Santa Barbara or South Lake Tahoe?

The water is cold at both, but the beaches are very different. Santa Barbara has a sheltered, south-facing Pacific shore with gentle surf. It runs from East and West Beach in town to Carpinteria's shallow state beach, and the season for sitting on the sand and taking a quick dip is long, though many swimmers wear wetsuits.

South Lake Tahoe's beaches line a high mountain lake. At Pope and Baldwin there is clear turquoise water over white sand with pines for shade, and Sand Harbor has its boulder coves. The scenery is lovely, but swimming is limited to July and August, and the wind can chop up the water in the afternoon.

Santa Barbara eats far better. The harbour boats bring in spot prawns and sea urchin, the farmers' markets are stocked from the valleys behind town and the wine comes from the Santa Rita Hills, so the cooking has a real local base. The taquerias on Milpas Street keep it from being all polished farm-to-table.

South Lake Tahoe serves resort food: casino steakhouses and buffets, plus brewpubs and skiers' breakfast spots along Highway 50. Local craft beer is the one distinctive thing. Many visitors end up cooking in their cabin, which says a lot about the gap.

Santa Barbara is well ahead here, though neither is a place for heavy sightseeing. The whole centre is the sight. It was rebuilt in white stucco and red tile after the 1925 earthquake, and it has the Courthouse clock tower, the Old Mission and the Presidio, with the art and natural history museums for another day.

South Lake Tahoe has about a morning of history: the old summer estates at Tallac, Vikingsholm at the head of Emerald Bay and a small museum on the Washoe people and logging. The rest of town is motels and casino towers.

Neither is a place for a big night out, but evenings look different in each. Santa Barbara's are early and quiet: Funk Zone tasting rooms and taprooms, then student bars on lower State Street, with little open late. The California side of South Lake Tahoe goes to bed early too, but a short walk into Nevada the Stateline casinos keep their bars and gaming floors open all night, and après-ski at the gondola base is the busiest hour.

Santa Barbara is a fine outdoor base, but South Lake Tahoe is in another league. It has the deep blue lake in its granite bowl, Emerald Bay, the lake-filled Desolation Wilderness on the doorstep and the Tahoe Rim Trail. In winter there is serious skiing at Heavenly, Kirkwood and Sierra-at-Tahoe.

Santa Barbara's outdoors is about mountains meeting the sea. Steep canyon trails such as Rattlesnake and Seven Falls start in town, boats leave the harbour for whale watching, Rincon is a famous surf break and the Channel Islands are a boat ride away. Its hikes are lower and shorter, though, and summer fires can close them.

Each has one strong direction for a day out and a thin list after it. From Santa Barbara the day out is wine: the tasting rooms of the Santa Ynez Valley, Danish-founded Solvang and the restored mission at La Purisima, with Ojai as a quieter choice. From South Lake Tahoe the theme is the Gold Rush and the silver boom: Virginia City's boardwalks and saloons, Coloma and the Amador wineries, with Reno if you want a bigger casino city.

Santa Barbara is the easier choice with small children because there is more to fall back on. It has the zoo above the beach, touch tanks at the Sea Center, MOXI and the whale skeleton at the natural history museum. Carpinteria's shallow water and the mild weather make outdoor time easy in every month.

South Lake Tahoe works well for families who want the outdoors. Summer brings shallow lake beaches and bike paths through the pines, and winter brings ski schools and sledding hills. On a snowbound day, though, there is little for children indoors, and the casino strip is no place to linger.

You can arrive in Santa Barbara by train and cover the flat downtown and the shoreline path on foot, by bike or by shuttle. The Mission, the trailheads and the wine country still push most visitors into a car for part of the stay.

In South Lake Tahoe only the small Stateline core is walkable. Beaches, trailheads and Emerald Bay are spread out, summer weekends clog Highway 50, and winter brings chain controls and the odd closed pass. A car is close to essential.

Of the two, only Santa Barbara has real shopping. There are galleries and boutiques in the courtyard paseos off State Street, upmarket shops in Montecito and design shops in the Funk Zone, and the wine and market produce are worth taking home. South Lake Tahoe's shops sell gear, rentals, groceries and souvenirs by the gondola, useful but nothing to spend an afternoon on.

Both are costly, but South Lake Tahoe gives you more ways to save. Rates jump at Christmas, in peak ski weeks and in high summer. Outside those times the Nevada casino hotels cut prices sharply midweek and in spring and autumn, and a cabin kitchen keeps meal costs down.

Santa Barbara stays dear for more of the year, and rooms by the beach and in Montecito are among the priciest on the coast. Coming midweek or in the cooler months helps most. Taquerias, free hikes and staying in Goleta or Ventura also make a difference.

For a small city, Santa Barbara has a real stage life. The restored Granada hosts symphony, opera and ballet, the historic Lobero has chamber music and jazz, big touring bands play the Bowl in its canyon, and the Music Academy of the West fills summer with concerts.

South Lake Tahoe has casino showrooms with touring rock, country and comedy acts. In summer there are also outdoor evenings, with Shakespeare on the beach at Sand Harbor and concerts at the Tallac estates. There is no concert hall and no classical season.

Santa Barbara is the easier place to unwind. It has polished resort spas in Montecito, plenty of yoga studios, a mild climate and the Ojai Valley's spa tradition an hour away. South Lake Tahoe's spas mostly belong to casinos and ski lodges, but it has better places for an outdoor soak. The mineral pool at Grover Hot Springs and the springs near Genoa outdo the small pools reached on foot above Montecito.