Anaheim or Santa Fe?

Anaheim is inland, but Huntington Beach, the Newport harbour and the coves of Laguna Beach are about half an hour away by car, so it is easy to fit a surf beach or a harbour afternoon between park days. The water stays cool, and most people wear a wetsuit outside late summer.

Santa Fe has no coast at all. Swimming means a hotel pool, or a summer trip to Abiquiu Lake or the Rio Grande, and those are outings rather than beach days.

Santa Fe has a cuisine of its own: red and green chile, blue corn, posole and sopaipillas, served in old adobe dining rooms around the Plaza. It also has a fine-dining tier and the long-running farmers' market at the Railyard. The range is narrow, but nearly every meal tastes of the place.

Anaheim is weaker where visitors stay, with park counters and chains around the resort. The good food is a drive away, in the Lebanese and Yemeni bakeries of Little Arabia on Brookhurst Street and the pho and banh mi of Little Saigon. These give you more international variety than Santa Fe has.

Here Santa Fe is far ahead. It was a Spanish colonial capital from 1610 and still has its adobe streets, the Palace of the Governors and a group of old chapels and churches. Museum Hill, the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum and Canyon Road give the small town a serious art scene.

Anaheim's past survives in a few old blocks and the citrus packing houses, and Disneyland is its one landmark of real historical weight. The Bowers Museum and the Nixon Library both need a drive.

Neither city suits a late night, and the difference lies in the kind of quiet evening. In Anaheim the night usually ends with the park fireworks and a drink on the shopping promenade or in a brewpub, and the bars near the stadiums fill up on game nights.

In Santa Fe the evening is a long dinner and a margarita on a rooftop as the sun sets over the Jemez Mountains, and the streets are empty well before midnight. For a bigger night, Anaheim sends you to Long Beach or Los Angeles and Santa Fe sends you to Albuquerque.

Santa Fe has much stronger outdoors. Trails start at the edge of town and climb through piñon foothills to aspen forest and the Pecos Wilderness, with skiing in winter. Further out are the elk of Valles Caldera, rafting in the Rio Grande Gorge and the red cliffs around Abiquiu.

Around Anaheim the country is gentler: chaparral trails in the Santa Ana Mountains, tide pools at Crystal Cove, and whale-watching boats from Newport and Dana Point. Santa Fe has nothing like the ocean side, but all of it needs a car.

Both cities make good bases if you have a car, but the trips are different in kind. From Anaheim you head for big places: Los Angeles with Hollywood and the Getty, the Queen Mary at Long Beach, a ferry to Catalina, the mission at San Juan Capistrano, or San Diego further down the coast.

From Santa Fe the trips go into old, rural country: the High Road through Chimayo to Taos Pueblo, the cliff dwellings at Bandelier, Los Alamos, and the mining villages on the Turquoise Trail. In Southern California the problem is traffic, and in New Mexico it is the long distances between places.

Anaheim is built for children in a way Santa Fe is not. Two Disney parks and Knott's Berry Farm are minutes from family hotels, and the Discovery Cube and calm beaches give you a change of pace, so many families never need to leave the area. Queues at busy times are the main drawback.

Santa Fe is safe and calm and has a children's museum and the ladders at Bandelier. But galleries and long dinners test young patience, and the altitude can tire small children for the first day or two. It works better for older children who like hiking and history.

Santa Fe is the easier of the two on foot. The Plaza, the cathedral, Canyon Road and the Railyard are all within about twenty minutes' walk of each other, although the thin air makes the slopes feel steeper.

In Anaheim the walkable part is the resort district with its shuttles, which is enough if the parks are your whole plan. Beyond it, Orange County is freeways and wide boulevards, although Metrolink and Amtrak make Los Angeles and San Diego easy to reach without a car. In both places you need a hire car for almost everything else.

Santa Fe has the more distinctive shopping. You can buy silver and turquoise directly from Native American artists under the portal of the Palace of the Governors, browse the many galleries on Canyon Road, or pick up Pueblo pottery and Western boots. The big summer markets draw collectors from far away.

Anaheim is mall country. Disney merchandise fills the resort, and the large luxury mall in Costa Mesa has the fashion houses Santa Fe lacks. But there is almost nothing independent, and you drive from one car park to the next.

Neither is a budget trip, and the money goes in different directions. In Anaheim the big costs are multi-day park tickets, hotels near the gates and food inside the parks. A chain motel a short drive away and meals in Little Saigon or Little Arabia bring the bill down.

In Santa Fe the money goes on hotels around the Plaza, which charge resort prices, and restaurants aimed at well-off visitors, with the highest prices during the summer markets and the opera season. Hiking and gallery browsing are free, and beds along Cerrillos Road are cheaper. In both cities car hire adds to the bill.

Santa Fe has the more memorable night out, at least in summer. The opera plays in an open-sided theatre on a hill north of town, with performances starting at sunset, and there is also a chamber music festival and a long flamenco tradition. Winter is much thinner, with the Lensic theatre and concerts in the old churches.

Anaheim's evening shows are mostly Disney parades and water shows. The Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa has the Pacific Symphony, ballet and touring Broadway, and the arena books big pop tours, so its programme is spread more evenly through the year.

Santa Fe is the better place to slow down. It has outdoor soaking tubs in the pine foothills, the old mineral springs at Ojo Caliente, and an unusual number of spas and yoga studios for its size. Quiet adobe courtyards and early evenings help too.

In Anaheim, park days with early starts and crowds work against rest. Relaxing there means a resort pool, a Korean-style day spa in the suburbs, or a drive to the clifftop spas around Laguna Beach and Dana Point.