San Francisco or Santa Barbara?

Neither is a warm-water beach destination, but Santa Barbara comes much closer. San Francisco's shore is lovely to look at, from the long sweep of Ocean Beach to Baker Beach under the bridge and little China Beach. It is used for dog walks, bonfires and sunsets, because the open Pacific stays cold, fog is common and rip currents make Ocean Beach dangerous.

Santa Barbara's coast faces south behind the Channel Islands, so the surf is gentler, and East and West Beach are right in town. The water is several degrees warmer by late summer, and Carpinteria's long, shallow beach suits small children. A wetsuit still helps, but here a beach day is a real plan.

San Francisco has the deeper and more varied food scene. Chinatown and the Richmond serve Cantonese food and dim sum, North Beach has Italian bakeries and the Mission has its oversized burritos. Add sourdough, cioppino, Dungeness crab and a fine-dining tier among the best in the country.

Santa Barbara cooks well from a narrower base: spot prawns and sea urchin off the harbour boats, superbly stocked farmers' markets and long-standing Eastside taquerias. Its strongest suit is wine, tasted on foot around the Funk Zone, but beyond Mexican food there is little that is international, cheap or late.

Earthquakes reshaped both cities, San Francisco in 1906 and Santa Barbara in 1925, but San Francisco has far more to see. The Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, the cable cars and the Victorians around Alamo Square are famous worldwide. Behind them stand SFMOMA, the de Young, the Legion of Honor and the Asian Art Museum, which is enough for three or four full days.

In Santa Barbara, the main sight is the town itself: rebuilt in white stucco and red tile, with the County Courthouse tower and the Old Mission on the slope above. Its two museums are pleasant, and two or three relaxed days cover the town.

San Francisco offers a proper night out, though it is spread across several districts rather than packed into one. You'll find dive bars and mezcal bars in the Mission, old saloons in North Beach, the Castro's famous gay bars and warehouse clubs in SoMa, all closing at 2am.

Santa Barbara's evenings are earlier and quieter. Funk Zone tasting rooms and brewery taprooms fill up after work, and the bars on lower State Street are crowded with students at weekends. There is no club culture to speak of.

Both are outstanding for the outdoors, but the landscapes differ. San Francisco's is coastal parkland and forest: Golden Gate Park, the wooded Presidio and the Lands End cliffs inside the city. Across the bridge are the Marin Headlands, the redwoods of Muir Woods and the wild headlands of Point Reyes, with fog and wind never far away.

Santa Barbara puts mountains right behind the beach. Trails climb straight from residential streets into the Santa Ynez range, surfers head for the point break at Rincon, and Channel Islands National Park is a boat ride from Ventura. Whale watching is good from both, but here summer fire haze sometimes closes trails.

Both cities have wine country on the doorstep, but the bay surrounds it with far more variety. From San Francisco, Napa and Sonoma are about an hour north, ferries cross to Sausalito and Tiburon, and Berkeley is a short train ride away. The coast road leads to Santa Cruz and, at about two hours, to Monterey's aquarium and the Carmel mission.

Santa Barbara has one outstanding outing: over the mountains to the Santa Ynez Valley's tasting rooms, Danish-founded Solvang and the restored mission at La Purisima. After that come Ojai and Ventura, and Los Angeles is too far for a comfortable day.

Both work well with children, but the scale is different. San Francisco has the bigger attractions: a full day at the Exploratorium, the aquarium and planetarium at the California Academy of Sciences, sea lions at the wharf and the cable cars. Against that, the steep hills are hard with a pushchair and some downtown streets are rough.

Santa Barbara is smaller and easier. It has a hilltop zoo, touch tanks at the Sea Center, MOXI, clean, safe streets and calm beaches where young children can actually paddle. Neither has a big theme park close by.

San Francisco is easy without a car. The city is only about 11km across, and Muni, BART out to the airport, the cable cars and the bay ferries all take one Clipper card. The catch is the hills, which turn short walks into hard climbs.

Santa Barbara's centre is flat and walkable along State Street and the shoreline path, and the coastal train stops near the beach. Trailheads, wine country and the beaches outside town are another matter, and most visitors end up driving at some point.

Union Square's department stores and flagship brands give San Francisco a proper shopping district, and the neighbourhoods add character: small boutiques in Hayes Valley, bookshops and independent labels on Valencia Street, and the vintage shops of Haight-Ashbury.

Shopping in Santa Barbara is a pleasant stroll through the paseos off State Street, the courtyards of La Arcada and Montecito's upmarket village. The best things to take home are wine and farmers' market produce.

Both are hard on a budget, and there is little to choose between them. In San Francisco, hotels get dearer around big conferences, and tax, service charges and tips are added on top of menu prices. Relief comes from Mission taquerias, Chinatown dim sum, reasonably priced public transport and museum free days.

Santa Barbara's dearest rooms are by the beach and in Montecito on summer weekends. Going midweek, visiting in the cooler months or staying in Goleta or Ventura saves the most. In both, the hikes and the shoreline cost nothing.

San Francisco is clearly the stronger city for a night at the opera or a concert. Opera, ballet and the symphony each have a resident company playing a long season around the Civic Center, so a visit at most times of year can be planned around a major performance. Live music goes just as deep, from a purpose-built jazz hall in Hayes Valley and the Fillmore's psychedelic-era stage to small Mission and SoMa rooms for indie and electronic acts, plus free summer concerts in Stern Grove.

Santa Barbara has better venues than its size suggests: the Granada, a restored 1920s movie palace, the Lobero, one of California's oldest theatres, and the Bowl, an open-air amphitheatre in a canyon where big touring bands play from spring to autumn. Its own opera and theatre seasons are short, though, so outside the summer concerts of the Music Academy of the West it is harder to build a trip around a performance.

Santa Barbara is the more restful place, mostly because of its pace: mild sun, quiet mornings and the polished resort spas of Montecito. For a proper retreat, the Ojai Valley's long tradition of spa resorts is about an hour away.

San Francisco's centre runs on work and tech and can feel hectic. For calm, there are Japantown's long-established communal bathhouse and the Japanese Tea Garden, or a two-hour drive to the mud baths at Calistoga.