San Jose or Santa Barbara?

This is one of the widest gaps between the two. Santa Barbara has its beaches inside the town: East Beach and West Beach sit either side of Stearns Wharf, Carpinteria's shallow sands are twenty minutes away, and the Channel Islands keep the swell down. The water warms enough in late summer for short swims without a wetsuit.

San Jose has to send you over the Santa Cruz Mountains to Santa Cruz and Capitola. They make a cheerful day at the seaside, but the drive is slow on summer weekends and the Monterey Bay stays a few degrees colder.

Santa Barbara eats slightly better, and in a more coherent way. Spot prawns and sea urchin come off the harbour boats, the farmers' markets are superb, and you can walk between the Funk Zone tasting rooms. The weak point is range: outside the Eastside taquerias there is little that is cheap, late or international.

San Jose is the opposite. It has a much wider spread of cuisines, led by some of the best Vietnamese cooking in the country, alongside Mexican, Indian and Korean food. But it is scattered across suburban plazas, so you eat well only if you drive to it.

Santa Barbara wins because the whole centre is the sight: red tile roofs, tiled courtyards and the County Courthouse clock tower, all rebuilt in one style after the 1925 earthquake, with the Old Mission on the slope above. You can see it all on foot in a couple of unhurried days.

San Jose has curiosities rather than a townscape. The Winchester Mystery House, the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum and the Computer History Museum are worth seeking out, but they are spread around the postwar sprawl and need a car between them.

Neither is a place for a big night, and both wind down early. In San Jose, nights out centre on San Pedro Square's beer halls and food market, busiest before and after events at the arena, plus SoFA's dive bars and a few weekend dance clubs. San Francisco is a train ride away for anything bigger.

Santa Barbara's evenings are mostly wine. Funk Zone tasting rooms and brewery taprooms fill in the early evening, and the student crowd takes over lower State Street at weekends. A long dinner and a nightcap suit it best.

San Jose's countryside is genuinely good, just spread out. You can reach the old-growth redwoods at Big Basin and Henry Cowell, the ridge trails at Castle Rock, the road up Mount Hamilton to the Lick Observatory and the sea otters off Point Lobos. Almost every one of them starts with a drive.

Santa Barbara has the edge because the wild country begins at the end of the street. Rattlesnake Canyon and Seven Falls climb from residential roads to ridges looking across the channel, with Los Padres National Forest beyond for longer hikes. Whale-watching boats leave from the harbour, you can kayak along the shore, and surfers head to Rincon. Channel Islands National Park is a boat ride from nearby Ventura, though summer fires can sometimes close the trails.

This is where San Jose is clearly stronger. San Francisco is about an hour away by Caltrain, Stanford and Berkeley are close, and Monterey, Carmel, Santa Cruz and several wine regions are all in range. You could fill a week without repeating yourself.

Santa Barbara has one outstanding outing, to the Santa Ynez Valley wineries and Danish-founded Solvang, plus Ojai and Ventura. After that the distances grow, and Los Angeles is better treated as a separate stay.

Both cities are easy with children, but they suit different ages. San Jose offers more excitement: roller coasters at Great America, an IMAX dome downtown, the Boardwalk rides and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It comes with hotel pools, but also with a lot of time in the car.

Santa Barbara is smaller and calmer: the hilltop zoo, the touch tanks on the wharf, the whale skeleton and planetarium, and shallow beaches for toddlers, all linked by a flat seafront bike path. Older children wanting thrill rides will find nothing like Great America nearby.

Santa Barbara is easier without a car. You can arrive by the coastal train, walk State Street from the Mission district to the sea, and cycle the shoreline path between wharf, harbour and beach. You still need wheels for the wine country and trailheads.

San Jose's walkable part is limited to downtown and the light-rail line. The mansion, malls, parks and coast are spread across the valley, so most visitors hire a car and plan around rush hour.

They are roughly level, but very different in style. San Jose is about malls: its large west-side mall and the open-air boutique street beside it gather the international and luxury brands in one place, with easy parking.

Santa Barbara is about browsing. Galleries and boutiques fill the paseos and fountain courtyards off State Street, and Montecito's village has upmarket shops. Wine and farmers' market produce are the best things to take home.

Both are among the most expensive places in California, and Santa Barbara is slightly more so. The best savings come at different times. San Jose's hotels are priced for business travellers, so they cost most midweek and are often cheaper at weekends.

In Santa Barbara it works the other way round: beachfront and Montecito rooms peak on summer weekends, and midweek or winter stays cost much less. In both, taquerias, free trails and parks keep daily spending down, and in San Jose the Vietnamese plazas help too.

Both cities have restored 1920s movie palaces, the California Theatre in San Jose and the Granada in Santa Barbara, but Santa Barbara has more on stage. Its symphony, opera and ballet are joined by chamber music at the old Lobero, big summer bands at the canyon-side Bowl, and the Music Academy of the West's summer concerts.

San Jose has opera, a symphony, touring musicals and a long-running summer jazz festival, but weeknights are quiet. Serious theatregoers usually head to San Francisco.

San Jose isn't built for unwinding, but it has one thing Santa Barbara lacks: Korean-style bathhouses with saunas and soaking pools in the valley towns around it. Beyond those, calm comes in small doses. You can spend an hour in the Japanese gardens at Hakone or Kelley Park, or take a slow afternoon in the leafy streets of Los Gatos and Saratoga.

Santa Barbara is the more restful of the two, mostly because the town itself moves slowly, with mild mornings and nothing urgent to see. The large resort hotels in Montecito and along the beachfront have polished spas, and there are yoga studios and day spas all over town, so a morning class followed by a walk along the shore is easy to fit in. If you want a wilder soak, you can also hike up to the small natural hot pools in the hills above Montecito.