Phoenix or Sonoma?

Neither city is a beach destination, and the water each offers is very different. Phoenix's swimming is warm and inland. You can swim at the small beaches of Saguaro Lake and Canyon Lake set among desert cliffs, tube down the Salt River in summer, or spend long afternoons at resort pools with lazy rivers.

Sonoma is about an hour from a real coast, but the shore around Bodega Bay is for looking at, not swimming in, because the water is cold and the currents are strong. Summer swimming there means a hotel pool or the gravel beaches of the Russian River.

Sonoma has the better food and drink, because the eating is tied to the wine. You get seasonal Californian cooking with local cheese, olive oil and oysters, eaten slowly near the vineyards. It is a small town, though, with few restaurants and no late dining.

Phoenix offers more variety but less focus. Sonoran borderland cooking is its strength, from carne asada to bacon-wrapped hot dogs, and its wood-fired pizza is good. Most good meals mean a drive across the sprawl.

Phoenix has more to see, although it is all in museums. The Heard Museum's Native American collection, the Musical Instrument Museum and Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West are each worth a planned visit. Since there is no old centre, you drive from one to the next.

Sonoma is the reverse, with less to see but a real historic core you can walk. The broad plaza where the Bear Flag Revolt began, the last Franciscan mission and Vallejo's house fill about half a day.

Phoenix is the only one of the two with a real night out. Old Town Scottsdale has clubs and rooftop bars, Mill Avenue in Tempe runs on students, and downtown has cocktail and craft beer bars, although each district is a separate ride away.

Sonoma's evenings are dinner followed by a glass at a wine bar on the plaza, and the town is quiet by late evening.

Both are very good for the outdoors, but the landscapes have little in common. Phoenix is desert: you scramble up Camelback Mountain, walk among saguaros in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, or drive two hours to Sedona's red rock.

Sonoma is green and rolling, with vineyard roads for cycling, redwood groves at Sugarloaf Ridge and the coast at Point Reyes within an hour. Phoenix's outdoors shuts down in the summer heat, while Sonoma's is at its best in spring and autumn.

Sonoma is the better base for day trips, and most of that comes from having San Francisco about an hour away. Napa, Healdsburg, Petaluma and Sausalito are also close, though apart from the city most outings are another stretch of wine country.

From Phoenix the distances are longer and there are fewer places to go. Sedona, Jerome, Prescott and Tucson's Mission San Xavier del Bac are the main choices, and the Grand Canyon is too far for a comfortable day.

Phoenix works far better with children, at least between autumn and spring. It has a zoo, an aquarium, a science centre, a children's museum, water parks and spring training baseball, though you will spend a lot of time in the car.

Sonoma is calm and safe, but apart from the plaza playground, a miniature railway park and an African wildlife park near Santa Rosa, children are left waiting while the adults taste wine.

Both need a car, but Sonoma is easier to manage. Its plaza and the tasting rooms around it are a short walk apart, the flat valley roads suit a bicycle, and booking a driver for tasting days also means nobody has to drive after the wine.

Phoenix spreads across dozens of kilometres of arterial roads. The light rail line from the airport through downtown to Tempe helps, but summer heat makes even short walks hard work.

Phoenix has much more for shoppers. Scottsdale's malls carry the international brands, and the regional buy is Navajo and Zuni silver and turquoise, Hopi katsina carvings and rugs from reputable galleries and museum shops.

Sonoma's shopping is a short stroll round the plaza's arcades for kitchenware, olive oil, cheese and wine bought direct from the producers, which suits gifts and food to take home rather than clothes.

Phoenix is much cheaper. Freeway chain hotels are good value all year, resort rates drop sharply in summer, and the hiking costs nothing. The main extra cost is a hire car.

Sonoma is expensive at every step. Rooms are scarce, tasting fees add up over a few days, restaurants are aimed at well-off visitors, and you still need a car or driver. Staying in Santa Rosa or Petaluma is the usual way to save.

Phoenix has the bigger stage, and its season runs from autumn to spring. The symphony, Arizona Opera and Ballet Arizona perform through the cooler months, and touring Broadway shows play at ASU Gammage, Frank Lloyd Wright's round auditorium in Tempe. The Musical Instrument Museum's small hall and a few rock venues add variety, but summer is quiet.

Sonoma works the other way round. Most of what it puts on happens in summer and outdoors, such as shows among the oaks at Jack London park and concerts at the wineries. The rest of the year there is little beyond the old theatre on the plaza and the Green Music Center, half an hour away, which brings touring orchestras.

Both are good places to rest, but in different ways. Phoenix offers the large desert resort with several pools, golf and treatments using sage, clay and agave, best in the dry warmth of winter.

Sonoma has the one thing Phoenix lacks, real mineral water. It rises at Boyes Hot Springs on the edge of town, and Calistoga's mud baths are an hour over the hills. Sonoma's quiet plaza mornings and early evenings help you slow down too.