Durango, Colorado or Los Angeles?

Durango has no beach to speak of. There is a small swimming area at Lake Nighthorse, a few sandy edges at Vallecito Lake and inner tubes on a chilly Animas in July, all good for a cool dip in a mountain summer.

Los Angeles has more than 100km of coast, from the coves of Malibu to the volleyball nets and surf breaks of the South Bay. The Pacific is cool, so many visitors wade or surf in a wetsuit, but as a place to spend a day on the sand it is in a different category.

Durango eats well for a small Western town. It has green-chile plates, Colorado lamb and trout, and an unusual number of breweries where cyclists and rafters end the day. Beyond that the range is narrow.

Los Angeles is a city people travel to just to eat. There is charcoal barbecue in Koreatown, tacos across the Eastside and South LA, regional Chinese cooking in the San Gabriel Valley, plus Thai Town and Little Ethiopia, with a serious chef-driven scene on top. You will drive between them, but the depth is of another order.

Durango's sights are its railway, meaning the steam depot and roundhouse museum, and a few blocks of Victorian brick and sandstone from the mining boom. A morning covers them, and the ancestral Puebloan sites that hold its deeper history lie out of town.

Los Angeles has a full art circuit: the Getty Center and Getty Villa, LACMA, the Broad and the library and gardens of the Huntington. On top of that come Hollywood's studio lots and the Walt Disney Concert Hall. It lacks an old town and the museums are far apart, but it gives you days of sightseeing rather than hours.

A Durango evening means a brewery taproom or a Victorian saloon with a piano, and the town is quiet well before midnight. Los Angeles has real choice: guest-list clubs in Hollywood, the gay strip on Santa Monica Boulevard, rooftop bars downtown and the dive bars of Echo Park. Bars close at 2am and a night usually stays in one district, but this is a city for going out.

Both have mountains close at hand, but in Durango you are already in them. The San Juans rise straight above town and the Weminuche has peaks over 4,000m. Bike singletrack starts at the end of the streets, rafts run the river through the centre, and there is a ski resort half an hour away.

For a city its size, Los Angeles does remarkably well. It has Griffith Park, the Santa Monica Mountains above Malibu and the San Gabriels behind the basin, plus surfing, whale watching and boats to the Channel Islands. The ocean is the one thing Durango cannot match, but traffic stands between you and most trailheads.

Durango's days out lead into ancient history and old mining country. Mesa Verde's park entrance is about an hour west, with another hour of mesa-top driving to the cliff dwellings. The narrow-gauge steam train climbs the Animas canyon to Silverton, and the Puebloan ruins at Aztec are under an hour south. Ouray's cliffs and the hot pools of Pagosa Springs are within reach too, but almost all of it needs a car.

Los Angeles looks along the coast and into wine country instead. Santa Barbara has its mission and red-tile streets, Catalina is about an hour away by ferry, and Laguna Beach, Ojai and the Temecula vineyards are all possible in a day. The history is thinner than at Mesa Verde, and leaving late can turn a two-hour drive into three.

What Durango offers children depends on the season. Summer brings gentle rafting on the Animas and the coaster and ziplines at the ski area, while winter brings beginner slopes. Mesa Verde's ladders turn a history lesson into a climb. Days in town are slow, with riverside parks and paths close to wherever you stay, and the long drives come only with the big outings.

Los Angeles works in any month and gives children far more to choose from. Beyond the big studio and theme parks there are the roller coasters of Knott's Berry Farm and Magic Mountain, the fossil pits at La Brea, the zoo and the small fun fair on Santa Monica Pier. Here, though, the drive comes every day, so families do best keeping each day to one part of the basin.

Neither works well without a car, but Durango is simpler. Its centre is small and flat, with a quarter-hour walk from the depot to the top of Main Avenue, and a river trail links the parks for walkers and cyclists. You need wheels only once you head out of town.

In Los Angeles you need a car or ride-hailing to get between almost anything. The Metro reaches Hollywood, Santa Monica, Pasadena and Long Beach, and Venice or Old Pasadena are pleasant on foot, but freeway traffic shapes every day.

Durango's shopping is an hour on Main Avenue: outdoor gear, Western boots, and Navajo and Pueblo turquoise and silver that are worth a look. Los Angeles is a serious shopping city, with the luxury houses of Rodeo Drive, the streetwear and vintage of Melrose, the independent shops of Abbot Kinney and the Rose Bowl flea market. You just need a car to cover more than one area in a day.

Neither is cheap, but Durango is the lighter bill. Rooms are tight in summer and at the peak of ski season, and restaurants charge full American prices. The trails, the river and the views cost nothing, though, and spring and late autumn are noticeably cheaper.

Los Angeles costs more at almost every turn: hotels near the coast, a hire car and parking, rides across long distances and theme park tickets. The taco trucks and the Koreatown and San Gabriel Valley kitchens are its best way to eat well for little.

Durango's stage life mostly happens in summer. There is a chamber and orchestral festival, a Victorian melodrama where the audience boos the villain, and cowboy music with a chuckwagon supper. Out of season, there is little on most nights.

Los Angeles has the LA Philharmonic at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and in summer at the Hollywood Bowl, along with LA Opera and Broadway tours. Below that sit rock rooms on the Sunset Strip, band clubs in Silver Lake, improv comedy and jazz in Leimert Park, all year round.

In both places the best way to unwind involves hot water, but of different kinds. Durango has natural mineral pools a few minutes up the valley, with Pagosa Springs and Ouray within reach, and a calm town to return to after a soak.

Los Angeles has the Korean bathhouses of Koreatown, with steam rooms, scrubs and heated floors open late, plus yoga studios and Beverly Hills spas. The city around them is not restful, though, so Durango is the easier place to really slow down.