Durango, Colorado or Newport Beach?

These two are not really comparable as beach places. Durango is high in the Rockies, so swimming means a cold dip at Lake Nighthorse, a small sandy edge at Vallecito or a tube floating down the Animas on a hot afternoon. It is something extra, not a reason to go.

Newport Beach is built around its ten kilometres of sand. Experienced surfers have the Wedge and the pier breaks, families have the sheltered harbour strips, and Crystal Cove has tide pools. The Pacific stays cool for much of the year, so think volleyball, boogie boards and wetsuits rather than tropical floating.

Newport eats better, though neither town is somewhere to plan a trip around food. Its strengths are waterfront seafood around the harbour and Lido, brunch in Corona del Mar and fish tacos on the peninsula. Neighbouring Costa Mesa and Little Saigon in Westminster add a range of cooking Durango cannot match.

Durango keeps to Southwestern green chile, steaks and Colorado lamb and trout. Its real strength is beer: the town has an unusual number of craft breweries for its size, which Newport's polished dining rooms do not try to compete with.

Durango has a bit more to see, and it hangs together around one story: the railway that founded the town in 1880. That means the steam depot, the roundhouse museum and a downtown of Victorian brick and sandstone. The college collection of Native American material adds some depth.

Newport's sights fit in an afternoon: the Balboa Pavilion, the little island ferry, Schindler's Lovell Beach House for modernism fans and the Sherman gardens. The serious art museum is next door in Costa Mesa.

Neither is a party town, but Newport has more going on after dark. In summer the pier bars fill with a young crowd, and around the harbour there are wine bars and hotel lounges for a dressier evening. Costa Mesa and Los Angeles are within reach for anything bigger.

Durango's evenings mean a brewery taproom, a patio on Main Avenue or a piano in an old Victorian saloon. With early trail starts the next day, most of the town goes quiet well before midnight.

Durango is the stronger outdoor base by a wide margin. It sits under the San Juan Mountains, with mountain-bike singletrack from the edge of town, the Colorado Trail, the Weminuche Wilderness peaks above 4,000m, whitewater on the Animas and a ski resort half an hour north. The scenery changes completely with the seasons.

Newport's nature is coastal and gentler. There is birdlife in the Upper Newport Bay estuary, bluff and canyon trails at Crystal Cove, kayaking in the harbour and whale-watching boats all year. For real mountains it is an hour's drive inland.

Both make good bases for driving out, and Newport has slightly more choice. Laguna Beach, the mission at San Juan Capistrano, the ferry to Catalina, Los Angeles and San Diego are all within reach, although freeway traffic can stretch any of them.

Durango's trips are fewer but hard to match: Mesa Verde's cliff dwellings, the narrow-gauge steam line up the canyon to Silverton, Ouray under its cliffs and the Puebloan ruins at Aztec. Expect long mountain drives rather than traffic jams.

Newport is the easier choice with children. It has shallow harbour beaches, the ferris wheel and arcades of the Balboa Fun Zone, the island car ferry and tide pools, and Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm are about half an hour inland.

Durango suits outdoorsy families. The steam train, gentle tubing, the summer alpine coaster and Mesa Verde's ladders all go down well with children. But there is nothing big to fall back on when it rains, and the altitude of about 2,000m can tire young children for the first day or two.

Both towns really need a car, but Durango is a little easier without one. Its flat historic core runs from the depot up Main Avenue in a quarter of an hour, a riverside trail links the neighbourhoods, and a trolley covers the main corridor. You still need wheels for trailheads and Mesa Verde.

Newport spreads along the coast and up into the hills, and its buses are slow. Only the Balboa Peninsula boardwalk and Balboa Island work well on foot or by bike, and beach parking is hard to find on summer weekends.

Newport is far stronger for shopping, especially luxury. There is the open-air centre above the harbour, a huge designer mall ten minutes away in Costa Mesa, and smaller boutiques along Coast Highway in Corona del Mar.

Durango is an hour on Main Avenue: outdoor gear, Western boots, and Navajo and Pueblo silver, turquoise and rugs. That handcrafted Southwestern side is exactly what Newport lacks, but there is little else.

Durango is the gentler on the wallet, although it is still a US mountain resort with scarce rooms at peak times and full restaurant prices. Its best things, the trails, the river and the views, cost nothing, and spring and late autumn are cheaper.

Newport is expensive even for California. Hotels charge resort prices, restaurants charge for the view, and parking adds up. Staying inland in Costa Mesa or Irvine helps, but only a little.

Newport has the better evenings out, thanks to its neighbour. The Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa stages touring Broadway shows, ballet and the Pacific Symphony, and South Coast Repertory premieres new American plays.

Durango's stage life is mostly a summer affair: the chamber and orchestral festival, a boo-the-villain Victorian melodrama and cowboy music with a chuckwagon supper. It has charm, but outside summer there is little on.

Durango has the edge because of its hot springs. The mineral pools a few minutes north of town are the ideal soak after a ride or a day of skiing, and Pagosa Springs and Ouray add more spring-fed pools within driving distance.

Newport has no thermal water. It relaxes you instead with bluff walks, harbour sunsets, yoga studios and the full spas of its hillside resorts. That suits people who prefer a polished treatment room to an outdoor mineral pool.