Los Angeles or San Jose?

Los Angeles has beaches right in the city, from the coves of Malibu past Santa Monica and Venice to the South Bay towns, with volleyball, a bike path along the sand and surf breaks. The beach is part of everyday life there, and the water is noticeably warmer by late summer.

San Jose is inland, so a beach day means crossing the Santa Cruz Mountains to Santa Cruz or Capitola. Those bays are sheltered and pleasant, but the water stays colder than in Los Angeles and summer traffic makes the drive slow. In both cities you will want a wetsuit.

Both cities are built on immigrant cooking, but Los Angeles has far more of it and at a higher level: Koreatown, Thai Town, Little Ethiopia, Oaxacan Mid-City and the regional Chinese of the San Gabriel Valley, plus a serious chef-led scene and places like Grand Central Market to graze.

San Jose's strength is narrower and specific. Its Vietnamese community makes it excellent for pho and banh mi on the east side, and there are good taquerias and Indian kitchens towards Santa Clara. Most of it sits in suburban plazas, and downtown dining is fairly generic.

Los Angeles gives you a full art circuit. The Getty Center and Getty Villa, LACMA, the Broad, the Huntington and Griffith Observatory would fill days, and Hollywood's studios and movie palaces and the architecture of downtown add more. It lacks an old city, but not things to see.

San Jose has a handful of oddities rather than a circuit: the Winchester Mystery House, the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum and the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, which tells the Silicon Valley story. A couple of days covers them.

In Los Angeles you choose a scene by neighbourhood: velvet-rope clubs in Hollywood, the gay strip in West Hollywood, rooftop and cocktail bars downtown, dive bars in Silver Lake and Echo Park. Closing time is 2am and districts are far apart, but the range is large.

San Jose's evenings happen on a few blocks, around the food hall and beer halls of San Pedro Square and the bars of South First Street. It is busy on weekends, quiet otherwise and finishes early, and anyone wanting a big night takes the train to San Francisco.

Los Angeles has a little more on its doorstep. Griffith Park and the Hollywood Hills give hikes inside the city, the Santa Monica Mountains run to the sea, and the San Gabriel Mountains rise high enough for winter snow, with surfing, whale watching and boats to the Channel Islands on the coast.

San Jose's landscape is softer and greener. Its draw is the old-growth redwoods at Big Basin and Henry Cowell, the oak foothills and Mount Hamilton, and, further out, sea otters in Monterey Bay, the headlands at Point Lobos and Pinnacles National Park.

This is San Jose's strongest card. San Francisco is an easy day by Caltrain, Stanford and Berkeley are close, and Monterey, Carmel and Santa Cruz are just over an hour away, with Napa and Sonoma reachable for wine.

Los Angeles has good outings too, chiefly Santa Barbara and its mission, Catalina Island by ferry and Laguna Beach, but there are fewer of them and the traffic makes their length hard to predict. Nothing close to Los Angeles matches a major city like San Francisco within easy train range.

Los Angeles is one of the great family destinations. It has Disneyland, Universal Studios, Knott's Berry Farm and Magic Mountain, plus a space shuttle at the California Science Center, the La Brea Tar Pits and the Aquarium of the Pacific. That is enough for a week of different days.

San Jose is gentler and smaller in scale. It has Great America next door, Happy Hollow for young children and a children's discovery museum, and the Santa Cruz Boardwalk and the Monterey Bay Aquarium are within a drive.

Both cities are car country, and neither is easy without one. Los Angeles has more Metro rail, linking downtown with Hollywood, Pasadena, Long Beach and Santa Monica, but the distances and freeway jams are far greater, so a day is best kept to one area.

San Jose is smaller, with a flat, walkable downtown, a north-south light rail and Caltrain up to San Francisco. The scattered sights of the valley still need a hire car.

Los Angeles shopping covers every level: luxury on Rodeo Drive, streetwear and vintage on Melrose, independent shops on Abbot Kinney, records and design in Silver Lake, and the Rose Bowl flea market for serious hunting.

San Jose is mainly about its big west-side mall and the open-air boutique street beside it, which gathers the major brands with easy parking. Beyond that there are a few Japantown shops and the main streets of Los Gatos and Willow Glen.

Neither is cheap, and the two are about equally expensive once you add a hire car, parking and dining out. The difference is in the pattern: San Jose's hotels are priced for business travel and drop at weekends, while Los Angeles costs most along the coast and in Beverly Hills.

In both cities the cheap eating is excellent, taco trucks and Koreatown in Los Angeles, Vietnamese and Mexican plazas in San Jose. Los Angeles also gives you free beaches, Griffith Observatory and the Getty.

Los Angeles is a major music city: the LA Philharmonic at Disney Hall and the Hollywood Bowl, LA Opera at the Music Center, Broadway tours at the Pantages, the rock rooms of the Sunset Strip, jazz in Leimert Park and some of the best comedy clubs anywhere.

San Jose has a respectable local calendar, with Opera San José in the restored California Theatre, a symphony, touring shows and a summer jazz festival. On an ordinary weeknight the choice is thin, and serious arts-goers head to San Francisco.

Los Angeles has a real draw in the Korean bathhouses of Koreatown, open late with hot and cold pools and scrubs, alongside the spas of Beverly Hills and yoga everywhere. Ojai and the Palm Springs desert spas are there for a proper retreat.

San Jose offers hotel and suburban day spas and a few bathhouses in nearby towns. Its calmest moments are quieter ones, the streets of Los Gatos and Saratoga or the Japanese gardens at Hakone and Kelley Park.