Palm Desert or Santa Barbara?

Palm Desert has no beach at all. The Pacific is about two hours away over the mountains and nobody swims in the Salton Sea, so water here means the resort pool. Santa Barbara has sand in the town itself, at East Beach and West Beach beside Stearns Wharf, with Arroyo Burro, Butterfly Beach and the shallow state beach at Carpinteria close by.

Even so, Santa Barbara is not a warm-water beach resort. The Channel Islands keep the surf gentle, but the sea stays cool all year and many locals swim in wetsuits, so most visitors use the beach for walks and short dips rather than long days in the water.

In Palm Desert, eating out mostly means resort dining: dependable steakhouses and Californian patio restaurants along El Paseo. The more personal cooking is at the eastern end of the valley, in the Mexican taquerias of Indio and Coachella and at the date groves with their date shakes.

Santa Barbara has more to offer. Spot prawns and sea urchin from the harbour boats, very well stocked farmers' markets, and Santa Ynez Valley wines poured in the Funk Zone tasting rooms give its food a clear sense of place. In both towns the cheaper meals are Mexican, on the Eastside and Milpas Street in Santa Barbara.

Palm Desert is a resort town built after the war and has little history to show. A branch of the Palm Springs Art Museum, with its sculpture garden, fills a morning, and the mid-century modern houses are twenty minutes away in Palm Springs.

In Santa Barbara the town is itself the sight. It was rebuilt after the 1925 earthquake in white stucco and red tile, and it has the County Courthouse with its clock tower, the Old Mission and the restored Presidio, plus museums of art and natural history. It is not a place for heavy sightseeing, but it gives a few rewarding days on foot that Palm Desert cannot match.

Neither town is made for late nights, but Santa Barbara gives you a little more within walking distance. Evenings in Palm Desert mean patio cocktails and wine bars around El Paseo that close early, and anyone wanting more drives to the tribal casinos or to Palm Springs. In Santa Barbara the Funk Zone's tasting rooms and breweries fill up in the early evening, and lower State Street has bars and a few small dance floors where students gather at weekends.

Both towns have mountains rising right behind them. From Palm Desert, trails climb into the Santa Rosa Mountains, the Indian Canyons hide palm oases, and the granite boulders of Joshua Tree are an hour away. From June to September, though, the heat limits all of it to the hours around dawn.

Santa Barbara adds the sea. Trails such as Rattlesnake Canyon and Seven Falls lead up to ridges with views over the channel, and on the water there is whale watching, kayaking, surfing at Rincon and boats to Channel Islands National Park. Most of this works in most months, although summer fires sometimes close trails.

From Palm Desert, the outings are varied but spread out. Palm Springs is twenty minutes west. Pioneertown, near Joshua Tree, is an old Western film set, Idyllwild is a cool mountain village for escaping the summer heat, and Salvation Mountain is a painted folk-art hillside near the Salton Sea. Temecula's wineries are about an hour and a half's drive.

Santa Barbara has the stronger single day out. About 45 minutes over the mountains, the Santa Ynez Valley has wineries, Danish-founded Solvang and the restored mission at La Purisima. Other options include Ojai, a small arts town in an orange-growing valley, and Ventura, with its mission and old main street. From either town, Los Angeles is better treated as a separate stay.

Palm Desert has one strong card for children, the Living Desert, a large zoo and botanical garden with giraffes and cheetahs. Resort pools with slides fill the rest of the time. Every outing means a drive, though, and summer middays are too hot for small children.

Santa Barbara packs more variety into a small space. There is the zoo above the beach, touch tanks at the Sea Center, the hands-on MOXI science museum and a planetarium, as well as calm beaches and a waterfront bike path, and the weather allows outdoor play all year. Neither town has big rides.

Palm Desert depends entirely on the car. Resorts and shopping centres spread along wide boulevards, buses are slow and infrequent, and only a few blocks of El Paseo invite a walk, although parking is easy everywhere.

In Santa Barbara you can arrive on the coastal train and get around downtown on foot. State Street runs flat down to the waterfront, and a shoreline path links the wharf, harbour and East Beach. You will still want a car for the uphill Mission, the trailheads and wine country.

Both lean upmarket, and the difference is in the setting. Palm Desert keeps its shopping on El Paseo, a palm-lined boulevard of fashion boutiques, jewellers and galleries, and has a large designer outlet centre half an hour west for bargain hunters.

Santa Barbara spreads its shops more widely. There are chains and independents on State Street, small boutiques around fountain courtyards such as La Arcada, upmarket shops in Montecito and design shops in the Funk Zone. Its best things to take home are wine and produce from the farmers' markets, where Palm Desert's are dates.

Neither town is cheap, but Palm Desert is easier on the budget. Winter rooms are expensive and a hire car is unavoidable, but chain hotels and rentals keep costs down, and in the summer heat resort rates fall to a fraction of their winter level.

Santa Barbara is among the dearest places to stay on the California coast, especially near the beach and in Montecito on summer weekends. Staying in Goleta or Ventura, eating at taquerias and spending days on free hikes and beaches all soften the cost.

Palm Desert relies mainly on the McCallum Theatre, which brings touring Broadway shows, ballet and orchestras through the winter season. The casinos add big-name concerts, and the Coachella and Stagecoach festivals come to Indio for a few weekends each spring.

Santa Barbara's stage life goes deeper and lasts more of the year. The restored Granada hosts the symphony, opera and ballet, and the historic Lobero has chamber music and jazz. Major bands play the Santa Barbara Bowl from spring to autumn, and the Music Academy of the West fills the summer with concerts.

Here Palm Desert pulls ahead. The whole valley is built for slowing down, with resort spas, long afternoons by the pool and golf. Half an hour north, the small spa hotels of Desert Hot Springs fill their pools straight from natural mineral springs.

Santa Barbara has polished spas in Montecito and on the beachfront, and plenty of yoga studios. It has no bathing culture beyond a hike up to small hot pools above Montecito, and for a proper retreat many people drive to the Ojai Valley.