Aspen or Huntington Beach?

There is no real contest here. In Aspen the water means reservoirs, alpine lakes and the Roaring Fork, all cold even in July, so a hotel pool is the realistic place to swim.

Huntington Beach is built along about 14km of flat sand, with volleyball nets, fire rings and steady surf. The Pacific is cool for much of the year, and rip currents mean swimming near the lifeguard towers. For calmer coves, Newport and Laguna are close by.

The two eat at a similar level but in very different styles. Aspen is polished and expensive, with chef-led dining rooms, steak and sushi, serious wine lists and après-ski terraces at the base of Aspen Mountain. There is little in the cheap middle, though, and many kitchens close in the quiet spring and autumn weeks.

Huntington Beach is casual and outdoors, with fish tacos and brewpubs near the pier. Its best eating is a short drive inland, in the pho houses and banh mi bakeries of Little Saigon. For fine dining, people head to Newport Beach or Costa Mesa.

Neither town is a sightseeing destination, but Aspen has more to look at. Its silver-boom past survives in the red-brick Victorian blocks downtown, the Wheeler Opera House and the miners' cottages of the West End. Herbert Bayer's modernist Aspen Institute campus and the Aspen Art Museum add a modern side.

Huntington Beach's sights are all about surfing: the pier, the International Surfing Museum and the Hall of Fame handprints on Main Street. The rest is postwar suburb, so museums and heritage mean a drive to Los Angeles or the missions.

Both towns offer a few streets of bars rather than a real scene, and both are seasonal. Aspen's nights peak in ski season, when après-ski moves from the slopeside decks into hotel bars and small clubs. Around Christmas and the X Games the crowd is well dressed and spends freely. Summer evenings are mellower, and in the shoulder seasons the town goes dark.

Huntington Beach is younger and rowdier. Its nightlife centres on the sports bars and rooftop decks of Main Street, which are loudest on summer weekends and quiet midweek, and everything closes at 2am.

This is Aspen's great strength. The town sits at about 2,400m in the Elk Mountains and has four ski mountains linked by free shuttles, plus huts for backcountry tours. In summer there are trailheads at the edge of town, the Maroon Bells, the drive over Independence Pass and fly-fishing on the Roaring Fork.

Huntington Beach's outdoors is the ocean, with consistent surf, paddling in the harbour channels and the birdlife of the Bolsa Chica wetland. For hills you drive to Crystal Cove or the Santa Ana Mountains, because the land around town is flat and built up.

Huntington Beach is the far better base for excursions, provided you drive. Los Angeles is about an hour away, Laguna Beach and Mission San Juan Capistrano are close, and ferries cross to Catalina. San Diego and the Temecula wine country make longer days out.

From Aspen the options are small mountain towns: Glenwood Springs, Carbondale, the quarry village of Marble and the ghost town of Ashcroft. In summer Leadville is reachable over Independence Pass. The pass closes in winter, so the list gets shorter.

Huntington Beach is the stronger family choice, mainly because Disneyland, California Adventure and Knott's Berry Farm are within half an hour. The Aquarium of the Pacific and the tide pools at Crystal Cove are also close. The catch is that every outing needs a car, and the surf suits children on boogie boards better than toddlers.

Aspen works well for one kind of family trip, a ski trip, thanks to the gentle slopes and ski schools at Buttermilk and Snowmass, and it has alpine coasters in summer. Beyond that it is a town aimed at adults, and the altitude can tire small children for the first day or two.

Aspen is much easier without a car. The flat downtown grid takes minutes to cross, the gondola leaves from its edge, and free buses run to all four ski mountains and down the valley. In summer a shuttle bus goes to the Maroon Bells. Going beyond the valley is harder, because the roads cross mountain passes that winter storms can close.

In Huntington Beach you can walk Main Street and the pier and cycle the beachfront path. Buses are slow and there is no rail, though, so the theme parks, Little Saigon and Los Angeles all mean driving on the freeways.

Aspen has the more striking shopping on its own streets. A few downtown blocks hold international luxury boutiques, high-end ski wear, jewellers, Western leather and commercial art galleries, and browsing the pedestrian malls is part of an evening out. The range is narrow, with no department stores.

Huntington Beach's own shops are mostly surf shops, board makers and swimwear, and a board or surf-brand clothing is the obvious thing to take home. For designer fashion it relies on South Coast Plaza, a drive away in Costa Mesa.

Neither town is cheap, but Aspen is in a class of its own. In ski season, rooms, lift tickets, ski school, meals and drinks are all priced for a very wealthy crowd. Staying down the valley in Glenwood Springs only softens the cost, though summer and the shoulder seasons are a little easier.

Huntington Beach is expensive too, and a rental car and parking add to the bill. Still, the beach is free, the motels inland cost less, and the Vietnamese and Mexican cooking around the county keeps meals affordable.

Aspen has the stronger stage life, though most of it happens in summer. The Aspen Music Festival fills about eight weeks with orchestral, chamber and opera performances in the Benedict Music Tent, where people picnic on the lawn and listen for free. The Aspen Santa Fe Ballet and jazz festivals add more, and the Wheeler Opera House runs all year.

Huntington Beach itself has cover bands, summer concerts in the park and a small community theatre. The Pacific Symphony, touring Broadway shows and South Coast Repertory are a short drive away in Costa Mesa.

Aspen offers more for a restful stay, at least outside the peak ski weeks. Its resort spas run altitude-recovery programmes, and there is yoga in the parks and walking by the river. The mineral pools and cave vapour baths of Glenwood Springs are an hour away, and Conundrum Hot Springs rewards a long hike.

Huntington Beach has no baths, only hotel spas and day spas. Its slow rhythm of yoga on the sand, sunset walks on the pier and beach fires suits anyone who unwinds by doing very little.