Flagstaff or Laguna Beach?

There is no real contest here. Flagstaff sits on a forested plateau far from the sea. In summer its swimmers drive down to Slide Rock and the creek pools of Oak Creek Canyon, where the water is cold and the rocks are slippery. Otherwise it's the hotel pool.

Laguna Beach is built along its shoreline, from Main Beach with its volleyball nets to Crescent Bay, Victoria Beach and the wide sand at Aliso. The water is clear enough for snorkelling over the reefs. The trade-offs are steep stairways down to many coves, rip currents that vary from beach to beach and crowds on summer weekends.

Neither town is a reason to travel for food, and they fall short in different ways. Flagstaff's strength is its cluster of craft breweries downtown and in the Southside, plus Navajo frybread and green chile among the diners and Mexican kitchens. Laguna eats from the sea, with fish tacos, poke and seafood in cliff-top dining rooms, but much of it is priced for the view. Both leave you wanting more range. From Laguna, the answer is a drive inland to Orange County's Vietnamese and Korean restaurants.

Flagstaff has the stronger short list. The Lowell Observatory, where Pluto was discovered, and the Museum of Northern Arizona's Hopi, Navajo and Zuni collections are worth seeing in their own right, and the Riordan Mansion and the railroad-era Route 66 downtown add to them.

Laguna's heritage is its past as a plein air art colony. The Laguna Art Museum and the galleries along Coast Highway fill a pleasant morning, but the bigger historic sights, such as the mission at San Juan Capistrano, are out of town.

Neither is a party town, but Flagstaff stays up a little later. University students fill the taprooms, cocktail bars and old Route 66 saloons on term-time weekends, all within a short walk of each other. Laguna's evenings come down to a drink after dinner in a beach bar or a hotel lounge with an ocean terrace, and the village is quiet well before midnight. For a proper night out you drive to Newport Beach or Costa Mesa.

Flagstaff's whole appeal is its outdoors. Humphreys Peak rises to 3,850m above the town, ponderosa forest stretches in every direction, and Sunset Crater's lava flows, the red rock of Sedona and the South Rim of the Grand Canyon are all within a day's easy reach. As the world's first International Dark Sky City, it is also exceptional at night.

Laguna's nature is gentler and mostly about the sea. The whole coast is a marine protected area, good for tide pooling, kayaking and shore diving over kelp, and grey whales pass offshore in winter. Behind the town, the chaparral hills of Laguna Coast Wilderness Park and Crystal Cove give good hiking, though they turn dry and brown by late summer.

Flagstaff's excursions are smaller and more scattered. The Sinagua ruins at Walnut Canyon and Wupatki are short drives from town. The cliff dwellings at Montezuma Castle and the galleries of Sedona are both under an hour south. The hillside mining town of Jerome pairs well with the Tuzigoot pueblo in the Verde Valley. To the west, Williams on Route 66 is where the historic railway to the Grand Canyon sets off.

Only the Hopi mesas, about two hours east, are a real long haul, and none of these places can be reached without a car.\n\nLaguna has the wider and richer choice. Mission San Juan Capistrano is about twenty minutes inland, and a ferry crosses to Catalina and Avalon. San Diego and Los Angeles each make a full day out, if the traffic allows. Temecula's vineyards inland offer a change from the coast.

Laguna is the easier choice with children. Lifeguarded beaches, tide pools full of crabs and anemones and the free coastal trolley fill the days, and Disneyland is about forty minutes away. Families should expect steep beach stairs, scarce parking and expensive family rooms.

Flagstaff works well for curious kids, with telescope evenings at Lowell, dinosaurs at the museum, rope courses in summer and snow play in winter. The altitude tires small children at first, though, and the nights are cold even in summer.

In both places you will want a car. Each has a small walkable centre and little else. Flagstaff has a few extras: long-distance trains stop downtown, local buses serve the main roads, and the paved urban trails make cycling practical. In winter, though, snow can make the mountain roads hard going. Laguna has a free trolley along Coast Highway but no rail at all, and its real problem is parking, which fills early on summer weekends in a long, hilly town.

Laguna is the better place to browse. Dozens of galleries sell plein air paintings and glass, Forest Avenue has boutiques and beachwear, and the summer art festivals sell crafts straight from the makers. For luxury labels, the large malls in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa are half an hour away.

Flagstaff's shopping is mostly gear shops and souvenirs, with one real strength in Native American craft. Navajo rugs, Hopi kachina carvings and silver and turquoise jewellery from established dealers or the artists themselves are worth looking for.

Flagstaff is clearly the cheaper base, even if it isn't cheap by international standards. Chain motels on Route 66 and brewery meals keep daily costs moderate, but you still need to budget for a hire car, fuel and park entry fees, and rooms jump on summer weekends.

Laguna is one of the most expensive beach towns in California, with high room rates, costly ocean-view dining and paid parking everywhere. Its free beaches, trails and trolley help a little. Many visitors on a budget stay inland and come in for the day.

Laguna has the more distinctive stage. Its highlight is the Pageant of the Masters, where performers recreate famous artworks as live tableaux on summer evenings in a canyon amphitheatre. The Laguna Playhouse runs all year, and Costa Mesa's large arts centre for opera and Broadway tours is half an hour away.

Flagstaff's calendar is modest and local: the Flagstaff Symphony and university concerts, touring folk and indie acts at the restored Orpheum, and outdoor music in the pines in summer.

For a restful stay, Laguna's edge is its bluff-top resorts, where full spas look out over the ocean. Flagstaff's calm comes from its setting rather than its treatments: cool pine-scented evenings and unusually bright stars, though the altitude can disturb sleep for the first night or two. Anyone who wants a proper spa drives about an hour down to Sedona.

In Laguna, yoga and meditation studios and day spas in the village add to the resorts, and the unhurried mornings and long sunsets over the water do the rest. There are no thermal springs or bathhouses, though, and most of the pampering comes at resort prices.