Bend or Huntington Beach?

Huntington Beach is a proper beach town. It has about 14km of wide, flat sand with volleyball nets and fire rings, and Newport and Laguna nearby have calmer coves. The Pacific stays cool for much of the year and the surf brings rip currents, so swimmers should stay near the lifeguard towers.

Bend has no coast within easy reach. Its water life is tubing down the Deschutes through town and taking a cold August swim in Elk or Sparks Lake. These are pleasant extras on a mountain trip, not a reason to book.

Neither town is a place to travel for food, and they differ in kind. Bend's eating and drinking centres on its breweries: brewpub menus, food-cart pods with fire pits and some farm-to-table cooking downtown, but little international food. Huntington Beach has fish tacos and surfers' breakfasts by the pier. Its real asset is Little Saigon, a short drive inland, whose pho and banh mi have no equal in Bend.

Neither town has much to see, but Bend has slightly more. The High Desert Museum, with its live animals, Indigenous heritage and pioneer exhibits, can fill half a day. The brick downtown, the Tower Theatre and the old mill smokestacks fill an afternoon.

Huntington Beach's sights are all about surfing: the pier, the International Surfing Museum and the Hall of Fame handprints at the foot of Main Street. For real museums, you have to go to Los Angeles.

Huntington Beach has the livelier nights, though they're limited to one strip. Main Street's rooftop beach bars, sports bars and a few dance spots fill with a young crowd on summer weekends, and things can get loud.

Bend's evenings are earlier and quieter. Taprooms and food-cart courtyards fill with people still in their hiking gear, and downtown has a short run of cocktail and dive bars, but almost nowhere to dance.

This is where Bend pulls far ahead. Volcanic peaks, Mount Bachelor's long ski season, alpine lakes, the lava flows and caves at Newberry and the climbing walls of Smith Rock are all within an hour. Mountain-bike trails start at the edge of town.

In Huntington Beach, the outdoors means the ocean: surf lessons, paddling in the harbour channels and the beach path. Birding in the Bolsa Chica wetlands is excellent, and Crystal Cove's canyon trails are half an hour south, but the land around town is flat suburb.

Huntington Beach is a much better base for day trips. Laguna Beach and Mission San Juan Capistrano are close, Los Angeles is about an hour away, and Catalina is a ferry ride from Long Beach or Newport. San Diego and the Temecula wineries make full days out.

From Bend, most outings lead into the landscape: the western main street of Sisters, Sunriver's observatory, the tribal museum at Warm Springs, and long drives to Crater Lake or the Painted Hills. The nearby ranching towns have little to offer.

Huntington Beach is the stronger choice with children, mainly because of what lies nearby. Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm are under half an hour away, the Aquarium of the Pacific makes an easy morning, and Legoland is possible on a longer day. The surf suits boogie boarding better than toddlers paddling.

Bend works well for active families. There are river floats, lantern-lit walks through the Lava River Cave, the otters at the High Desert Museum and a good beginner area on Mount Bachelor. It has no theme park, zoo or aquarium.

Both towns depend on the car, but Bend's centre is a little easier to manage without one. A riverside path links downtown and the Old Mill District, cycling on the trails and quiet streets is comfortable, and a seasonal shuttle runs up to Mount Bachelor. You still need a car for the lakes and Smith Rock.

In Huntington Beach, the beachfront path makes a bike pleasant along the sand. But buses are slow, there is no rail, and anything beyond Main Street means driving on busy freeways and, in summer, searching for parking.

Huntington Beach has the wider choice. Surf shops, board makers and swimwear line Main Street, and South Coast Plaza, a huge luxury mall, is about twenty minutes away. Bend's strength is narrower but useful for the people it draws: good ski, bike, climbing and fishing shops, stores selling used gear, a few downtown boutiques and chain stores in the old mill buildings.

Bend is the somewhat cheaper of the two, though you still need a hire car, and the gap is widest outside summer and the ski weekends. Its trails, rivers and parks cost little or nothing, food carts keep meals down, Oregon adds no sales tax, and midweek stays in spring and autumn make the hotel bill easier.

Huntington Beach is expensive from the start. Beachfront hotels charge the most in summer and at weekends, tax and tips are added to sit-down meals, and you have to budget for beach parking as well as the car. You can save by staying in motels on the inland boulevards and eating at the Vietnamese and Mexican places around the county, and the sand itself is free.

Both towns have modest live performance, but it happens in different places. Bend's own programme is mostly summer concerts at the outdoor amphitheatre on the river in the Old Mill District. The rest of the year, the Tower Theatre downtown hosts comedy, film and touring musicians.

Huntington Beach itself has little beyond bar bands. Costa Mesa is a short drive away, though, with the Segerstrom Center for the Pacific Symphony, ballet, opera and touring Broadway shows, plus South Coast Repertory's theatre season.

In Bend, you relax after effort: a hot tub at the end of a ski or bike day, a resort spa around Sunriver, or a walk out to the primitive hot-spring pools at Paulina Lake in the Newberry caldera. Most visitors come here to be active, and rest is the reward.

Huntington Beach suits doing very little. Yoga on the sand, a sunset walk on the pier and an evening around a beach fire set the pace, and the resort spas on the coast highway offer massages and treatments.