Los Angeles vs San Francisco: how to choose your perfect California city break

From misty Northern California redwood forests to sun-kissed Southern California beaches, the enchanted Golden State is a dream destination. Combining bohemian spirit and high-tech savvy, California embraces contrast and contradictions.

And this is never truer than when comparing its two premier cities: San Francisco and Los Angeles. Physically and intellectually, they could not be more different – the embodiment of the state’s split personality between north and south.

The question for visitors is which world-class destination at either end of the sensational, coastal Highway 1 is worth more time. For answers, read on.

And note that, for this exercise, we’ll consider much of Southern California as being part of greater LA, while we’ll give the entire Bay Area to San Francisco.

Why Los Angeles is the best place to go

Longtime Angeleno and Lonely Planet contributor Annita Katee has spent years uncovering LA’s endless layers of chaos, creativity and cheer. And with year-round sunshine and almost no rain, she continues to find new reasons to love the city every day. 

Sure, San Francisco has proper public transport, a poetic relationship with fog and an exciting start-up scene. And while I’ve got a real soft spot for our cooler, techier neighbor to the north, there’s just no topping the sun-soaked, star-struck, unapologetically chaotic charisma of Los Angeles. 

If you haven’t yet cruised the palm-lined streets and sprawling neighborhoods of LA, here’s a little insider tip: this city isn’t just a place to visit - it’s a living, breathing movie set. From massive studio lots where film magic happens daily to quiet side streets that starred in Old Hollywood classics and today’s comfort staples like Curb Your Enthusiasm and Modern Family, LA invites you to step inside the story rather than just watch it unfold. Sure, you can tour soundstages of your favorite shows, but the real magic happens beyond the cameras – because in LA, every day feels like a scene from a movie. 

It’s the city’s addictive energy, its people and its richly layered neighborhoods that keep production rolling, from the creative indie folks in Silver Lake to the delicious barbecue joints in Koreatown. Venice Beach is home to vibrant street art and skateparks, while the palm-lined avenues of Beverly Hills and Bel Air add their glamour. The ghosts of Old Hollywood icons like Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe and Marlon Brando still linger in the air, while the electric guitar (yes, invented right here) powers a day-to-night live music scene that’s as raw and rebellious as the city itself. 

In LA, every corner pulsates with pop culture, and the local currency of creativity reminds locals and visitors that the next big thrill is just around the corner. 

In LA, every neighborhood tells a story, and more often than not, it starts with what’s on the plate. With over 200 languages spoken and 1 in 3 Angelenos born overseas, this city isn’t just multicultural, it’s a full-blown multi-sensory flavor parade. It’s where food trucks sling Korean short rib tacos outside dive bars, and culinary chefs effortlessly mash up and veganize Thai, Mexican and Californian influences like it’s a contact sport. 

The family-run carne asada taco trucks (served with a side of generational pride) on the corners of Boyle Heights, authentic Ethiopian feasts in Little Ethiopia and sushi in Torrance that could rival anything in Tokyo, is a reminder that Angelenos hold culinary passports and are truly spoilt for choice.

Of course, wellness is always on the table here, too - it’s LA after all. This city doesn’t follow food trends, it invents them. And yes, those $20 Erewhon smoothies you’ve seen all over TikTok? They’re real, somewhat ridiculous and somehow… still worth it.

Beyond all the glitz and glam, there’s something about LA that gets under your skin, in the best possible way. Maybe it’s the way the sunlight hugs the city in golden-hour tones all day long, or the fact that hiking trails, ocean swims, vintage shopping, gallery openings and late-night taco runs can all happen in a single day. While San Francisco charms with its hills and fog-draped nostalgia, LA runs on possibility. It’s a big, messy and ever-evolving place where reinvention isn’t just encouraged, it’s expected. 

And while the city pulses with ambition, there’s a calm and grounding undercurrent, too (LA traffic aside). Maybe it’s the ocean, maybe it’s the mountains, or maybe it’s the unspoken permission to just be yourself. In a place where everyone’s always chasing something, you’re safe and celebrated to show up as you.

So come for the pop culture moments, stay for the stamp in your culinary passport, and don’t be surprised if you leave plotting your return.

Why San Francisco is the best place to go

Third-generation San Franciscan and Lonely Planet contributor Margot Seeto spent 15 years away from the City by the Bay — only to fall in love with it even more after returning home to grow deeper roots. She has a particular soft spot for SF’s food scene, penning a regular Bay Area dumpling column.

