San Francisco or Los Angeles?

Neither city has warm water, but Los Angeles has a real beach life. Zuma, Santa Monica, Venice and Hermosa have wide sand, lifeguard towers, surf breaks and a bike path. In late summer you can wade in or surf in a wetsuit.

San Francisco's beaches are for scenery. Ocean Beach is good for sunsets and bonfires, and Baker Beach has the view of the Golden Gate Bridge. The water stays a few degrees colder than in Los Angeles, and strong rip currents make Ocean Beach unsafe to go in.

Both are excellent places to eat, in different ways. Los Angeles is about breadth: taco trucks on the Eastside, charcoal barbecue in Koreatown, regional Chinese cooking in the San Gabriel Valley, and Thai, Armenian and Ethiopian neighbourhoods. You have to drive between them.

San Francisco is more about produce and local dishes. There is the Mission burrito, sourdough, cioppino and Dungeness crab, and the Ferry Building market for grazing. Its fine dining is strong, and Napa and Sonoma wines are on every list, all within a city you can cross by tram.

The two are close here, and neither has an old historic core. Los Angeles has the stronger art and film circuit: the Getty Center on its hill, LACMA and the Broad, the Huntington's library and gardens, and Hollywood's movie palaces and studio lots. Seeing it all takes a lot of driving.

San Francisco's draw is famous landmarks close together: the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, the cable cars on Nob Hill and the Victorians at Alamo Square. SFMOMA, the de Young and the Asian Art Museum are nearby, and three or four days covers the essentials.

Los Angeles gives you more choice at night. Hollywood has guest-list clubs, West Hollywood has its long gay strip, there are rooftop bars downtown, and Silver Lake and Echo Park have dive bars. Each district is a world of its own, so you tend to stay in one for the evening.

San Francisco is smaller and quieter. The Mission's mezcal and cocktail bars, the Castro and the old North Beach saloons are good for a night out, and SoMa has the warehouse dance clubs. Many neighbourhoods are quiet on weeknights, and in both cities bars stop serving at 2am.

Both cities have wild country close at hand, but it feels different. Around Los Angeles it is dry and mountainous. Griffith Park and the chaparral canyons of the Santa Monica Mountains are near, and the San Gabriels rise above 3,000m, with winter snow on Mount Baldy. Summer heat and fire season limit hiking inland.

San Francisco's outdoors is greener and wetter. It has the Lands End cliff trail and the Presidio, with Muir Woods' redwoods, Mount Tamalpais and the elephant seals at Point Reyes across the bridge. Fog and wind come instead of heat, and you can reach the Marin trailheads without spending half the day in traffic.

San Francisco has the better choice of day trips. Napa and Sonoma are about an hour north, there are ferries to Sausalito, and Berkeley and Oakland are a short train ride away. Monterey and Carmel, with the aquarium and the mission, round off the list.

Los Angeles has good options too, mainly Santa Barbara and its Santa Ynez vineyards, the Catalina ferry to Avalon, and Ojai's orange groves. But traffic makes the driving times unreliable, and Palm Springs and San Diego are at the limit of a day trip.

Los Angeles is far better for children. Disneyland, Universal Studios, Knott's Berry Farm and Six Flags Magic Mountain are all within reach. Add the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum and the Aquarium of the Pacific, and the beaches and mild weather fill the gaps. The price is long drives between outings.

San Francisco suits a gentler family visit. The Exploratorium and the California Academy of Sciences can each fill a day, and there are the sea lions at Fisherman's Wharf and cable car rides. The hills are steep work with a pushchair, and there are no big theme parks nearby.

San Francisco is much easier to get around. It is about 11km across, and buses, streetcars, BART, the cable cars and the ferries all take one Clipper card, so you will rarely need a car. The only real effort is the steep hills between neighbourhoods.

Los Angeles is a basin of separate cities linked by jammed freeways. Metro rail is useful between downtown, Hollywood, Pasadena and Santa Monica, but most visitors still hire a car or rely on ride-hailing. Santa Monica, Venice and Old Pasadena are pleasant on foot, but only once you get there.

Los Angeles is a serious shopping destination. It has the luxury houses of Rodeo Drive, the streetwear and vintage of Melrose, and independent boutiques on Abbot Kinney. The Rose Bowl flea market is a big draw for vintage hunters, and local style runs to surf, denim and relaxed Californian labels.

San Francisco is a pleasant place to browse but rarely the reason for the trip. Union Square has the department stores and flagships. Hayes Valley, Valencia Street and Haight-Ashbury have small design shops, bookshops and vintage, and the Ferry Building has edible souvenirs.

Both are expensive, and San Francisco is harder on the budget. Its hotel rooms cost more across the centre, and sit-down meals and cocktails add service charges as well as tax and tips. You can soften it with cheap transport, free walks on the bridge and coastal trails, and the free museum days.

Los Angeles has high hotel costs too, along with car hire, parking and theme park tickets. But taco trucks, Koreatown and the San Gabriel Valley feed you well for little, and the beaches, Griffith Observatory and the Getty are free to visit.

Both have major orchestras and opera, and Los Angeles has more going on overall. The Philharmonic plays at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and moves to the Hollywood Bowl in summer for picnic concerts. There are rock rooms on the Sunset Strip, small clubs in Echo Park, and Hollywood's comedy and improv stages.

San Francisco's strength is ballet and opera at the War Memorial Opera House, where San Francisco Ballet is the oldest professional ballet company in the country. Add the Symphony at Davies, jazz at the SFJAZZ Center, the old rock hall at the Fillmore and the free summer concerts at Stern Grove.

Los Angeles has a real bathing culture in Koreatown. Its many Korean bathhouses have hot and cold pools, body scrubs and heated floors for napping, and many stay open late. There are also yoga studios everywhere, and the spa towns of Ojai and Palm Springs for longer escapes.

San Francisco has a single long-standing Japanese bathhouse in Japantown, plus day spas. Its quiet places are the Japanese Tea Garden and the outer neighbourhoods. For mineral pools, people drive about two hours to the mud baths at Calistoga.