Santa Barbara or Telluride?

Santa Barbara has proper beaches: East and West Beach either side of the wharf, Arroyo Burro and Leadbetter just west, and shallow Carpinteria for small children. The islands shelter the coast, so the surf is gentle. The sea stays cool, though, and wetsuits are common.

Telluride has no beach at all, only a cold reservoir swimming area near Ridgway, about an hour away. In summer, water there means rafting or fishing on the river.

Santa Barbara has more to offer at the table. Spot prawns and sea urchin come in from the harbour boats, the farmers' markets are excellent, and you can walk between tasting rooms in the Funk Zone, pouring wine from the valleys over the hill. The taquerias on Milpas Street add good cheap food to the polished dining downtown.

Telluride cooks well for its size, with elk, lamb and trout in a few serious kitchens on Colorado Avenue and in Mountain Village. Over a week, though, you will keep returning to the same handful of places.

In both towns the streets themselves are the main sight, but Santa Barbara has more to see. The whitewashed Spanish Colonial centre, the County Courthouse with its clock tower, the Old Mission and two decent museums fill two or three days.

Telluride's preserved mining-boom grid, its historical museum in the old miners' hospital and the mill ruins on the canyon walls make an absorbing hour or two, rather than a reason to come.

Neither town is built for late nights, but Santa Barbara gives you more choice. You can start with Funk Zone breweries and wine bars, then move to the lower State Street bars and the small dance floors students fill at weekends.

Telluride's evenings are après-ski and a few old wooden saloons. They get lively only in peak ski weeks and on festival weekends, and the town is very quiet the rest of the year.

Santa Barbara's outdoors mixes mountains and sea. Canyon trails climb the Santa Ynez range to ridges looking out to the islands, whale-watching boats leave the harbour, and surfers head for Rincon.

Telluride is on another scale altogether, with peaks above 4,000m, Bridal Veil Falls within reach of town, wildflower basins, the via ferrata and jeep roads over high passes. Winter adds serious skiing. The trade-off is the altitude, which takes a day or two to get used to.

Santa Barbara has the easier day out. The Santa Ynez Valley, with its wineries, Danish-built Solvang and two missions, is under an hour over the mountains, and Ojai and Ventura are close.

From Telluride, every outing means a long mountain drive. Ouray and Ridgway are near enough, Silverton is a two-hour drive over Red Mountain Pass, and Mesa Verde's cliff dwellings only just work as a day trip. Snow can close the passes in winter.

Santa Barbara is the easier place with children. The zoo above the beach, the Sea Center's touch tanks, the MOXI science museum and the planetarium cover rainy and sunny days alike, and the waterfront bike path and calm beaches do the rest.

Telluride suits active families who ski or hike. The ski school and gondola rides are a hit, but there is little to do indoors, and young children can sleep badly at altitude.

Telluride is the easier town to get around once you are there. You can cross it on foot in a quarter of an hour, and the free gondola and buses connect it with Mountain Village, so many visitors never drive. Getting there is the hard part: the local airport is affected by weather, and the bigger airports are one to two hours away.

Santa Barbara is easier to reach, and the coastal train stops near the beach. Its flat downtown is walkable, but the Mission, the trailheads and the wine country soon send most visitors back to a car.

Santa Barbara has more to browse. Galleries and boutiques fill the tiled paseos off State Street, Montecito's village shops sell upmarket fashion, and local wine and market produce make the best things to take home.

Telluride's few blocks of Colorado Avenue are mostly galleries, Western clothing and outdoor gear, all at resort prices.

Both are among the dearest places to stay in their regions, but Santa Barbara gives you more ways to save. Taquerias, farmers' markets, free hikes and beaches, rooms in Goleta or Ventura and midweek stays all help.

Telluride stays at the top of the market for everything from rooms to lift tickets and guided activities. Staying in Ridgway is the main saving, and it means a daily drive.

Santa Barbara has a stage life that runs through the year. Symphony, opera and ballet play at the restored Granada, there is chamber music at the Lobero, and big touring bands play the Santa Barbara Bowl. The Music Academy of the West adds a summer of concerts.

Telluride's offer comes almost entirely in summer, with the famous Bluegrass Festival in Town Park, jazz and chamber festivals and the Labor Day film festival. Outside those dates there are a few shows at the Sheridan Opera House.

Both towns are restful, but in different ways. Santa Barbara relaxes you through its mild weather and slow mornings. It has resort spas in Montecito, and the real retreat is the drive to the Ojai Valley.

Telluride offers mountain quiet and proper hot-spring soaking, in the large public pool at Ouray and the springs near Ridgway, plus spas in Mountain Village after skiing. The altitude can make the first nights restless.