Jefferson Airplane cofounder Paul Kanter once said, “San Francisco is 49 square miles surrounded by reality.” The psychedelic musician would know, having been born in the San Francisco fog and a quintessential part of the city’s Summer of Love, whose peace-loving hippie legacy – preceded by the deep-thinking Beat Generation – is forever a significant part of San Francisco’s identity. What does Los Angeles have on that?

The NorCal vs. SoCal rivalry in the San Francisco vs. Los Angeles query runs deep, but the truth is that both cities are fantastic – just different flavors of California cool. Both give chill coastal vibes, are bursting with arts and culture, and have diversity of people and food in spades. But the compact makeup of SF makes it walkable and facilitates cultural exchange in a way LA could never match, all under a mist-ical (get it?) layer of magic.

In San Francisco, every day is leg day. Parts of the city are flat, while others, like Chinatown and Nob Hill, have the hills for which SF is famous. If you’re able to climb them, each view from a different park, hill or set of stairs never gets old, whether it’s a new angle of the Golden Gate Bridge, a new building popping into purview or different lighting from the day before.

SF fits the whole world into a walkable 7-sq-mile space. Easily traverse neighborhoods with night-and-day differences, from swanky luxury hotels to urban grit, from historically Chinese to Italian areas, from gay Mecca to yuppified neighborhoods, and understand that the coziness of SF contributes to how ideas flow as quickly as its $8 wellness lattes. This also makes SF great for fans of public transit, biking and pedestrian rights.

For a compact 49-sq-mile city, the amount of green space is unreal. San Francisco seems to always add or upgrade its parks, from skate plazas to those in repurposed transportation spaces, including the largest pedestrian conversion project in California history. As for the beaches, unless you’re an advanced surfer, most SF ocean waters are not for swimming. However, long walks and catching brilliant sunsets while the wind whips through your hair is a very SF way to enjoy the sun (or fog) and sand. Bonus idea - build a beach campfire during burn season (March through October).

The city’s museums are some of the largest or most significant of their kind in the country, from modern art and ancient Asian art downtown to awe-inspiring science and textile collections in Golden Gate Park. The amount of culture crammed into the city is almost overwhelming, with our own ballet, opera, symphony, plus edgy galleries, murals and public art galore.

SF unapologetically wears its politics on its sleeve. While labels aren’t everything, it’s still significant that San Francisco has the first trans district in the world and the first official urban indigenous cultural district in the states. It’s an unapologetically sanctuary city that isn’t afraid to stand up – its values outdoing its size.

You also can’t talk about SF without talking about tech and Silicon Valley. It’s been responsible for much of the hard-hitting gentrification of neighborhoods like The Mission, yet it’s also added another reason to put the Bay Area on the map. If the proliferation of robo-taxis and Patagonia vests is a turn-off, flip it and enjoy hate-watching cybertrucks try to find a parking space. Immersion into the anti-tech bro culture of SF is its own subculture to explore. It’s easy to blast LA for its plastic Hollywood influence, but the race toward AI advancement in the Bay Area makes SF ripe for fake human jokes, too.

Both SF and LA have drool-worthy food scenes from the diversity of its people, especially Asian, Mexican and greater Latin American influences – but there are differences to figure out your taste in cities.

Don’t forget that the San Francisco Bay Area is the 1970s birthplace of modern farm-to-table cuisine. SF has easy access to ridiculously fresh produce and more grown nearby, from heirloom tomatoes and Pacific oysters from up north in Marin County to artichokes and in-season Dungeness crab straight off fishing boats down south in Half Moon Bay. SF is close to the most famous wine region stateside – Napa Valley. Visitors can see the farm-fresh ethos in play at farmers markets, restaurants, bars and even little cafes and boba shops touting locally grown and organic ingredients. 

Cuisine originating in SF includes Vietnamese garlic noodles, giant Mission-style burritos, the oldest dim sum parlor in the country and title of Burmese food capital of the US. San Francisco chefs are making food true to their roots – combining food of their ancestral cultures with Californian ingredients and other Bay Area influences. It’s not surprising to find Mexican-Filipino burritos, vegan soul food spots serving egg rolls, and matcha conchas.

Step through the swirling curtain of San Francisco to eat and walk your way through a city surrounded by nature, art, urban innovation and fairy dust all at once.