Palm Desert or San Jose?

Neither city is a beach destination, but San Jose at least has the coast within reach. A drive of about 45 minutes over the Santa Cruz Mountains brings you to Santa Cruz, Capitola and the sheltered coves of Monterey Bay, sunny beach towns where the cold water means wetsuits and paddling more than swimming.

From Palm Desert the Pacific is two hours away over the mountains, and the Salton Sea is no place to swim. Here, water means the resort pool, often heated in winter and very much part of the stay.

San Jose eats better and more widely. Its Vietnamese community fills the east-side plazas and Little Saigon with pho and banh mi, and there are serious taquerias, Indian and Korean kitchens and old family places in Japantown, though you drive between them.

Palm Desert's dining is resort dining: polished steakhouses and Californian patios along El Paseo, pleasant for a long warm evening but much alike. Its real local flavour is further east, in the taquerias of Indio and Coachella and the date shakes sold at the groves.

San Jose has the more interesting sightseeing, if not a deep historic core. The Winchester Mystery House, the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, Mission Santa Clara and the Computer History Museum in Mountain View give two days of genuine curiosities.

Palm Desert, a postwar resort town, offers a sculpture garden at the branch of the Palm Springs Art Museum and some galleries on El Paseo. The valley's real cultural interest, the mid-century modern houses, lies in Palm Springs.

San Jose gives you more of a night out, though neither city is built for one. San Pedro Square's beer halls and covered market fill before arena games, and SoFA along South First Street adds dive bars and a few weekend dance clubs.

Palm Desert's evenings are wine bars and patio happy hours around El Paseo, with a retired and golfing crowd, and they close early. Late nights mean the tribal casinos or a drive to Palm Springs.

Both have outstanding countryside close by, but it could hardly be more different. Palm Desert's is desert: the Santa Rosa Mountains rising from the edge of town, fan-palm oases in the Indian Canyons, the tramway up to pine forest and Joshua Tree's boulders and night skies, all best from October to May.

San Jose looks to redwoods and sea. Big Basin and Henry Cowell hold old-growth groves, the foothills turn green in winter, and Monterey Bay offers kayaking among sea otters and the headlands of Point Lobos. Its outdoor season peaks in the dry months, when the desert is at its harshest.

San Jose is far better placed. San Francisco is about an hour away by Caltrain, Stanford and Berkeley are close, and Santa Cruz, Monterey and Carmel make easy coastal days, with Napa and Sonoma within reach.

From Palm Desert the obvious outing is Palm Springs, with Temecula wine country, cool Idyllwild and the painted folk art of Salvation Mountain further out. They are enjoyable, but the list runs out sooner, and Los Angeles and San Diego are really separate trips.

San Jose keeps children busier. Great America's rides are in neighbouring Santa Clara, Happy Hollow suits the little ones, and downtown has a children's discovery museum and a technology museum with an IMAX dome. Further out are the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Palm Desert has one excellent draw in the Living Desert zoo and gardens, plus the tramway and big resort pools. Beyond that the valley is aimed at golfers and adults, and summer heat rules out midday outings for small children.

Plan on a car in both, but San Jose gives you a few alternatives. Its compact downtown links the museums, arena and bar streets on foot, light rail runs north and south, and Caltrain is a dependable way to San Francisco. The price is rush-hour freeway traffic.

Palm Desert is low-density sprawl where only a few blocks of El Paseo are made for walking and buses barely count. In exchange, the roads are quiet and parking is easy everywhere.

The two are on a par, but they shop differently. Palm Desert has a proper shopping street in El Paseo, a palm-lined stroll of fashion boutiques, jewellers and galleries, plus a big designer outlet half an hour west and vintage furniture in Palm Springs.

San Jose's strength is malls: a huge regional mall and its open-air boutique street on the west side cover most luxury labels in one go. For something more personal there are Japantown's old shops, the main streets of Los Gatos and Willow Glen, and the Asian supermarkets.

Palm Desert is the gentler on the wallet, though no bargain in high season. Its big lever is the calendar: from June to September, resort rooms drop to a fraction of winter rates, and chain hotels and rentals are reasonable all year.

San Jose's hotels are priced for business travellers, so they are dearest midweek and cheaper at weekends, and restaurants, parking and car hire all add up. The casual Vietnamese and Mexican eateries and the free parks soften the bill.

The two are evenly matched but differ in kind. Palm Desert's McCallum Theatre brings touring Broadway, ballet and big-name singers through the winter, and Indio's polo grounds host Coachella and Stagecoach each spring, famous but brief.

San Jose has more home-grown institutions: Opera San José in the restored 1920s California Theatre, a resident symphony, and a long-running summer jazz festival in the downtown streets. In both cities, ordinary weeknights are thin.

This is Palm Desert's strongest suit. The whole valley is set up for spa treatments, long pool afternoons and early nights, and in Desert Hot Springs small hotels fill their pools from natural mineral springs. The dry, sunny winter is part of the cure.

San Jose offers hotel and day spas, a few Korean-style bathhouses and quiet hours in the Japanese gardens at Hakone and Kelley Park. These are pleasant breaks in a city that otherwise runs on the working week.