...or use rsync?

   rsync -avz somehost:/path/to/src /path/to/dest

For a more accurate sync, you can also delete obsolete files on the destination:

    rsync -avz --delete src dest

This assumes there are no files you want to keep on the destination, of course. You can exclude them or reorganize to keep them safe.

The trick is knowing when that's going to be faster than rsync.