Anaheim or Tucson?

Anaheim is not on the coast, but the wide surf beach at Huntington, the Balboa Peninsula at Newport and the coves of Laguna Beach are all about half an hour away by car. The water is cool for much of the year, but a beach afternoon fits easily between park days.

Tucson has nothing like this. The nearest sea is the Gulf of California at Puerto Peñasco in Mexico, about four hours away. Swimming means a resort pool, plus the occasional pool that forms in Sabino Canyon after rain.

Tucson has the better and more distinctive food. Its own cooking is Sonoran Mexican: mesquite-grilled carne asada, paper-thin flour tortillas and the bacon-wrapped Sonoran hot dog. Family kitchens along South 12th Avenue and in the old barrios do it properly, and desert ingredients such as tepary beans and prickly pear appear on menus.

In Anaheim's resort area you eat at park counters and chains, and good food means a drive: Little Arabia on Brookhurst Street, or pho and banh mi in Little Saigon. Orange County covers a wider range of cuisines, but Tucson has the clearer local identity.

Tucson has more history to see. Mission San Xavier del Bac, with its painted and gilded interior, is a first-rate sight, and the adobe houses of Barrio Viejo and El Presidio show the city's Spanish and Mexican past. The Arizona State Museum and the Pima Air & Space Museum are each worth an afternoon.

Little of Anaheim's German and citrus-town past survives beyond a few blocks and the old packing houses. Its landmark is Disneyland, a real piece of American cultural history, but for museums such as the Bowers in Santa Ana you have to drive.

Neither city is made for big nights out, but Tucson has more going on. The dive bars and patios of Fourth Avenue are within walking distance of the cocktail bars and rooftops on Congress Street, and weekends during the university term are lively.

In Anaheim the evening usually ends with the park fireworks, then perhaps a drink on the shopping promenade or at a brewpub in the centre. For anything more you have to drive to Long Beach or Los Angeles.

Tucson is much the stronger choice. The Sonoran Desert reaches the suburbs and Saguaro National Park lies on both sides of the city. The Catalina Highway climbs Mount Lemmon from giant cactus to pine forest in about an hour, and the area offers serious road cycling and bird-watching that draws people from around the world. In summer the heat pushes outings to dawn or up the mountain.

Anaheim's outdoors is gentler and further away: chaparral trails in the Santa Ana Mountains, tide pools at Crystal Cove and whale-watching boats from Newport and Dana Point. The ocean is the one thing it has that Tucson lacks.

Anaheim has more to choose from, thanks to its position in the middle of Southern California. Los Angeles, with Hollywood, the Getty and Griffith Observatory, is about an hour away, and Long Beach and the ferries to Catalina Island are closer. San Diego is about two hours down the coast, with Mission San Juan Capistrano on the way. The cost is the traffic.

From Tucson the outings are to smaller frontier towns: Tombstone, the Victorian mining streets of Bisbee, the artists' village of Tubac and the ruins of the Tumacácori mission. They are varied and pleasant, but none draws people the way Los Angeles does.

Anaheim is built for children in a way Tucson is not, with a whole resort district given over to theme parks and the hotels that serve them. The price is long queues at busy times and a costly trip. Once you leave the resort you are back in the car, whether for the Discovery Cube science centre in Santa Ana or the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach.

In Tucson the desert itself is the attraction for children. At the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum they see javelinas and mountain lions among cactus and hummingbirds, and Reid Park Zoo, the Flandrau planetarium and the giant aircraft at the air and space museum fill other days. Plan it for the cooler half of the year, as in summer families retreat to resort pools or the cool air up Mount Lemmon.

Both are car cities, and most visitors will need to hire one. The difference is what you can manage without it. Anaheim's resort district is compact, with hotels close to the Disney gates, shuttles to the rest and trains from the stadium station to Los Angeles and San Diego. The drawback is heavy freeway traffic.

Tucson's walkable core is small, with a single streetcar line linking downtown, Fourth Avenue and the university, and its main sights are on the edge of the city or further out. Driving there is easy, though, with light traffic and simple parking.

Anaheim has more shopping, though nearly all of it is in malls. Disney merchandise fills the resort district. The large luxury mall in Costa Mesa has most of the major fashion houses, and outlets in Orange and Newport Beach cover the mid-range.

Tucson's shopping is smaller and more about the region: Native American jewellery, Tohono O'odham baskets and Mexican folk art in old-town galleries and in Tubac, plus vintage shops on Fourth Avenue. Its winter gem and mineral show draws collectors from around the world.

Tucson is the cheaper trip. Mid-range hotels cost less than in the bigger Southwest cities, taquerías and hot dog stands make it easy to eat cheaply, and summer brings bargains, though a hire car and resort stays add up.

In Anaheim the cost comes from multi-day park tickets, expensive hotels near the gates and high food prices inside the parks. Motels a short drive away and meals in the Vietnamese and Middle Eastern districts help, but you will also pay for a car.

The two are close on performing arts, but the evenings out are different. Anaheim's offer is mostly theme-park shows, with night-time water shows, parades and Disney stage musicals. For something more formal there is the Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa, home of the Pacific Symphony and touring Broadway shows.

Tucson has its own symphony orchestra, Arizona Opera and the Arizona Theatre Company, restored downtown halls such as the Fox and the Rialto, and a deep mariachi tradition. Its season runs mainly from autumn to spring.

For a restful trip Tucson is far better suited, because there rest is the purpose of the stay rather than a pause between park days. In Anaheim, early starts and crowded days in the parks leave little room to unwind. Relaxing usually means an afternoon at the hotel pool, or a sauna and scrub at one of the Korean-style day spas in the suburbs.

Tucson helped create the American destination spa, and stays at its foothill resorts, out as far as Oracle, are planned around fitness and rest, with pools looking towards the mountains. There are no thermal baths or bathhouses, though, so wellness means checking into a resort rather than visiting a public bath in town. Winter, with its clear light and cool, quiet evenings, is the season for it.