California or Zion?

California has a real beach coast, from Santa Monica through Huntington Beach and Laguna to Coronado and La Jolla. There you get wide sand, surf and piers, and a whole culture built around boards and volleyball. The cool Pacific is the drawback, so go in late summer and stay south of Santa Barbara.

Zion is landlocked. Its swimming means the red-sand shores of Sand Hollow reservoir near Hurricane in summer, or a hotel pool. The Virgin River is for wading only, because it runs cold and floods after storms.

This is one of the widest gaps between the two. California is a reason to travel for food in itself. It has Mexican cooking across Los Angeles, Koreatown barbecue and San Gabriel Valley Chinese food, and the Bay Area invented farm-to-table and serves crab and sourdough. Napa, Sonoma and Paso Robles add wine at the cellar door.

At Zion, food is fuel for the trail. Springdale's short main road has burgers, pizza and Southwestern plates. St. George relies on chains, and Utah's liquor rules keep drinking low-key. Many visitors simply buy groceries in Hurricane.

California's culture is young but deep in museums. The Getty, LACMA and the Huntington are in and around Los Angeles, and SFMOMA and the de Young are in San Francisco. Add landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge, Griffith Observatory and the Spanish missions at Santa Barbara and Carmel, and you have days of sightseeing, though the sights are spread out.

Zion fills only a few hours. It has the Human History Museum on the Paiute and Mormon settlers, some rock art, the 1930 tunnel with its galleries cut into the cliff, the ghost town of Grafton and the pioneer temple in St. George.

In California a night out is a real choice of scenes. Los Angeles has Hollywood clubs with guest lists, West Hollywood's LGBTQ+ bars and cocktail bars in Silver Lake. San Francisco has the Mission, North Beach and SoMa's dance floors. Expect last orders at 2am and taxi rides between districts.

Zion has almost no nightlife. Hikers are up before dawn, and Springdale goes quiet after dinner apart from a couple of brewpub patios. The evening's real attraction is a very dark, starry sky.

Both are among the finest landscapes in North America, but in different ways. California offers range. You get Yosemite's granite and waterfalls, the High Sierra and Tahoe, the Big Sur cliffs, the redwood groves, the Joshua Tree and Death Valley deserts, and whales and sea otters off Monterey. These places are hours apart, so you need a base for each.

Zion offers one concentrated kind of drama. Red and cream sandstone rises 600m above the Virgin River, with wading up The Narrows, the chained ridge of Angels Landing and slot-canyon canyoneering all close together. Bryce Canyon is about two hours away for more of the same country.

San Francisco is the strongest base for outings in either destination. Napa and Sonoma are about an hour away, with Sausalito and Berkeley closer still, and Monterey, Carmel and Santa Cruz make a full coastal day. Los Angeles has Santa Barbara and Palm Springs, though traffic stretches every drive.

From Zion, the good outings are mostly to other canyons. For towns and history there are only St. George's pioneer centre, Kanab's film-set heritage and the Pipe Spring ranch fort. Las Vegas is too far for a comfortable day.

Southern California is built for children. Disneyland, Universal Studios, Knott's Berry Farm and Legoland give a run of theme-park days. San Diego adds its zoo, the Safari Park, SeaWorld and the calm water of Mission Bay. Based in Orange County or San Diego, most of this is within an hour.

Zion works best for families who like being outdoors. The flat Pa'rus Trail, paddling at the end of the Riverside Walk and the ranger programmes keep children busy. But the famous cliff hikes are off-limits for small ones, there is little else built for children, and midsummer heat makes everything harder.

Zion is the easier of the two to move around. In the busy months free shuttles run from Springdale's hotels to the park and on to every trailhead in the main canyon, so you can leave the car parked. You do need to drive to Kolob Canyons, the east side and Bryce, but the distances are short.

California is a driving state, with long distances between sights and slow traffic around Los Angeles and the Bay Area. San Francisco, with its cable cars and BART, and central San Diego are the places where you can manage without a car.

Los Angeles alone offers far more shopping than anywhere in reach of Zion. Rodeo Drive has the luxury houses, Melrose and Silver Lake have vintage and streetwear, and Abbot Kinney in Venice has the beach-casual boutiques. San Francisco adds flagships around Union Square and independent shops in Hayes Valley.

In Springdale the shopping is gear and souvenirs. Outfitters rent dry suits for The Narrows, and a few galleries sell landscape photography and Native American jewellery and pottery. St. George adds standard malls.

Neither is cheap, but Zion costs less day to day. Springdale's lodges are expensive in season, yet park entry covers several days, the shuttles are free and hiking costs nothing. Staying in Hurricane or St. George, or coming in winter, cuts costs further.

California is one of the costlier trips in the Americas. You pay for hotels in San Francisco, Napa and the beach towns, meals with tax and tip, wine tastings, theme-park tickets, car hire and parking. Taco stands, motels and inland towns soften the bill a little.

California has a stage scene any evening of the year. The LA Philharmonic plays at Walt Disney Concert Hall and in summer at the Hollywood Bowl, rock plays on the Sunset Strip, and San Francisco has opera, ballet and jazz of real standing. Festivals run from Coachella in the spring desert to Monterey Jazz in the autumn.

Zion's performing arts are seasonal, but they are better than you might expect. Broadway musicals are staged under red cliffs at Tuacahn near Ivins, and the Utah Shakespeare Festival runs in Cedar City from summer into autumn. Outside those months there is little.

Calistoga, at the head of the Napa Valley, has offered mud baths and mineral water since the nineteenth century, and it sets the tone for California's restful side. Palm Springs has hot-spring resorts for dry winter sun, Ojai and Marin have retreats, and the wine valleys have gentle spas, all well away from the fast, car-bound cities.

Zion has no bathing culture. Its rest comes from a few red-rock spa resorts around Ivins, lodge pools in Springdale with canyon views, and quiet sunsets. The trails are crowded, so you find the calm mostly in the early mornings and evenings.