Carmel-by-the-Sea or Santa Monica?

These are two very different beaches. Carmel Beach is a beautiful curve of white sand under the cypresses, and it's best for sunset walks and dogs. The sea stays cold all year and the surf is strong. Monastery Beach and the river beach to the south are dangerous for swimming, so most visitors swim in a hotel pool.

Santa Monica is built around its beach. The sand is wide, there are lifeguard towers along its length, and Malibu's coves are close by. The Pacific is still cool, but it is noticeably warmer than at Carmel by late summer, so you can actually swim and not just look at the water.

Santa Monica offers more variety. The farmers market supplies kitchens that cook seasonal Californian food, Japanese and Italian, and Main Street, Montana Avenue and Venice add casual and more inventive places. The cheap immigrant cooking Los Angeles is known for is still a long drive east.

Carmel eats well for a village, with Dungeness crab, sand dabs, Castroville artichokes and local Pinot Noir in its tasting rooms. But nearly everything is refined, European-leaning and expensive, and it's served early. For anything casual or cheap you drive into Monterey.

Neither town is a sightseeing destination, and the culture comes in different forms. Carmel's lies in its history and buildings: the 1771 mission where Junípero Serra is buried, the storybook cottages and the granite Tor House that Robinson Jeffers built by hand. It all fits into a morning or two.

Santa Monica has little history of its own beyond the pier and the end of Route 66. Its strength is that two serious museums are nearby: the Getty Center on its hilltop and the antiquities at the Getty Villa. Both are a short drive away.

There's not much to compare here. Carmel's evening ends with a tasting room before it closes and maybe a nightcap in a hotel lounge, and even Monterey's bars are modest. Santa Monica has a real choice of places to drink: rooftops near the Promenade, pubs on Main Street and a looser crowd in Venice. For clubs, though, you still take a long taxi ride to Hollywood.

Both are good outdoor bases, but Carmel's surroundings are the more remarkable. Point Lobos has granite headlands, sea otters and seals, and Bixby Bridge and the Big Sur redwoods are within an hour. Kayaking and kelp diving in Monterey Bay add time on the water.

Santa Monica's outdoors is more active and easier to reach. There are chaparral trails in Topanga and Temescal Canyon behind the town, the 35km beach path is good for cycling, and surf lessons are on hand. The scenery is fine, but it rarely matches the drama of the Big Sur coast.

Santa Monica has more range within reach. Santa Barbara's mission and wine country, Laguna Beach, the ferry to Catalina and the whole of Los Angeles, from the Huntington gardens to Hollywood, are all possible, though traffic decides how much you see.

Carmel's outings are gentler and closer to home. You can see Cannery Row and old Monterey, Pacific Grove's Victorian houses, Steinbeck country in Salinas and the boardwalk at Santa Cruz. San Francisco is too far to make an easy day.

Santa Monica is the easier place with children. It has a lifeguarded beach for digging and paddling, a Ferris wheel and roller coaster on the pier, playgrounds along the sand and a flat path for family bike rides. The main drawback is the long drive to the theme parks.

Carmel can work for school-age children who love wildlife. The Monterey Bay Aquarium can fill a whole day, and the tide pools at Point Lobos are a treat. But the sea is too rough for small children, the restaurants suit adults, and every outing involves the car.

Both towns are walkable at their core, but Santa Monica keeps going after that. Blue buses cover the town, the beach path suits bikes, and the E Line runs to downtown Los Angeles, although the Getty and Malibu still need a car or taxi.

In Carmel the walkable part is a single square mile on a steep hill, with dark, unlit lanes at night. Point Lobos, Big Sur, the wineries and the aquarium all need a car.

Santa Monica has more to offer a keen shopper. There are chains and flagships along the Third Street Promenade, upmarket boutiques on Montana Avenue, surf shops on Main Street and design-led stores on Abbot Kinney. Rodeo Drive is a slow drive away for luxury labels.

Carmel is mostly for browsing. Its many galleries of plein-air painting and its courtyard shops selling cashmere and jewellery are charming, but you can see them all in an afternoon.

Both towns are expensive, and the difference lies in where the money goes. In Carmel most of it goes on the village itself: a small number of inns priced as a retreat, and evenings of dinner and wine with nothing cheaper in town. On top of that comes a hire car, because the buses are too thin to reach Point Lobos, Big Sur or the aquarium. Once you are there, the beach and the coast walks cost nothing.

Santa Monica costs about as much, but it gives you more ways to cut the bill. The buses and light rail are cheap, so a stay built around the beach, the pier and the bike path can do without a hire car and the parking that goes with it. There are also far more rooms than in a village, and staying a little inland on the Westside brings the price down. Eating out is still dear once tax and tip are added.

The two are close here, and both are at their best in summer, but in different ways. Carmel's highlights are festivals: Baroque concerts of the Bach Festival, which dates from 1935, plays among the pines at the Forest Theater, and the Monterey Jazz Festival each September. Out of season there is little on.

Santa Monica has a steadier year-round scene, with dance and chamber music at the Broad Stage, folk music in small rooms and free summer concerts on the pier. The Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Hollywood Bowl are also in reach, though they mean a long drive.

Neither town has thermal springs or public baths, so relaxing in both means a spa and a slower pace. Carmel's version is quieter: misty mornings, a fireside room and a spa day at a lodge in Pebble Beach or Carmel Valley, which suits couples.

Santa Monica's version is more active. There is yoga on the sand, morning runs along the ocean, juice bars and sunset over the bay, which suits people who unwind by keeping moving.