Moab or San Jose?

Neither city is a beach destination, but San Jose at least has a coast within reach. A drive over the Santa Cruz Mountains brings you to the sheltered sand at Santa Cruz and Capitola for a proper seaside day, although the cold Pacific means wetsuits or paddling rather than real swimming.

Moab is hundreds of kilometres from any sea. In the heat you can dip into Mill Creek's pools or Ken's Lake, but the Colorado is fast and silty, and most swims end up being in the motel pool.

Moab feeds hungry hikers well enough, with big portions on Main Street, breweries and early coffee, but there is no local cuisine and choice thins out in winter. Utah's alcohol rules also make a drink with dinner a little more formal.

San Jose is much the better place to eat, provided you are willing to drive to find it. Its large Vietnamese community, its taquerias and the Indian and Korean restaurants towards Santa Clara give real depth. For slower meals there are the Santa Cruz Mountains wineries and Los Gatos.

San Jose has more to fill a cultural day, though neither city is a museum destination. The Winchester Mystery House, the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, Mission Santa Clara and the Computer History Museum make a couple of days of oddities and local history.

Moab's town offers only the small Museum of Moab. Its cultural interest lies in the cliffs outside town: the Ancestral Puebloan and Fremont petroglyphs along Potash Road and Kane Creek, and the dinosaur trackways nearby.

Moab barely has a night out: a few brewpubs full of mountain bikers, and quiet streets by eleven. The better show is the very dark, star-filled sky. San Jose offers more choice, with beer halls and the food market at San Pedro Square, cocktail bars and weekend dance clubs in SoFA, but it is still a low-key scene, and for a big night people head to San Francisco.

This is where Moab is clearly ahead. Arches starts minutes from town, Island in the Sky and Dead Horse Point look over the canyons of the Colorado and Green rivers, and the Slickrock Trail and the Whole Enchilada descent from the La Sal Mountains make it a mountain-biking landmark. Add rafting, climbing at Wall Street and jeep tracks.

San Jose's outdoor appeal is gentler. It has redwood groves at Big Basin and Henry Cowell, ridge trails at Castle Rock, and sea otters and whales on Monterey Bay, so it is greener and more coastal. Lovely as these are, they make good day outings rather than a reason to choose the city.

San Jose is the far stronger base for seeing other places. San Francisco is about an hour away by Caltrain, Stanford and Palo Alto are closer still, and Santa Cruz, Monterey, Carmel and the wine valleys all make full days out.

From Moab, outings are mostly more landscape. The towns within reach are small places like Bluff and Monticello, and the most rewarding trip is a long drive south to Edge of the Cedars and the towers of Hovenweep.

San Jose is the easier choice with children. Great America, Happy Hollow's small zoo, the children's discovery museum and the Monterey Bay Aquarium give plenty of variety, and the mild weather helps. The cost is a lot of time in the car.

Moab works for adventurous school-age children: short walks to Sand Dune Arch, dinosaur tracks, gentle river floats and Junior Ranger programmes. However, the summer heat, unfenced drops and lack of anything built for small children rule it out for many young families.

Both are car destinations. San Jose has at least a walkable downtown, north-south light rail and Caltrain up to San Francisco, so a few days without a car are possible.

Moab's Main Street is easy to walk, and a paved path runs to the Arches entrance, but beyond that you need your own wheels. Without a car you rely on outfitters' shuttles and tours, and a high-clearance vehicle reaches far more of the backcountry.

San Jose wins easily on shopping. Its large west-side mall and the open-air street beside it carry most international and luxury brands, and Japantown, Willow Glen and Los Gatos add independent boutiques. Moab sells what the trails need: bike and climbing gear, rock shops full of geodes and fossils, and galleries with Navajo jewellery and weavings that make better souvenirs than anything in a Californian mall.

Neither is cheap, but Moab is the easier place to keep costs down. Its motels charge resort rates in spring and autumn, and tours and fuel add up. However, one park pass covers a week, public campgrounds and dispersed camping are inexpensive, and winter is much cheaper.

San Jose belongs to one of the dearest regions in the country. Its hotels are priced for business travellers, though they ease at weekends, and restaurants and parking are expensive. The suburban Vietnamese and Mexican eateries and the free foothill trails help.

San Jose has a modest but year-round calendar: Opera San José in the restored California Theatre, the symphony and touring Broadway shows, arena concerts and the summer jazz festival downtown.

Moab has no theatre or regular venue. Its one standout is the Moab Music Festival at the end of summer, when some chamber concerts are held in canyon grottoes reached by boat.

San Jose has a little more for pampering, including hotel spas, suburban day spas and Korean-style bathhouses with saunas, as well as the calm of Hakone and the Japanese Friendship Garden. Moab's few massage studios mostly treat sore legs after biking. Its rest comes instead from silent desert evenings, red cliffs at sunset or a cabin in the La Sal Mountains.