Moab or Santa Barbara?

There is no real contest here. Moab is high desert far from any coast, and its swimming comes down to Mill Creek's shallow pools, Ken's Lake and the cold, fast Colorado.

Santa Barbara has a proper shoreline, sheltered by the Channel Islands, with East and West Beach in town and Carpinteria's shallow sands for small children. The water stays cool, so swims are short and many locals wear wetsuits, but you can spend the whole day on the sand.

In Moab, food is fuel: burgers, tacos, pizza and brewery meals on Main Street, eaten in hiking boots, with choice thinning out in winter and Utah's drinking rules making a glass of wine with dinner more formal than visitors expect.

Santa Barbara eats far better. Spot prawns and sea urchin come off the harbour boats, the farmers' markets are among the best in California, and you can walk between the Funk Zone's tasting rooms pouring local pinot noir. The taquerias on Milpas Street add good, cheaper meals alongside the farm-to-table dining.

Moab's cultural interest lies outside town, in the Ancestral Puebloan and Fremont petroglyph panels along Potash Road and Kane Creek and in the dinosaur trackways. In town there is only the small Museum of Moab, a morning at most.

Santa Barbara offers a whole townscape to walk through, rebuilt after 1925 in white stucco and red tile, with the County Courthouse tower, the Old Mission and the Presidio. Add the art and natural history museums and you have two or three easy days of sightseeing.

Moab goes to bed early. A few brewpubs fill with rafters and bikers, there are no clubs, and the best thing about the night is the star-filled sky.

Santa Barbara is livelier without being a night-out destination. Evenings start in the Funk Zone's wine bars and taprooms, and lower State Street has bars and small dance floors that students fill at weekends. Expect a long dinner and a nightcap rather than a club night.

Both are excellent, but Moab is in a class of its own. Arches' two thousand stone arches, the canyon maze seen from Island in the Sky and Dead Horse Point, the Slickrock Trail, the Whole Enchilada descent from the La Sal Mountains and rafting on the Colorado make it a destination built around the landscape.

Santa Barbara's outdoors mixes mountain and sea. Trails climb from town to Rattlesnake Canyon and Inspiration Point, and boats leave the harbour for whale watching. There is kayaking along the shore, surfing at Rincon and island walks in Channel Islands National Park. It is gentler and more varied, not as grand.

From Moab, nearly every outing is to more landscape. The towns within reach, Green River, Monticello and Bluff, are small, and the cultural trips run south to Edge of the Cedars and Hovenweep, a long day in the car.

Santa Barbara gives you more places to go. The Santa Ynez Valley's wineries and the Danish streets of Solvang are about 45 minutes over the mountains, and you can also reach La Purisima mission, Ojai and Ventura without much effort. Los Angeles is just too far for a comfortable day out.

Moab works for active, school-age children who like scrambling over rocks, with short walks to Sand Dune Arch, dinosaur tracks, Junior Ranger programmes and calm river floats. Summer heat, unfenced drops and long drives make it hard work with toddlers.

Santa Barbara is easier with children of any age. The zoo, the touch tanks at the Sea Center, MOXI and the planetarium fill rainy or restless hours, the beaches at Carpinteria and East Beach are calm, and the waterfront bike path suits small legs. It has no big thrill rides, though.

In both places the centre is walkable, but beyond Main Street Moab needs a car. There is no useful public transport, trailheads are often down dirt tracks, and without your own vehicle you depend on outfitters' shuttles.

Santa Barbara lets you arrive by coastal train and get by on foot, by bike along the shoreline and by local bus and downtown shuttle around the core. The wine country, Ojai and the outlying beaches still call for a car or a tour.

Moab's shops are practical: bike and climbing gear, rock shops with geodes and fossils, and a few galleries selling Navajo jewellery and weavings.

Santa Barbara gives you more browsing. There are boutiques and galleries in the fountain courtyards of La Arcada and the paseos off State Street, upmarket fashion on Coast Village Road in Montecito and design shops in the Funk Zone. Its best souvenirs are local wine and farmers' market produce.

Neither is a bargain, but Moab is easier on the wallet. Its rooms are pricey for what they are in spring and autumn, and car hire and guided trips soon add up. Even so, cheap campgrounds, free camping on public land, free hikes and a park pass covering a week make a low-cost trip possible, especially in winter.

Santa Barbara's beach and Montecito hotels are among the most expensive on the California coast, and dining and tastings are priced to match. Staying in Goleta or Ventura, visiting midweek and eating at taquerias are the main ways to save.

Moab has one memorable fixture, the late-summer Moab Music Festival, with chamber concerts in canyon grottoes reached by boat. Outside the festival there is little beyond a weekend band in a brewpub.

Santa Barbara has a stage calendar all year. Symphony, opera and ballet play at the restored Granada, chamber music and jazz at the historic Lobero, touring bands at the Santa Barbara Bowl in its canyon, and the Music Academy of the West gives concerts each summer.

A Moab trip is energetic by nature, with dawn starts and long days in the heat, and its few massage studios serve sore cyclists. Its restful side is the quiet desert evening and the red cliffs at sunset, or a cabin in the La Sal Mountains.

Santa Barbara is made for slowing down. The mild weather and easy pace help, the Montecito resort spas are polished, there are plenty of yoga studios, and a hike leads to small hot pools above town. For a proper retreat, the spa resorts of the Ojai Valley are an hour away.