valle de Guadalupe to the south, and San Diego by trolley to the north. Going north means the border crossing, which can take hours, so trips that way need more planning.

Huntington Beach is one of the easiest family bases on the coast. Theme parks are within half an hour, there are pelicans and playgrounds in town, and the hotels are relaxed and used to children. The main drawbacks are that every outing needs a car and the surf is too strong for toddlers.

Tijuana offers children El Trompo's science exhibits, the IMAX dome and the small animal collection in Parque Morelos, and restaurants welcome them warmly. Beyond that the city is aimed at adults, and its zoos and theme parks lie across a slow border.

In both places you can walk the centre and need wheels for everything else. Huntington Beach's pier, Main Street and flat bike path are pleasant to explore, but buses are slow, there is no rail, and theme parks or Little Saigon mean driving on busy freeways.

Tijuana copes better without a hire car. Its walkable core starts right at the San Ysidro pedestrian crossing, and plentiful, inexpensive ride-hailing and yellow taxis make the sprawling, hilly city easy to cross, even if the rapid bus and route taxis are hard for visitors to work out.

The two are close here, but they offer different things. Huntington Beach is about surf style, with board makers, swimwear and surf-brand shops by the pier, and the luxury fashion houses of South Coast Plaza are twenty minutes away.

Tijuana is about markets and bargaining: blankets, silver and pottery near the border, chillies and vanilla at Mercado Hidalgo, and galleries and record shops in Pasaje Rodríguez. It has little fashion to offer, so Huntington Beach has the edge for clothes.

Tijuana costs far less. Street tacos, mid-range hotels in Zona Río and rides across town are all cheap, and only the Revolución tourist strip, the Baja Med restaurants and the wine-country tasting rooms approach northern prices.

Huntington Beach is an expensive stretch of coast. Beachfront hotels, tipped meals, a hire car and beach parking add up quickly, and savings mostly come from inland motels and the Vietnamese and Mexican kitchens of the surrounding county.

The two have about as much on stage as each other, and what separates them is where it happens. Huntington Beach gets its serious programme from neighbouring Costa Mesa, a short drive away. There the Segerstrom Center hosts the Pacific Symphony, ballet and touring Broadway shows, and South Coast Repertory runs its theatre season. In town there is not much beyond cover bands on Main Street and summer concerts in the park.

Tijuana keeps its stage at home. The Baja California orchestra plays in the Centro Cultural's concert hall, and a long-standing opera company is known for its open-air performance in a working-class neighbourhood each year. Its livelier side is informal: norteño and banda in the cantinas, mariachis at Plaza Santa Cecilia and the Nortec sound that grew up in the bars around Calle Sexta.

Neither has a bathing tradition, but Huntington Beach is the place to slow down. Yoga on the sand, sunset walks along the pier and evenings around a fire suit a visitor who relaxes by doing very little, and resort spas line the coast highway.

Tijuana's pace is loud and shaped by border traffic, and its health trade is medical and dental, not restorative. For calm you would have to leave for a vineyard stay in the wine valleys.