Aspen or Newport Beach?

Here Newport Beach wins outright. Ten kilometres of sand run along the Balboa Peninsula, there are surf breaks by the piers, rocky coves at Corona del Mar and paddling spots inside the harbour. The Pacific is cool, though, so wetsuits and boogie boards are more common than lazy floating.

Aspen is a mountain town far from any coast. The nearest you get to a beach day is the shore of an alpine lake or a raft on the Roaring Fork, and the water is cold even in high summer.

The two eat about equally well, but in different ways. Aspen packs chef-led dining rooms, steak and sushi counters and serious wine lists into a few downtown blocks, and après-ski on the terraces at the base of Aspen Mountain is a ritual of its own. In the quiet spring and autumn weeks, though, many kitchens shut.

Newport is more relaxed and more about the sea: harbour-view seafood, fish tacos on the peninsula and frozen bananas on Balboa Island. Its trump card is what is nearby, with Costa Mesa for range and Little Saigon about twenty minutes inland for excellent Vietnamese food.

Neither is a sightseeing destination, and both can be covered in an afternoon. Aspen's appeal is a whole townscape: red-brick Victorian blocks from the silver boom, the Wheeler Opera House, painted miners' cottages in the West End, plus Herbert Bayer's modernist Aspen Institute campus and the Ashcroft ghost town.

Newport's sights are more scattered. They include the 1905 Balboa Pavilion, Schindler's Lovell Beach House for architecture fans and the Sherman gardens, while the serious art museum is next door in Costa Mesa.

Aspen has the livelier nights, at least in ski season. Après-ski moves from the slopeside decks into downtown bars, and over Christmas, New Year and the X Games the hotel bars and a few small clubs stay busy late with a well-dressed crowd. Summer is calmer, with drinks on patios.

Newport has no real clubs. It has loud dive bars by the piers for a young local crowd and quieter harbour wine bars that empty well before 2am. Both towns go quiet out of season.

Aspen's outdoors is in another league. It sits at about 2,400m among the Elk Mountains, with four ski areas, backcountry huts, and summer trails climbing to passes and summits above 4,000m. The Maroon Bells are a short bus ride away, and the Roaring Fork offers rafting and fly-fishing.

Newport's nature is coastal and gentler. There are birds on the Upper Newport Bay estuary, bluff and canyon paths in Crystal Cove, kayaks in the harbour and whale-watching boats all year. For real elevation you drive an hour inland to the Santa Ana Mountains.

From Newport, much of Southern California is within reach. Laguna Beach is twenty minutes away, Mission San Juan Capistrano half an hour, and the ferry to Avalon on Catalina leaves from Balboa. Los Angeles and San Diego can also be done in a day, as long as you build in freeway traffic.

Aspen's outings are quieter and smaller. They include Glenwood Springs, Carbondale, the quarry village of Marble and, in summer only, Leadville over Independence Pass. Once the pass closes in winter, the list gets short.

Newport is the easier family base. It has shallow harbour beaches, the Balboa Fun Zone's ferris wheel, the little car ferry, tide pools and bike paths, and Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm are about half an hour away.

Aspen works best for a ski vacation with children, since Buttermilk and Snowmass have gentle slopes and good ski schools, and summer adds alpine coasters and ropes courses. There is no zoo or theme park, though, and the altitude can tire small children for the first day or two.

Aspen is far 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 areas, with a summer shuttle to the Maroon Bells. A car only matters for leaving the valley.

Newport is the opposite. The town sprawls along the coast and up the hills, buses are sparse, and almost everything beyond the Balboa Peninsula and Balboa Island means driving, with hard parking near the beaches on summer weekends.

Newport offers more choice. An open-air centre above the harbour has department stores and designer names, a vast luxury mall is ten minutes away in Costa Mesa, and Corona del Mar and Balboa Island add boutiques and nautical gift shops.

Aspen packs a surprising run of luxury labels, ski wear, Western leather and art galleries into a few pedestrian blocks, which make a pleasant evening browse. There are no department stores, though, and little choice beyond the high end.

Neither is a budget destination, but Aspen is the harsher on your wallet. Ski-season rooms, lift tickets, ski school and meals are all priced for a very wealthy crowd, although the free buses help, and staying down the valley in Glenwood Springs or Carbondale saves a little.

Newport is expensive too, with resort hotels and restaurants that charge for the view, plus car hire, fuel and parking. Sleeping inland in Costa Mesa or Irvine and eating tacos keeps it somewhat more manageable.

The two are about level on the arts, but the timing differs. Aspen's high point is summer, when the Music Festival fills the Benedict Music Tent with orchestral, chamber and opera performances, and people listen for free from the lawn outside. The Wheeler Opera House keeps something going the rest of the year.

Newport relies on Costa Mesa, ten minutes away. There the Segerstrom Center stages touring Broadway shows and ballet, the Pacific Symphony plays in its concert hall, and South Coast Repertory offers serious theatre in every season.

Aspen has a slight edge here because of its water. The big mineral pools and cave vapour baths of Glenwood Springs are an hour down the valley, and Conundrum Hot Springs is a reward at the end of a long hike. Riverside paths, yoga in the parks and clear mountain air make the quiet seasons especially restful.

Newport has no springs or bathhouses. Its calm comes from bluff walks, harbour coffee and sunsets over the Pacific, along with resort spas and day spas around Corona del Mar.