San Francisco or Santa Monica?

This is Santa Monica's home ground. A very wide stretch of pale sand with lifeguard towers runs the length of the town, and Zuma, El Matador and the coves near Point Dume lie a short way up the coast. The water is cool, but by late summer it is warm enough for a real swim.

San Francisco's shore is beautiful to look at. Baker Beach has the Golden Gate Bridge as its backdrop and Ocean Beach runs for miles, but the cold Pacific and the rip currents rule out swimming. Use it for walks and bonfires, not sunbathing.

San Francisco is the much better place to eat. It has its own signature dishes, including sourdough, cioppino, Dungeness crab and the Mission burrito. It also has deep Cantonese cooking in Chinatown and the Richmond, Italian bakeries in North Beach, the Ferry Building market and one of the country's leading fine-dining scenes.

Santa Monica eats well but within a narrower range. Its Wednesday farmers market feeds seasonal Californian kitchens, brunch spots and good seafood places. The cheap, varied immigrant food Los Angeles is known for is a long drive east.

San Francisco has far more to see. Alcatraz, the cable cars on Nob Hill, the painted Victorians and the bridge are known worldwide, and SFMOMA, the de Young and the Asian Art Museum give it serious collections. The murals in the Mission and the history of the Castro add interest at street level.

Santa Monica's own sights are mostly the pier and the galleries at Bergamot Station. The Getty Center and the Getty Villa nearby are excellent, but anything beyond them means a trip into Los Angeles.

San Francisco offers a fuller night out. It has dive bars and mezcal bars on Valencia Street, old saloons in North Beach, the Castro's busy gay bars and warehouse clubs in SoMa. Its scene is spread across several districts, so a night out often means moving between them.

Santa Monica is a place for drinks, not dancing. Expect rooftop bars over the ocean, pubs on Main Street and an early finish. Anyone looking for clubs has to take a long taxi ride to Hollywood.

Cliffs, redwoods and wild headlands give San Francisco the edge outdoors. Lands End and the Presidio lie inside the city, and across the bridge the Marin Headlands, the old-growth trees of Muir Woods and the elk and elephant seals of Point Reyes are all within a day. The price is summer fog and wind, which often blow in just as you reach a viewpoint.

Santa Monica has the Santa Monica Mountains right behind the town, with canyon trails at Temescal and Topanga. At sea level there is a beach path of about 35km and surf lessons. Its milder, sunnier climate means more days when a walk or ride is a pleasure.

Wine country is the great pull from San Francisco, with Napa and Sonoma about an hour north. The ferries to Sausalito and Tiburon need no car at all, and Berkeley is a short train ride across the bay. Monterey and Carmel make a full day down the coast, about two hours away.

From Santa Monica nearly every outing means driving, and traffic decides how much of the day you spend on the road. Santa Barbara's mission and red-tiled centre, Laguna Beach and Catalina Island are the main choices. Pasadena's Huntington Library is good if you want to stay closer.

Both work well with children, in different ways. San Francisco is the place for days built around museums: the Exploratorium and the California Academy of Sciences can each fill a day, and the cable cars and the sea lions at Fisherman's Wharf are treats.

Santa Monica is built around the beach. Children get sand for digging, the pier's Ferris wheel and roller coaster, and a flat path for family bike rides. It is also gentler with a pushchair than San Francisco's steep hills.

You can leave the car behind in San Francisco. The city is only about 11km across, and Muni, BART, the streetcars and the cable cars all take the same card. The real obstacle is the hills, which turn short walks on the map into steep climbs.

Santa Monica itself is flat and easy to walk, and the E Line runs to downtown Los Angeles. Beyond that, the Getty, Hollywood and the Malibu canyons are poorly served by transit, so most visitors end up using ride-hailing or a rental car.

Shopping is about equal in the two places, with a different feel. San Francisco has its department stores and luxury labels around Union Square, plus vintage on Haight Street, design boutiques in Hayes Valley and bookshops on Valencia Street. Santa Monica has chain stores on the Third Street Promenade, surfwear on Main Street and concept stores on Abbot Kinney, but for luxury you drive to Rodeo Drive.

Both cities are equally expensive, with costly hotels and high restaurant bills once tax and tip are added. In San Francisco, you save with cheap taquerias and dim sum, free museum days and free walks across the bridge. In Santa Monica, it helps to stay a little inland and to rely on the free beach, the bike path and the cheap light rail, since car hire and parking add to the bill.

San Francisco is far ahead here. The War Memorial Opera House is home to the city's opera and the country's oldest professional ballet company, the symphony plays at Davies Hall, and SFJAZZ and the Fillmore cover jazz and rock. In summer there are free concerts at Stern Grove.

Santa Monica has the Broad Stage, small playhouses and intimate folk rooms. For the Philharmonic or the Hollywood Bowl you face a long drive across Los Angeles.

Neither city has a real bathing tradition, but they unwind in different ways. San Francisco has a long-established Japanese-style bathhouse in Japantown and the mud baths of Calistoga about two hours north, though the city itself feels driven by work. Santa Monica is more about yoga on the sand, juice bars, beachfront hotel spas and the evening sunset, at a slower pace overall.