Santa Barbara or Tijuana?

Santa Barbara has the better beaches by some way. The Channel Islands shelter its south-facing shore, East and West Beach lie right in town, and Carpinteria's shallow sand suits small children. The catch is cold water, so swims are short and many people wear wetsuits.

At Playas de Tijuana, the shore is for a walk and a seafood lunch beside the border fence, because runoff often makes swimming unwise. A real beach day means going to Rosarito, half an hour south. It has more going on, with beach bars and horse rides, but the currents are strong.

Tijuana is the stronger place to eat, and its depth starts at street level. There is spit-roasted adobada, birria with its broth, grilled carne asada stands open late and seafood carts piling sea urchin onto tostadas. Above that come the Baja Med restaurants of Zona Río and Chapultepec and a serious craft beer culture.

Santa Barbara eats well but more narrowly. Its strengths are spot prawns from the harbour boats, outstanding farmers' markets and wine tasting on foot around the Funk Zone. Its best cheap food is the Mexican cooking on Milpas Street, which is exactly what Tijuana does on every corner, and late meals are hard to find.

Santa Barbara is the more rewarding town to look at. After 1925 it was rebuilt in the Spanish Colonial Revival style, which gives the centre a single architectural character, from the County Courthouse and its clock tower to the Old Mission on the slope above. That fills two or three unhurried days.

Tijuana has little historic fabric. The Museo de las Californias, inside the domed cultural centre, tells the peninsula's story well, and the Jai Alai palace keeps some Prohibition-era flavour on Avenida Revolución. Its most memorable sight, though, is the mural-covered border fence running into the sea.

After dark, Tijuana wins easily. The dive bars and small dance spots of Calle Sexta, the loud balconies of Avenida Revolución and the cocktail bars of Colonia Cacho stay busy late into Friday and Saturday nights. Stick to those areas and use ride-hailing to get back.

Santa Barbara goes to bed early. A typical evening is a Funk Zone tasting room or brewery, then a nightcap on lower State Street, and the only weekend crowds are students.

This is where Santa Barbara is strongest. Trails into the Santa Ynez Mountains start from suburban streets and lead to Seven Falls or Inspiration Point, with Los Padres National Forest beyond. Boats leave the harbour to see grey, humpback and blue whales, and Rincon is a famous surf break. Summer fires sometimes close trails.

Tijuana sits among dry, scrubby hills with little green space. Its outdoors are along the coast road to Ensenada, with surf near Rosarito and gentle vineyard walks in the wine valleys. Serious hiking in the Sierra de Juárez is too far for a day.

The two are evenly matched here, and both offer a good wine-country day. Santa Barbara's best outing goes over the mountains to the Santa Ynez Valley, which pairs well with Solvang's Danish streets and the restored mission at La Purisima. After that the list thins, and Los Angeles works better as a separate stay.

Tijuana gives you two countries to choose from. To the south are Puerto Nuevo's lobster, Ensenada's fish market and the Valle de Guadalupe, and to the north are San Diego's Balboa Park and La Jolla. The return crossing into the United States can take hours, so it shapes every trip north.

Santa Barbara is far easier with children. It has a small zoo on a hill above the beach, touch tanks at the Sea Center on Stearns Wharf, the MOXI science museum, calm water at Carpinteria and a bike path along the shore, all in a clean, safe, compact town.

Tijuana has El Trompo's hands-on exhibits and the IMAX dome, and restaurants are warm towards children. Still, distances need a car, pavements are patchy and the main strip is built for adult drinkers. From either city, the big theme parks are a long trip away.

Neither city works fully without a car, but Santa Barbara is easier. Its flat downtown runs down State Street to a level shoreline path, buses and a shuttle cover the core, and the train stops near the beach. The car only comes out for trailheads and wine country.

In Tijuana, you can walk only around downtown near the San Ysidro crossing. Beyond it the city sprawls over hills, there is no metro and the bus routes are hard for visitors to follow, so ride-hailing and taxis do the work. Traffic near the border adds long queues.

Santa Barbara is the better place for browsing. Galleries and boutiques sit around fountain courtyards in paseos such as La Arcada, Coast Village Road in Montecito sells upmarket fashion, and local wine makes the best thing to take home.

Tijuana's shopping is practical and noisier. You haggle for pottery, leather and silver near the border, buy chillies and Mexican vanilla at Mercado Hidalgo and find big malls in Zona Río, but there is little fashion.

The gap is wide. Tijuana is cheap, with street-stand tacos, good-value hotels in Zona Río and inexpensive rides across town. Only the bars on Avenida Revolución and the better Baja Med and wine-country tables come close to international prices.

Santa Barbara is one of the most expensive stops on the California coast, especially for beachfront and Montecito rooms on summer weekends. Taquerias, free hikes and beaches help, as do staying in Goleta or Ventura and coming midweek in the cooler months.

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

Tijuana's formal programme centres on the concert hall at the Centro Cultural Tijuana and a long-standing opera company that stages an open-air performance each year. Its more distinctive music is informal: norteño bands in cantinas, mariachis at Plaza Santa Cecilia and the bars of Calle Sexta, where Nortec grew up.

For slowing down, Santa Barbara is the clear choice. It offers mild days, quiet mornings, polished resort spas in Montecito and plenty of yoga studios, and the Ojai Valley's long spa tradition is an hour's drive away. The small natural hot pools above Montecito are reached on foot.

Tijuana is loud and traffic-heavy, and its large health trade is medical and dental rather than restful. Finding calm there means going out to the vineyard estates of the wine valleys.