Big Bear Lake or Laguna Beach?

At Big Bear Lake a swim is a quick cool-off, not a beach day. The lake is a mountain reservoir, the shore is mostly rocky, and Meadow Park is the one supervised swimming spot. Time on the water there usually means boats and paddleboards.

Laguna Beach is built around its sand and coves, from Main Beach in the village to Crescent Bay, Victoria Beach and the wide sand at Aliso, and the water is clear enough for snorkelling. The downsides are steep stairs, rip currents at some coves and crowds on summer weekends.

Neither is a place to travel for the food, but Laguna Beach gives you more choice. Eating in Big Bear is mountain-resort comfort food: diner breakfasts, burgers, barbecue and brewpubs in the Village. Many visitors cook in their cabins.

Laguna adds seafood, fish tacos, clifftop dining rooms and California wine, and the sunset is part of the meal. Prices lean on the view, though, and the wider choice is inland in Orange County.

Laguna Beach has more to see, though it is still a modest amount. Its art-colony past shows in the Laguna Art Museum, the galleries along Coast Highway and Forest Avenue and the craftsman cottages, and a morning covers them. Big Bear's sights are the Discovery Center, a small history museum and the gold-rush remains of Holcomb Valley on a dirt-road drive, which are good background but not a reason to go.

Both towns go quiet early, but Laguna Beach has a little more for an evening out. Its old beach bars, wine bars and hotel lounges with ocean terraces fill up on summer weekends, and Newport Beach and Costa Mesa are close for a bigger night. In Big Bear an evening means an après-ski pint, a sports bar or a brewpub in season, and then the hot tub.

Both are outdoor places, but Big Bear Lake is the fuller mountain base. It has two ski areas in winter, mountain-bike trails on the summer slopes, kayaking and fishing on the lake, and hikes from Castle Rock to the Pacific Crest Trail and the San Gorgonio Wilderness. Bald eagles spend the winter around the lake, and the thin air makes the climbs harder work.

Laguna's nature is coastal. There are chaparral ridges in Laguna Coast Wilderness Park and Aliso and Wood Canyons, and a marine protected area offshore for tide pools, snorkelling, kayaking and surfing. It suits anyone who wants the ocean in their outdoor days, but it has no snow and no high peaks.

Laguna Beach is far better placed for day trips. Mission San Juan Capistrano is twenty minutes inland, and the ferry to Catalina leaves from nearby harbours. San Diego, Los Angeles and the Temecula vineyards each make a full day out.

From Big Bear, winding mountain roads slow everything down. Lake Arrowhead and the orchards of Oak Glen are the easy outings, Riverside's Mission Inn takes longer, and most visitors simply stay on the mountain.

Laguna Beach has the edge for children. It has lifeguarded beaches, tide pools full of anemones and crabs, and Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm about forty minutes away. Steep beach stairs and costly family rooms make it less easy than it sounds.

Big Bear Lake appeals for a different reason: snow. Sledding hills, ski lessons, the Alpine Zoo, and go-karts and pedal boats in summer keep children busy, and a cabin gives everyone room. The costs are cold nights and slow roads on winter weekends.

You need a car in both places, and in both the centre is the only part you can easily walk. In Big Bear the hard part is getting there, on steep highways that may need snow chains and crawl on long weekends, and then reaching cabins spread along hilly forest roads. In Laguna the hard part is parking, which is scarce on summer weekends, though a free trolley along Coast Highway reaches the beaches without moving the car.

Laguna Beach is the better place to browse. Galleries selling plein air paintings and glass, the boutiques on Forest Avenue and the summer art festivals give it real character, and the big malls of Newport Beach and Costa Mesa are about half an hour away. Big Bear's Village has fudge, bear souvenirs and ski and lake gear for hire, which fills an hour at most.

Big Bear Lake is the cheaper of the two, as long as you avoid winter weekends and school vacations, when cabin rates, lift tickets and ski hire all go up. Sharing a cabin and cooking for yourselves is the way to keep costs down.

Laguna Beach is expensive at almost every level, from clifftop resorts to simple motels, ocean-view meals and parking. Its beaches, trails and trolley are free, and many travellers on a budget stay inland and come for the day.

Laguna Beach has a real stage tradition. Each summer the Pageant of the Masters uses live performers to recreate famous paintings in an amphitheatre in Laguna Canyon, and the Laguna Playhouse puts on plays and musicals all year, with opera and symphony half an hour away in Costa Mesa. Big Bear offers community theatre, free summer concerts by the lake and the Bavarian bands of its autumn Oktoberfest.

Laguna Beach is the better place to properly unwind, with clifftop walks, yoga studios and full resort spas looking over the ocean, although the spas are expensive. Relaxing in Big Bear is private and simple: a hot tub on the cabin deck and a wood stove among the pines. That works best midweek, because busy winter weekends are anything but peaceful, and neither town has thermal springs or a bathing tradition.