Carmel-by-the-Sea or Newport Beach?

Both towns face the cold Pacific, but only one treats the beach as the point of a stay. Carmel Beach is a lovely curve of white sand for walks at sunrise and sunset. Its water stays cold all summer, the surf is strong, and the beaches south of town are too dangerous to enter.

Newport has about ten kilometres of sand along the Balboa Peninsula, calmer coves at Corona del Mar and harbour strips where small children can paddle. In late summer its water is several degrees warmer than Carmel's, warm enough for boogie boards and a brisk swim, and volleyball nets and the boardwalk fill the days.

The two towns eat about equally well, in different styles. Carmel means intimate French and Italian rooms in cottages, Dungeness crab and sand dabs from Monterey Bay, and Pinot Noir from the local tasting rooms. Dinner is refined and early, and there is little that is casual.

Newport is more relaxed: fish tacos and burgers by the sand, brunch in Corona del Mar and seafood with harbour views. Little Saigon's Vietnamese cooking, twenty minutes inland, gives it the range Carmel lacks.

Carmel has more to see, though neither town is really a sightseeing destination. The Carmel Mission, with Junípero Serra's grave and its stone basilica, is a genuine landmark. The 1920s storybook cottages and Robinson Jeffers' granite Tor House give a morning's walk real character.

Newport's sights are fewer and take less time: the Balboa Pavilion of 1905, Schindler's Lovell Beach House for architecture fans, and an hour in Sherman Library & Gardens. For a proper art museum you go to Costa Mesa.

Neither town is the place for a big night out, but Newport at least offers an evening. On summer weekends the beach bars and dive bars by the Newport and Balboa piers fill with a young local crowd, and the wine bars and lounges around the harbour suit anyone who wants it calmer.

Carmel offers a glass in a wine bar before it closes, a long dinner and quiet streets by ten. Evenings there suit couples rather than groups who want to drink.

Nature is where Carmel pulls clearly ahead. Point Lobos, five minutes south, has granite headlands, wind-shaped cypress and sea otters in the coves. Beyond it lie the Big Sur coast, Bixby Bridge and the redwoods of Pfeiffer Big Sur, and there are oak-covered hikes in Carmel Valley inland.

Newport's outdoors is gentler and closer to the suburbs: the cycling loop and winter birdlife of Upper Newport Bay, the bluff and canyon trails at Crystal Cove, and paddling in the harbour. Both towns have whale-watching boats, but for real mountains Newport needs an hour's drive to the Santa Ana range.

Newport has the wider choice of day trips. Laguna Beach and Mission San Juan Capistrano are within half an hour, and the Balboa ferry reaches Catalina Island in a little over an hour. Los Angeles and San Diego both work as a day out if you accept the freeway traffic.

From Carmel the outings are quieter and closer: Cannery Row and the old adobes of Monterey, Victorian Pacific Grove, the Carmel Valley wineries and Steinbeck country around Salinas. San Francisco is far enough away to make a long day.

Newport is the easier choice with children. The shallow harbour beaches, the ferris wheel and arcades of the Balboa Fun Zone, the island car ferry and Disneyland about half an hour inland give a family plenty to do, in a town used to young visitors.

Carmel works best for school-age children who like animals. The Monterey Bay Aquarium is fifteen minutes away and the tide pools at Point Lobos are memorable. The cold, rough water rules out paddling, though, and the village restaurants are made for quiet adults.

You need a car in both, but Carmel's village is much better on foot. Its square-mile grid takes you from the shops on Ocean Avenue down to the beach, with a steep climb on the way back, and the unlit lanes make an evening walk feel like the countryside.

Newport sprawls along the coast and up the hills, so walking only works on the flat Balboa Peninsula and on Balboa Island, which the little ferry links. Everything else, the theme parks included, means the freeway.

Newport is the place for serious shopping. An open-air centre above the harbour has department stores and designer names, and one of the country's largest luxury malls is ten minutes away in Costa Mesa. Corona del Mar's boutiques and the surf shops on the peninsula cover smaller purchases.

Carmel is a place for browsing. It has an unusual number of galleries showing plein-air painting and photography, and boutiques selling cashmere and jewellery hide in its courtyards. There is no department store, and an afternoon covers it.

Expect to pay a lot in either town, and the gap between them is small. Carmel's boutique inns and cottages charge luxury rates even outside summer, the lodges of Pebble Beach and Carmel Valley cost more still, and there is almost no cheap food to balance an expensive dinner. Its best things are free, though: the beach, the village lanes and the coast walks.

Newport's harbour and beachfront hotels charge resort rates, and car hire, fuel and parking add to the bill. Its casual taco and burger places make everyday meals a little easier to manage. To spend less, Carmel visitors usually stay in Monterey or Seaside, a short drive up the coast, while Newport visitors sleep inland in Costa Mesa or Irvine.

Newport has more to see all year, thanks to its neighbour. Ten minutes away in Costa Mesa, the Segerstrom Center stages touring Broadway shows and ballet and is home to the Pacific Symphony, and South Coast Repertory next door stages new American plays.

Carmel's arts are seasonal but have real character. The Carmel Bach Festival brings Baroque concerts every summer, the open-air Forest Theater puts on plays among the pines, and the Monterey Jazz Festival comes each September. Outside summer there is much less on.

Neither town has thermal springs or bathhouses, so relaxing in either means a resort spa and a slow pace. Carmel's misty mornings, fireside inns and still evenings make it the slightly better place to unwind, with well-regarded spas at Pebble Beach and in Carmel Valley.

Newport has more day spas and yoga studios around Corona del Mar. On summer weekends, though, the peninsula fills with crowds, so how calm a stay feels depends on when you go.