Palm Springs or Tijuana?

Neither city is a beach destination, but only Tijuana has the sea at all. Playas de Tijuana gives you a sandy promenade that runs down to the border fence, and Rosarito, half an hour south, has wide sand and beach bars. The Pacific is cool, though, and runoff makes swimming close to the city unwise.

In Palm Springs, swimming means the hotel pool. The nearest ocean is about two hours west over the mountains.

Tijuana is the place for serious eating. Its tacos are reason enough to come: spit-roasted adobada, birria with its broth, and Ensenada-style fish tacos. Add seafood carts piled with clams and octopus, Baja Med restaurants in Zona Río and Chapultepec, a strong craft beer culture and wines from the Valle de Guadalupe.

Palm Springs feeds you comfortably rather than memorably. It's a town of long patio brunches, poolside cocktails and mid-range American dining along Palm Canyon Drive. Its most distinctive tastes are the date shakes from the groves around Indio and the Mexican taquerias further east in the valley.

Palm Springs has the stronger draw here, and it is architecture. Frey's angular houses, Neutra's Kaufmann House and the Alexander tract homes in Twin Palms make a day of driving or cycling worthwhile, and the Palm Springs Art Museum and the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum round it out.

Tijuana's sights are fewer and younger. They come down to the domed Centro Cultural with its Museo de las Californias, the Jai Alai palace on Avenida Revolución, and the murals on the border fence, which leave the strongest impression.

Tijuana goes out harder and later. Avenida Revolución does loud, cheap drinking aimed at visitors from the north, while a block away Calle Sexta's cantinas and small dance spots draw a young local crowd until late. It pays to stay within these areas and to use ride-hailing after dark.

Palm Springs offers a friendlier, smaller evening. You'll find the LGBTQ bars and drag nights of Arenas Road, retro cocktail lounges and spring pool parties, but it has hardly any clubs and most places close early.

This is where Palm Springs leads by a long way. The tramway lifts you from the desert floor to pine forest and winter snow on Mount San Jacinto, palm oases fill the Indian and Tahquitz canyons at the edge of town, and Joshua Tree's boulders and night skies are about an hour away. The catch is the summer heat, which leaves hiking only for the early morning.

Tijuana sits among dry, scrubby hills with little green space of its own. Its outdoors lies south along the coast: cliffs on the Ensenada road, surf near Rosarito and whale-watching in winter.

From Tijuana you can explore two countries. Rosarito and the lobster village of Puerto Nuevo are close, while Ensenada's fish market and the vineyards of the Valle de Guadalupe each make a full day out. San Diego's Balboa Park and La Jolla lie just north, though the return crossing can take hours.

The outings from Palm Springs are quirkier and fewer: the pine village of Idyllwild, the old film set of Pioneertown and the abandoned shores of the Salton Sea. Los Angeles is too far to visit comfortably in a day.

Palm Springs makes the easier family trip, provided it's planned as a pool vacation with outings. The Living Desert zoo, the tramway ride up to the snow and the warplanes of the Air Museum give children real highlights, although many boutique hotels are adults-only and the larger resorts down the valley suit families better.

Tijuana has El Trompo science museum, the IMAX dome and Parque Morelos, but little else for children. Patchy pavements and long distances also make it hard going with a pushchair.

Both cities are built for cars, but Tijuana is a little easier without one. You can walk downtown from the San Ysidro crossing, and plentiful taxis and ride-hailing cover the rest, even if the bus routes are hard for a visitor to read.

In Palm Springs, the flat downtown strip is easy on foot and the airport sits at the edge of town. However, the tramway, the canyons and Joshua Tree all need a hire car, as the valley buses are slow and infrequent.

Palm Springs has a clearer specialism: mid-century furniture, lighting and vintage clothing in the consignment shops of the Uptown Design District. El Paseo's luxury street and the Cabazon outlets are close by.

Tijuana's shopping is more about bargaining than style. There are blankets, silver and piñatas in the curio markets, chillies and Mexican vanilla at Mercado Hidalgo, and small studios and record shops in the arcades off Revolución.

Tijuana is much the cheaper of the two. Street tacos, good-value hotels in Zona Río and cheap rides around town all help, and prices only climb on the tourist strip of Revolución, in the better Baja Med restaurants and at wine tastings.

Palm Springs charges resort prices from winter into spring, and the hire car adds to the bill. Its bargains come in the summer heat, when room rates drop sharply.

Palm Springs has the bigger occasions. Coachella and Stagecoach fill the Indio polo grounds each April, and the McCallum Theatre and the valley's casinos book touring shows and well-known acts. In town, the evenings belong to drag cabaret and piano bars, though the programme fades out in summer.

Tijuana's offer is more home-grown: the state orchestra and touring theatre at the Centro Cultural, a long-standing opera company, mariachis on Plaza Santa Cecilia and the Nortec sound in the bars around Calle Sexta.

This is the biggest gap between the two cities. Palm Springs grew up around a sacred hot spring, which you can still soak in downtown. Desert Hot Springs, fifteen minutes away, fills its spa pools with mineral water straight from the ground, and the slow pace of pool, sun and mountain views makes it easy to switch off.

Tijuana is loud and traffic-heavy, and the health trade it's known for is medical and dental. Calm is found in its hotel spas or out among the vineyards of the wine valleys.