Santa Barbara or Tucson?

This is the starkest gap between the two. Santa Barbara faces south behind the Channel Islands, so the surf is gentle. It has town beaches either side of Stearns Wharf, and Carpinteria's shallow strand is good for small children. The water is cool, though, and many swimmers wear wetsuits.

Tucson is in the Sonoran Desert, and the nearest sea is about four hours away in Mexico. For most visitors, swimming means the resort pool.

Both cities eat well, but from different larders. Santa Barbara cooks from the sea and the valleys: spot prawns and sea urchin off the harbour boats, rich farmers' markets, and pinot noir from the Santa Rita Hills poured in Funk Zone tasting rooms. The Milpas Street taquerias balance its polished farm-to-table dining.

Tucson's strength is its own border cuisine. Look for mesquite-grilled carne asada, paper-thin flour tortillas and Sonoran hot dogs along South 12th Avenue, plus desert ingredients like tepary beans and cholla buds. Come here for Mexican home cooking, and to Santa Barbara for seafood and wine.

Each city fills two or three days, and both have Spanish colonial roots. In Santa Barbara the main sight is the townscape itself: the white stucco and red tile rebuilt after 1925, the County Courthouse tower and the Old Mission on the slope above.

Tucson's sights are more scattered. The best is the gilded interior of San Xavier del Bac outside town, and there are adobe streets in Barrio Viejo and Native American collections at the Arizona State Museum. The vast aircraft displays at Pima Air & Space are something Santa Barbara has no answer to.

Neither city has much of a club scene, and both are shaped by a university. Santa Barbara's evenings are about wine bars and brewery taprooms in the Funk Zone, which suit a long dinner and an early night. Tucson is more casual and a little livelier, with dive bars and cheap drinks on Fourth Avenue and cocktails and rooftop patios along Congress Street under warm night skies.

Santa Barbara's wild country is coast and channel, while Tucson's is desert and sky islands. From Santa Barbara, trails leave suburban streets and climb through chaparral and oak canyons such as Rattlesnake and Seven Falls to ridges that look across the water to the islands. Back at the harbour you can take a boat out to watch whales, kayak along the shore or surf the point break at Rincon.

Tucson has forests of giant saguaro on both sides of the city and canyon trails in Sabino and Catalina State Park. The Mount Lemmon road climbs from cactus to pine forest. It also offers rock climbing, serious road cycling and birdwatching that draws enthusiasts from far away. Its outdoor season belongs to autumn through spring, whereas Santa Barbara's mild coast keeps the trails and water usable in summer too.

Santa Barbara has one outstanding day out, where Tucson has a wider spread of lesser ones. From Santa Barbara the road crosses the mountains to the Santa Ynez Valley, with tasting rooms in Los Olivos, the Danish windmills of Solvang and the restored mission at La Purisima. After that, Ojai and Ventura are pleasant enough, and Los Angeles works better as a separate stay.

From Tucson you head south-east into frontier country. You can see Tombstone's Wild West streets, Bisbee's steep Victorian mining town, and the galleries of Tubac with the Tumacácori ruins just beyond them, and to the north there is the Biosphere 2 dome. None of these stands out on its own, but together they fill more separate days, all of them by car.

Santa Barbara is the easier choice with children. The zoo, the touch tanks at the Sea Center and the MOXI science museum are close together near the shore, the beaches are calm, and the mild weather works in every month.

Tucson's Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and the giant aircraft are great draws for children. But the attractions are spread across a wide city, and summer heat makes outdoor days hard on small children, so it really works best from October to April.

Santa Barbara is the easier city to manage without a car. You can arrive by the coastal train, walk the flat run of State Street to the waterfront and cycle the shoreline path, though you still need a car for trailheads and wine country.

Tucson is built for driving. The single streetcar line links downtown, Fourth Avenue and the university, but the national park, Sabino Canyon, the mission and Mount Lemmon are all on the edges or well outside. A hire car is close to essential, although parking is easy.

Santa Barbara sells polish, and Tucson sells regional craft. In Santa Barbara you browse galleries and boutiques in the fountain courtyards off State Street, upmarket fashion on Coast Village Road in Montecito and design shops in the Funk Zone. The best things to take home are wine and produce from the farmers' markets.

Tucson is the place for Native American jewellery, Tohono O'odham baskets and Mexican folk art, sold in old-town galleries and down in Tubac. Its winter gem and mineral show draws collectors from around the world, but for the rest of the year the choice is smaller than Santa Barbara's.

Tucson is clearly the better choice for a budget trip. Its mid-range hotels cost less, and cheap Mexican food is everywhere. In the summer heat rates drop sharply, though the hire car, tipping and the desert resorts all add up.

Santa Barbara is expensive at almost every level, from beachfront and Montecito rooms to wine tastings and tours. You save on its free trails and beaches, its taquerias, and by staying in Goleta or Ventura.

Santa Barbara's stage life is the richer of the two. Its symphony, opera and ballet perform in the restored Granada, and the Lobero hosts chamber music and jazz. Bands play at the canyon amphitheatre of the Santa Barbara Bowl, and the Music Academy of the West fills the town with concerts every summer.

Tucson has a smaller season, mostly from autumn to spring, at Centennial Hall, the Fox and the Rialto. Its distinctive note is mariachi, which runs deep in the city.

Tucson is the stronger choice for a dedicated wellness stay. It is one of the places where the American destination spa began, and the resorts in the foothills run full programmes against a backdrop of clear desert light and quiet winter evenings.

In Santa Barbara the slow coastal pace does most of the work, with help from resort spas and yoga studios and a hike up to the small hot pools above Montecito. Neither city has a public bathing culture.