Durango, Colorado or Laguna Beach?

Laguna Beach wins this easily. The town is made up of beaches: Main Beach in the village, Crescent Bay and Shaw's Cove to the north, and Victoria Beach and the wide sand at Aliso to the south. The clear water over the reefs is good for snorkelling.

Durango has no beach at all. Its swimming means a cool dip at Lake Nighthorse or Vallecito, or tubing down the Animas, which stays chilly even in July. Laguna's Pacific is not warm either, so most swimmers there wait for late summer.

Neither town is a reason to travel for food, and they are about level. The difference is what you eat. Durango serves Western food: green-chile plates, steakhouses and Colorado lamb and trout, and its real strength is the large number of brewery taprooms.

Laguna eats by the sea, with fish tacos, poke and seafood with California wine in clifftop dining rooms where the sunset does much of the work. For more variety, Laguna has an advantage Durango lacks: the Vietnamese, Mexican and Korean restaurants of inland Orange County are a short drive away.

Each town covers its sights in a morning, and the heritage is quite different. Durango's is the railway and mining boom: steam locomotives at the old depot, the roundhouse museum, and Victorian brick and sandstone along the historic district. The college's collection of Southwestern and Native American material is also worth a look.

Laguna's story is its art colony. The Laguna Art Museum focuses on California painting, and galleries line Coast Highway. In both places the larger sights are outside town: the cliff dwellings near Durango and the Spanish mission at San Juan Capistrano near Laguna.

Both towns are quiet well before midnight and have nowhere to dance. Durango's evenings are taprooms, patio pints on Main Avenue and old saloons with a piano player, with students keeping a few bars busy at weekends. Laguna offers dive bars, wine bars and ocean-terrace hotel lounges. Laguna does have one way out that Durango lacks: a proper night out in Newport Beach, Costa Mesa or Los Angeles is a drive away.

These are very different kinds of landscape, and Durango's is the bigger and wilder one. The San Juan Mountains rise above town with singletrack, the Colorado Trail and Weminuche peaks over 4,000m. Rafters run the Animas through the centre, and winter brings deep snow at the ski resort to the north.

Laguna's outdoors is gentler and mostly by the sea. It has chaparral ridges for hiking and riding, and its coast is a marine protected area, good for tide pools, kayaking and shore diving. Dolphins are common and grey whales pass in winter, wildlife you will not see in the Rockies.

Both towns need a car for outings, and Laguna offers more choice. Mission San Juan Capistrano is twenty minutes away, the ferry to Catalina leaves from Dana Point, and San Diego, Los Angeles and the Temecula vineyards are each a drive of one to two hours.

Durango has fewer options, but Mesa Verde's cliff dwellings are a day out of real weight. The narrow-gauge train to Silverton, the ruins at Aztec and the hot-spring town of Pagosa Springs round out a strong but shorter list.

Laguna Beach is the easier choice with children. Lifeguarded beaches, tide pools full of crabs and anemones and the Main Beach playground fill the days, and Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm are about forty minutes away. The steep stairs down to many coves are the main nuisance.

Durango works for outdoor families. Children enjoy the steam train, gentle tubing and the summer alpine coaster, and the ladders at Mesa Verde. There is little to do on a wet day, though, and the altitude can tire young children at first.

In both towns you can walk the centre but need a car for everything else. Durango's centre is compact and flat, with a riverside trail and a trolley along the main corridor. The problem is distance, as trailheads, the ski area and Mesa Verde are spread along mountain highways.

In Laguna the problem is congestion. The free trolley along Coast Highway helps, but the town is long and hilly, summer parking fills early and the freeways to the airports and theme parks can be slow.

Laguna has more to offer shoppers. Its dozens of galleries sell plein air painting and glass, Forest Avenue has boutiques, and the summer art festivals sell crafts straight from the makers. The luxury malls of Newport Beach and Costa Mesa are about half an hour away.

Durango's shopping is an hour or two on Main Avenue. The Navajo and Pueblo turquoise jewellery and the outdoor gear are worth a look, but there is little else.

Durango is the cheaper of the two, though as a US mountain resort it is not cheap. Peak-season rooms, the steam train and guided rafting all add up, but spring and late autumn bring real savings.

Laguna is among the most expensive beach towns on the California coast. Clifftop resorts, simple motels, ocean-view meals and parking all cost a lot. In both places the best things are free, the trails in Durango and the beaches and tide pools in Laguna, and many budget travellers to Laguna stay inland and come for the day.

Laguna has more on stage. In summer, the Pageant of the Masters recreates famous artworks with live performers in a canyon amphitheatre. The Laguna Playhouse, one of the oldest theatres on the West Coast, puts on plays all year, and Costa Mesa's large arts centre is half an hour away.

Durango's offer is smaller and mostly in summer: a chamber and orchestral festival, a melodrama where the audience boos the villain, and cowboy music with a chuckwagon supper. Out of season, little is on.

Durango has the advantage of natural hot water. Spring-fed mineral pools are a few minutes north of town, with more at Pagosa Springs and Ouray, ideal after a ride or a day on the slopes.

Laguna has no thermal water. You relax there with clifftop walks, yoga studios, sunsets over the Pacific and full spas in the bluff-top resorts, which are expensive.