Big Bear Lake or Mammoth Lakes?

Neither town is a beach destination, but Big Bear Lake is the better place for a swim. The lake warms to around 19°C in high summer, and the small beach at Meadow Park is the only supervised swimming spot in either town, which matters if you have children.

Mammoth Lakes offers only a cold dip at Horseshoe Lake, or in the slightly warmer Crowley Lake, during a short July and August window. Bathing in the steaming water of Hot Creek is banned. There, the lakes are for paddling and fishing far more than swimming.

Both towns eat like ski resorts, with big breakfasts, burgers, pizza and a pint of local beer, and neither has a cuisine of its own. Mammoth Lakes has the wider choice. Because it feeds a much larger winter crowd, it adds steakhouses and a few more ambitious dinner kitchens around its Village.

Big Bear Lake is plainer, with log-cabin diners, barbecue and Mexican plates. A table with a lake view is the main pleasure there, and many visitors simply stock the cabin kitchen.

Culture is not a reason to visit either town, and each has little more than a small local history museum. Big Bear does have the forest displays of its Discovery Center and the 1860s gold-rush remains in Holcomb Valley, which you can follow on a dirt-road drive. Mammoth's real heritage sites are an hour or more away in the wider Eastern Sierra.

Mammoth Lakes has the livelier evenings, though only in the ski season. Then the Village and the bars by the lifts fill for après-ski, the brewery taprooms keep going, and long winter weekends can run late. Big Bear Lake's nights are quieter, with a few Village pubs and a brewpub or sports bar before most people go back to the hot tub and the fire, and neither town has clubs.

Both are genuine mountain bases, but Mammoth Lakes works on a bigger scale. Its mountain is one of North America's largest ski areas, and its season can run into early summer. Beyond it lie the Ansel Adams and John Muir wildernesses, Devils Postpile, the tufa towers of Mono Lake and, once Tioga Pass opens, the Yosemite high country.

Big Bear Lake is smaller but easy to enjoy. It has modest, reliable skiing at two areas, a lake full of kayaks and sailing boats, short hikes to Castle Rock and Cougar Crest, the Pacific Crest Trail along the north side and bald eagles in winter. The big hike nearby is in the San Gorgonio Wilderness, which has Southern California's highest summit.

Neither town makes a good base for excursions, and in both most outings head into the mountains rather than to other towns. Mammoth Lakes has the more memorable places to visit: the ghost town of Bodie and the Manzanar internment camp, each a little over an hour away along the highway below the Sierra.

From Big Bear the options are gentler: Lake Arrowhead along the Rim of the World road, the orchards of Oak Glen and the citrus-era streets of Riverside. The winding roads make every one of these trips slow.

Families do equally well in either town, with ski schools, snow play and lakes for gentle summer days. The difference is what fills the gaps. Big Bear has the Alpine Zoo, an alpine slide, mini-golf and go-karts, which makes short attention spans easier to manage.

Mammoth relies on the outdoors, with a tubing hill, rowing boats in the Lakes Basin and the gondola to the summit, and it has little to offer on a day when you are stuck indoors. Its greater height can also make the first day or two harder on small children.

Mammoth Lakes is easier to manage without a car, at least on a ski trip. Free winter shuttles link the lodgings with the lift bases, a gondola rises from the Village, and in summer a trolley and a shuttle reach the Lakes Basin and Reds Meadow. The wider Eastern Sierra still needs a car.

At Big Bear Lake, the Village is walkable and there is a local bus and a seasonal trolley. Most cabins, though, are scattered through the forest, so errands and trailheads mean driving. Its steep access highways may need snow chains and can crawl on busy weekends.

Shopping is a minor pastime in both towns, and neither has fashion streets or markets. Big Bear's Village leans towards fudge, bear-themed souvenirs and antiques, which makes for a pleasant hour's browsing. Mammoth's shops are more practical, with serious ski, climbing and fly-fishing outfitters and a few galleries selling landscape photography.

Big Bear Lake is the more affordable of the two, though neither is cheap. A cabin shared by a group midweek or in the shoulder seasons can be fairly economical there, and sledding and hiking cost little.

Mammoth Lakes is priced like a major ski resort. Its lift tickets are among the most expensive anywhere, and in winter lodging, equipment hire and even groceries carry resort prices. Summer and the spring and autumn shoulder months bring costs down, and a self-catering condominium helps.

You would not plan a trip around performances in either town, but Mammoth Lakes has a little more on. A resident community theatre runs regular seasons, and summer brings jazz, chamber music and outdoor concerts with the mountains as a backdrop. Big Bear has a small community arts centre with local theatre and the occasional touring act, free concerts by the lake in summer, and Bavarian bands at its autumn Oktoberfest.

Big Bear Lake has no thermal springs, so a soak there means the private hot tub on your cabin deck among the pines, with a wood stove waiting indoors. A few day spas in town offer massage. The town is calmest midweek, because winter weekends bring crowds.

Mammoth Lakes is the better place to unwind. Its volcanic ground feeds natural pools in open country, with no facilities, just a dirt road in and a mountain view, so a soak there feels much wilder than any cabin tub. Back in town, the large lodges have spas and massage for legs tired from skiing or hiking.