Portland or South Lake Tahoe?

South Lake Tahoe has real beaches right on the edge of town: Pope, Baldwin and Kiva under the Jeffrey pines, Nevada Beach and Zephyr Cove just over the state line, and the boulder coves of Sand Harbor further round. The water is strikingly clear over white sand, warm enough for a swim in July and August, though it stays cool even then.

Portland's swimming happens in the Willamette and the Columbia, at small sandy spots in Sellwood and on Sauvie Island. The Oregon coast is an hour and a half's drive, scenic but too cold and rough for most bathers, so beach days are a side trip rather than part of the stay.

Food is one of the main reasons to choose Portland over the mountains. Food cart pods serving Thai, Georgian and barbecue, neighbourhood restaurants cooking salmon, Dungeness crab and mushrooms, serious coffee and Willamette Valley pinot noir make eating out a pleasure all by itself.

In South Lake Tahoe, food is fuel between days outdoors: casino steakhouses and buffets, pizza, taquerias and skiers' breakfasts along Highway 50. Local craft beer is the one real overlap with Portland, and many visitors end up cooking in their cabin.

Neither is a sightseeing destination, but Portland gives you more to do indoors and in town. The Japanese Garden in Washington Park and the walled Lan Su Chinese Garden are genuinely fine, and the Portland Art Museum and the Oregon Historical Society will fill a rainy afternoon.

South Lake Tahoe's sights come down to a lakeside history of summer estates: the Tallac Historic Site and Vikingsholm above Emerald Bay, plus a small local museum. Both are pleasant stops on a day outside, not reasons to stay in.

Portland has more choice and more variety. Brewery taprooms, dive bars with pinball, cocktail and wine bars line Alberta, Mississippi, Hawthorne and Belmont, so a relaxed night of drinking and talk is easy to find, even if big clubs are scarce.

South Lake Tahoe can actually run later, as the Stateline casinos keep their floors and bars open all night, but that is nearly the whole offer. On the California side it means après-ski at the gondola base and an early night.

Both are excellent bases for the outdoors, but at Tahoe the landscape starts at the door. The lake, Emerald Bay, the Desolation Wilderness and the Tahoe Rim Trail are all within minutes, Heavenly's gondola leaves from Stateline, and summer brings paddleboarding on calm morning water and mountain biking on the Flume Trail.

Portland has Forest Park's 110km of trails inside the city, but its biggest scenery lies further out: the Columbia River Gorge and Multnomah Falls half an hour away, and Mount Hood's skiing and alpine hiking about an hour and a half off. It is a city with great nature nearby rather than a mountain base.

Portland has the better spread of outings, led by the Willamette Valley wine towns under an hour away, with Astoria's Victorian river port, Cannon Beach and Hood River's orchards also within reach. South Lake Tahoe's excursions are about Gold Rush and silver boom history, from Virginia City's boardwalks to Coloma and the Amador wineries. They are handy for a day of bad weather, and both need a car.

Children are equally well served in both, but in different ways. Portland is a city vacation with them: the Oregon Zoo and the big playground in Washington Park, the old rides at Oaks Amusement Park in Sellwood and the waterfront fountains in summer, with the light rail easy to use with a pushchair. When the wet months shut the outdoor options, the hands-on halls and the submarine at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry are the one real fallback. There is no beach to play on, and visible homelessness in parts of downtown bothers some parents.

South Lake Tahoe is an outdoor vacation with them. Shallow lake beaches, paddleboards and bike paths through the pines fill a summer, and ski schools, sledding hills and the Heavenly gondola fill a winter. There is no zoo, aquarium or theme park to fall back on, so a storm day is a cabin day, and the casino strip at Stateline is best walked past quickly.

Portland is far easier without a car. The MAX light rail runs from the airport to the centre, downtown's short blocks are easy to walk, a streetcar crosses the river, and cycling is flat and well provided for, although the east-side neighbourhoods mean bus rides.

In South Lake Tahoe only the Stateline core is walkable. Beaches, trailheads and the other ski areas are spread around the lake, summer weekends bring slow traffic round Emerald Bay, and winter brings chain controls on the roads in.

Portland is the only real choice here. Powell's City of Books fills a whole block, Mississippi, Alberta and Hawthorne hold vintage clothes, records and makers' studios, and Oregon has no sales tax. Tahoe's shops are about gear rental, ski equipment, supermarket runs for the cabin and souvenirs around the gondola base.

Neither is cheap, but Portland is the gentler of the two. Food carts offer some of its best eating, transit is inexpensive, and Forest Park and the neighbourhoods cost nothing.

South Lake Tahoe's prices jump in peak ski weeks, on long weekends and in high summer, and lift tickets add to the bill. A midweek or shoulder-season stay in a Nevada casino hotel, or a cabin with a kitchen, narrows the gap. Budget for car hire in either case.

Portland has a proper cultural calendar: the Oregon Symphony in the restored Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, opera, ballet and resident theatre, plus an indie rock and folk circuit in small rooms and the sprung-floor Crystal Ballroom.

South Lake Tahoe depends on casino showrooms for touring rock, country and comedy acts. Summer adds its most memorable evenings, with Shakespeare on the beach at Sand Harbor and concerts at the Tallac estates, but there is no concert hall or classical season.

Portland's way of unwinding is in town, while South Lake Tahoe's is a short drive into the hills. Portland has soaking houses with hot tubs, saunas and cold plunges in its residential streets, along with long garden and café mornings, but its nearest natural hot springs are two hours away in the Cascades.

South Lake Tahoe's own spas are mostly add-ons at casino hotels and ski lodges. The real draw is the mineral pool at Grover Hot Springs, about 45 minutes south, and the Carson Valley springs around Genoa half an hour over the pass, which make an easy afternoon soak after quiet mornings by the lake.