Anaheim or Durango, Colorado?

Anaheim is inland, but the Pacific is close. In about half an hour by car you can be on the surf beach at Huntington, by the harbour on the Balboa Peninsula or in the coves of Laguna. The water warms enough for swimming without a wetsuit in late summer, so it is easy to fit a beach afternoon between park days.

Durango is many hours from the sea. On a hot day you can swim at Lake Nighthorse, find a sandy edge at Vallecito Lake or float the Animas on an inner tube, but the water is cold and the season short.

Anaheim offers more choice, but only if you leave the resort district, where eating is mostly park counters and chains. On Brookhurst Street, Little Arabia has Lebanese, Palestinian and Yemeni grills and bakeries. Little Saigon, just over the city line, is one of the great places outside Vietnam for pho and banh mi.

Durango has a narrower range: green-chile plates, steakhouses, breakfast cafés and a few kitchens cooking local lamb and trout. Its strength is beer, with many craft breweries for a town of its size.

Neither is a culture destination, but Durango has more history you can see on foot. The steam locomotives at the Main Avenue depot, the roundhouse museum and the Victorian brick streets from the mining boom tell a clear story in a compact centre. The college on the mesa adds a good collection of Southwestern and Native American material.

Anaheim's old citrus town has mostly gone, apart from the packing houses and the Mother Colony House. Disneyland is its real piece of cultural history. For museums such as the Bowers in Santa Ana, you have to drive.

Both are quiet after dark, but the evenings are different. In Anaheim, nights end with the park fireworks and a drink on the resort promenade, and the bars near the stadiums fill up on game nights. For a proper night out, you have to drive to Long Beach or Los Angeles.

Durango's evenings are about brewery taprooms, patios on Main Avenue and an old saloon with a piano player. The town is mostly asleep well before midnight.

Durango is the stronger choice, by a long way. The San Juan Mountains rise above the town, with singletrack from the town's edge, the start of the Colorado Trail, high lakes in the Weminuche Wilderness and whitewater on the Animas. It changes with the seasons, from summer hiking to aspens in autumn to deep snow at the ski resort to the north.

Anaheim's outdoors is gentler. You can walk the chaparral trails in the Santa Ana Mountains, find tide pools at Crystal Cove or take a whale-watching boat from Newport or Dana Point. It is pleasant and possible in any season, but you need a car and the scenery is never dramatic.

Anaheim's central position in Southern California gives it more range. Los Angeles, with the Getty and Griffith Observatory, is about an hour away, Catalina Island is a ferry ride from Long Beach or Newport, and you can reach San Juan Capistrano's mission, the Temecula vineyards and San Diego. The price is traffic.

Durango has fewer destinations, but its best ones are remarkable. Mesa Verde's cliff dwellings, the narrow-gauge railway to Silverton and the ruins at Aztec are worth the long mountain drives.

Anaheim is built for families. Two Disney parks stand side by side within walking distance of hundreds of family hotels, and Knott's Berry Farm is ten minutes away, so many families never travel further. The Discovery Cube and the Aquarium of the Pacific are there if you want a change. The main drawbacks are the queues and the cost.

Durango suits active families instead. Children enjoy the steam train, tubing on the river, the alpine coaster and the ladders at Mesa Verde. But there is little indoors for a bad day, and the altitude can tire young children at first.

Both have a small area you can manage on foot and a wide region beyond it where you need a car. In Anaheim, the walkable area is the resort district, linked by hotel shuttles, and Metrolink and Amtrak trains run from the stadium to Los Angeles and San Diego.

Durango's walkable centre is Main Avenue, with a trolley and a riverside trail for cyclists. Beyond that are mountain highways with very little regional transport.

Anaheim offers more, though almost all of it is in malls. There is Disney merchandise in the resort, outlet centres in Orange, and in Costa Mesa one of the country's largest luxury malls, with most of the major fashion houses. Independent shops are rare, and you will drive from one car park to the next.

Durango is a single street of small shops. Main Avenue has outdoor gear, Western boots, galleries and Navajo and Pueblo turquoise and silver. It is pleasant for an hour or two but has no fashion shopping.

Neither is cheap, but Durango is a little easier on the budget. Its main attractions, the trails, the river and the views, cost nothing, and spring and late autumn are noticeably cheaper. You will still pay full American restaurant prices, extra for guided trips and for a hire car.

In Anaheim, park tickets take the biggest share of the budget, and hotels by the gates charge a premium. Staying at a motel a short drive away and eating in Little Saigon or Little Arabia helps, but a car adds to the cost.

Anaheim has more to offer, though often at a distance. The Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa, about 20 minutes away, has the Pacific Symphony, ballet and touring Broadway shows, and the city's arena books big pop and rock tours. Most visitors spend their evenings at the parks' night-time shows and parades.

Durango's stage life is small and mostly happens in summer. There is a chamber and orchestral music festival, a Victorian melodrama where the audience boos the villain, and cowboy music with a chuckwagon supper.

Durango is far better for slowing down. Spring-fed mineral pools a few minutes north of town are a good place to soak after a ride or a day of skiing, and the terraced pools at Pagosa Springs and the springs at Ouray make easy outings. The town itself is calm, with quiet riverside walks.

A park trip from Anaheim, with early starts and crowds, is rarely restful. The options are hotel pools, a few Korean-style day spas, or a drive to the clifftop resort spas at Laguna Beach and Dana Point.