Portland or San Jose?

Neither is a beach city, but San Jose has the edge. Santa Cruz, Capitola and the northern Monterey Bay coves are about 45 minutes over the mountains and have a real beach-town feel, though the cold water means wetsuits or simply sitting on the sand.

Portland's coast at Cannon Beach and Seaside is an hour and a half away and too cold and rough for most swimmers. Its swimming happens instead on the Willamette and Columbia in midsummer, at small river beaches in Sellwood and on Sauvie Island.

Portland eats better, and it is easier to eat well there. Food cart pods put dozens of cuisines in one lot, neighbourhood restaurants lean on salmon, Dungeness crab and hazelnuts, and the craft beer, coffee and Willamette Valley pinot noir give it a drinking culture San Jose cannot match.

San Jose's strength is narrower but real: one of the country's largest Vietnamese communities, with excellent pho and banh mi in Little Saigon, plus good taquerias and Indian and Korean cooking. The catch is that you drive between strip malls to find it.

Both are light on sights and a couple of days covers either, so the difference is in kind. Portland's best moments are its gardens, the Lan Su Chinese Garden and the Japanese Garden in Washington Park, along with the Pittock Mansion view and the cast-iron facades of Old Town.

San Jose trades on curiosities instead: the eccentric Winchester Mystery House, the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum and the Computer History Museum, which tells Silicon Valley's own story.

Portland has much more going on after dark. Taprooms, dive bars with pinball, cocktail and wine bars line strips in nearly every inner neighbourhood, and they keep serving late, though it is a talking-and-drinking town rather than a clubbing one.

San Jose's going out is confined to San Pedro Square and the SoFA blocks on South First Street, lively at weekends around arena events and quiet the rest of the week. Anyone after a bigger night takes the train to San Francisco.

Portland is the stronger outdoor city, mainly because of what starts at its doorstep. Forest Park's trails begin a walk from the northwest streets, the waterfalls of the Columbia River Gorge are half an hour out, and Mount Hood gives skiing and alpine hiking, with windsurfing at Hood River.

San Jose has fine scenery too, with redwood groves at Big Basin and Henry Cowell, the foothills of Alum Rock and sea otters and whales on the Monterey Bay. Almost all of it needs a car, and it lacks the volcanic peaks and waterfall country Portland has nearby.

San Jose wins clearly here. San Francisco is an hour away by Caltrain, Stanford and Berkeley are close, and Monterey, Carmel and Santa Cruz make easy coastal days, with Napa and Sonoma possible as a longer outing.

Portland's outings are pleasant but quieter: Willamette Valley wine towns such as McMinnville and Dundee, the Victorian river port of Astoria and the coast at Cannon Beach. Nearly all need a car, and there is no great city or heritage site within reach.

San Jose has more for children overall, though Portland is the easier city to manage day to day. In Portland, OMSI's submarine and hands-on halls and the zoo in Washington Park are close to the centre, the light rail and streetcar take a pushchair without fuss, and summer afternoons can be spent in the waterfront fountains. The long wet winter pushes most of that indoors, and visible homelessness in parts of downtown bothers some families.

San Jose's lead comes from scale and weather. A full theme park in Santa Clara outdoes the old-fashioned Oaks Amusement Park in Sellwood, the Monterey Bay Aquarium is worth a day on its own, and the dry winters keep outdoor plans intact for most of the year. Suburban hotels with pools and parking make the evenings simple. The price is time in the car, some of it in freeway traffic.

Portland is far easier without a car. The MAX light rail runs from the airport into a centre of short, walkable blocks, a streetcar loops across the river, and the flat waterfront and bridges make cycling simple. Only the east-side neighbourhoods and trips out of town ask more effort.

San Jose's compact downtown and the Caltrain line to San Francisco work well, but beyond them buses are slow and the sights are spread across the valley. Most visitors hire a car and plan around freeway traffic.

The two are broadly level, but they shop in opposite ways. Portland is independent and street-based: Powell's City of Books, vintage and record shops on Mississippi and Hawthorne, the Saturday Market, plus no sales tax and plenty of outdoor gear.

San Jose is about one very large west-side mall and its open-air boutique street, where most international and luxury labels sit together, with Los Gatos and Willow Glen for gentler browsing.

Neither is cheap, but Portland is clearly easier on the budget. Food carts, low transit fares and free parks and waterfront keep a stay manageable, and car hire is only needed for trips out.

San Jose sits in one of the costliest regions in the country, with business-priced hotels, expensive restaurants and parking, and a car that is hard to do without. Weekend stays and plaza eateries are its main ways to save.

Portland has the livelier stage. Alongside its symphony, opera and ballet, the city's indie rock and folk tradition means bands in small east-side rooms most nights, and the sprung floor of the Crystal Ballroom.

San Jose has a respectable core, with Opera San José in the restored California Theatre and big touring concerts at the arena, plus a long-running summer jazz festival. On a normal weeknight there is little, and serious theatregoers head to San Francisco.

Neither is a wellness destination, but Portland is the easier place to slow down. Its gardens, forest trails and long café mornings set an unhurried pace, with soaking houses in residential neighbourhoods and Cascade hot springs a drive away.

San Jose is built around the working week, so calm comes in pockets: Korean-style bathhouses in the valley towns, the quiet streets of Los Gatos and Saratoga, and the Japanese gardens at Hakone and Kelley Park.