Anaheim or Huntington Beach?

Huntington Beach is the beach destination of the two. The town lies along its own long, flat stretch of sand, with bonfire rings, volleyball nets and a beachfront path, and you can walk to the water every morning. Anaheim sits about 20km inland, so the same coast is a half-day outing by car.

The sea is the same for both: cool except in late summer, and best with a wetsuit. At Huntington the steady waves and rip currents keep swimmers near the lifeguard towers. For calmer coves you drive to Laguna from either base.

Anaheim has slightly more to eat, though not around the parks, where counters and chains dominate. The real draw is Little Arabia on Brookhurst Street, with its Lebanese, Palestinian and Yemeni bakeries and grills, along with the food hall in the old citrus packing district.

Huntington Beach eats casually and outdoors: fish tacos by the pier, surfers' breakfasts and brewpubs with sea views on the coast highway. Both share Little Saigon in Westminster and Garden Grove, and both send you to the coast or Costa Mesa for fine dining.

Neither is a culture destination, but Anaheim has a little more. Disneyland, the first Disney park and the only one Walt Disney saw finished, is a real piece of American history. The Mother Colony House and the packing houses recall the German wine settlers and the citrus era, and the Bowers Museum and the Nixon Library are short drives away.

Huntington Beach's sights are all about surfing: the pier, the International Surfing Museum and the Surfers' Hall of Fame handprints at the foot of Main Street. They take an hour or so, and after that, museums mean Los Angeles.

Huntington Beach has the livelier nights. On Friday and Saturday, Main Street, a few blocks from the pier, fills up with sports bars, rooftop beach bars and a few dance spots, and the young crowd can get loud in summer. Weeknights are quiet.

In Anaheim, evenings usually end with the park fireworks and then a drink on the promenade or in a central brewpub. It only gets busier when the hockey or baseball crowds come out. From either town, a proper night out means Long Beach or Los Angeles.

The two are roughly level for the outdoors, but the kind is different. Huntington Beach has it on the doorstep: surf breaks either side of the pier, paddling in the harbour channels, and the herons and pelicans of the Bolsa Chica wetlands.

Anaheim's outdoors lies inland and needs a car. There are chaparral trails in Santiago Oaks and the Cleveland National Forest in the Santa Ana Mountains, and the Santa Ana River trail for cycling. Crystal Cove's bluffs and tide pools are about the same drive from either.

Anaheim makes the slightly stronger base. It sits in the middle of the region, and the station by the stadium has Metrolink and Amtrak trains to Los Angeles and San Diego, so you can see those two cities without driving.

Huntington Beach reaches the same places, including Los Angeles in about an hour, Catalina by ferry, Mission San Juan Capistrano and the Temecula wine country. The difference is that from there every one of them is a drive.

Anaheim is the stronger family base by some way. Families can walk from hundreds of hotels to the Disney gates, Knott's Berry Farm is ten minutes off, and many spend a whole week without needing a car.

Huntington Beach still serves families well, with wide sand, the playgrounds and lakes of Central Park and the pelicans at Bolsa Chica. But Disneyland is a half-hour drive each way, and the surf is better for boogie boarding than for toddlers.

Neither town is easy without a car, but Anaheim depends on one a little less. Its resort district is compact, with shuttles to the parks and the convention centre, and the transit centre has trains to Los Angeles and San Diego.

Huntington Beach has a walkable patch around the pier and Main Street, and a flat beachfront path that is pleasant by bike. There is no rail in town, though, so most outings mean freeways, and beach parking fills on summer weekends.

Anaheim has a modest lead. That is mostly down to the Disney merchandise on the promenade and in the parks, which matters to many families, plus the outlet and open-air malls in Orange. Huntington Beach is the place for surf style: board makers, swimwear and surf-brand clothing along Main Street.

Both are about twenty minutes from South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa for the major fashion houses. Neither has markets or local crafts worth seeking out.

Both are expensive, for different reasons. In Anaheim the bill comes mainly from multi-day park tickets, the premium for hotels near the gates and food inside the parks.

In Huntington Beach it is beachfront hotel rates, especially on summer weekends, plus sit-down meals. Either way, motels on the inland boulevards and the Vietnamese cooking of the county keep costs down, and you should budget for a hire car, which is hard to do without in Huntington Beach.

Anaheim has slightly more of its own. The Disney parks put on polished night-time water shows, parades and stage musicals, and the city's arena books major pop and rock tours.

Huntington Beach offers cover bands in the Main Street bars, summer concerts in the park and a community theatre. From either town, the serious programme is about twenty minutes away at the Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa, home of the Pacific Symphony and touring Broadway.

Huntington Beach is the more restful of the two. Neither has a bathing tradition, but the town's beach pace makes it easy to do very little, and a morning on the sand needs no planning.

Anaheim's long park days work against rest. Wellness there means hotel pools, resort spas or a Korean-style day spa in the suburbs. Anyone who wants a proper spa drives from either town to the clifftop resorts of Laguna Beach and Dana Point.