Huntington Beach or Las Vegas?

On the beach there is no real contest. Huntington Beach has around 14km of wide sand with surf, volleyball and evening fire rings. The Pacific stays cool outside late summer, though, and rip currents keep swimmers close to the lifeguard towers.

Las Vegas has no sea at all. Swimming means a resort pool, some with wave machines and lazy rivers, or the gravel shore of Lake Mead. The lake is warmer than the Pacific in summer but sits in a bare, shadeless basin.

Las Vegas has better food and far more choice. The Strip gathers outposts of famous chefs, classic steakhouses and tasting menus, and the Chinatown along Spring Mountain Road runs for kilometres of Sichuan, Korean, Japanese and Thai kitchens, many open late.

Huntington Beach is casual by comparison: fish tacos, surfers' breakfasts and brewpubs near the pier, with fine dining pushed out to Newport or Costa Mesa. Its strongest card is Little Saigon next door, worth a special trip for pho and banh mi.

Neither city is a destination for heritage, but Las Vegas gives a sightseer more to do. There is the Neon Museum's yard of retired casino signs, the Mob Museum in the old federal courthouse, and the Strip itself as an evening's spectacle of replica canals and fountains. In Huntington Beach the sights come down to the pier, the International Surfing Museum and the Hall of Fame handprints, which make a pleasant hour of surf history before you head to Los Angeles for museums.

Las Vegas is built around the night, and Huntington Beach does not compete. The Strip runs around the clock, with DJ residencies, dayclub pool parties and casino bars that never close, and Fremont Street and the arts district add cheaper dive bars and cocktail lounges.

In Huntington Beach, going out means a few blocks of Main Street: sports bars, rooftop decks and a handful of dance spots. They are loud with a young local crowd on summer weekends, quiet midweek and closed at 2am.

Las Vegas has the more dramatic outdoors. Red Rock Canyon's sandstone cliffs and climbing are half an hour away, Valley of Fire has flame-coloured rock and petroglyphs, and Mount Charleston's pine forest climbs above 3,600m. The catch is that summer heat rules out desert hiking except at dawn.

In Huntington Beach the outdoors means the ocean: surf breaks, paddling in the harbour channels and a long path for cycling, plus the herons and terns of the Bolsa Chica wetland. For hills you have to drive half an hour to Crystal Cove or the Laguna coast, because the town itself is flat suburb.

Huntington Beach sits in the middle of Southern California, so there are plenty of outings to choose from. Los Angeles is about an hour away, Laguna Beach and Mission San Juan Capistrano are to the south, and ferries cross to Catalina. San Diego or the Temecula wine country make a longer day.

Las Vegas is cut off by desert. Hoover Dam and Boulder City make one good half day. Beyond those, the Grand Canyon, Zion and Death Valley are long journeys to see landscapes rather than towns to wander.

Huntington Beach is by far the easier base for families. Disneyland and California Adventure are about half an hour inland and Knott's Berry Farm is closer. Between theme-park days there are wide beaches, pelicans at Bolsa Chica and the lakes of Huntington Central Park. The waves suit boogie boards more than toddlers, though, and every outing needs a car.

Las Vegas can fill a day or two with the indoor amusement park, the shark aquarium and the Discovery Children's Museum. But children have to pass through casino floors to reach almost anywhere, and the summer heat makes the Strip hard going with little ones.

In Huntington Beach you can only walk around Main Street and the pier, though a rented bike on the flat beach path is the nicest way to travel along the coast. Anything further away, such as Little Saigon, the theme parks, Laguna or Los Angeles, means driving on the freeway or using ride-hailing. Local buses are slow and infrequent, and there is no rail in town.

Las Vegas is easier without a car, at least along the Strip. A monorail runs behind its east side, buses run its whole length day and night and carry on to Fremont Street downtown, and taxis are easy to find. The resorts are so big that a hotel next door can take twenty minutes on foot, and Red Rock or Hoover Dam still need a hire car or a tour.

Las Vegas has more shopping, and it stays open late. The big fashion and jewellery houses fill the Roman-themed arcade at Caesars Palace and the Venetian's canal-side shops, the Fashion Show mall adds department stores, and two large outlet centres draw bargain hunters.

Huntington Beach has less to offer but more local character: surf shops, board makers and swimwear along Main Street, with a locally shaped surfboard as the obvious thing to take home. For luxury labels, South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa is about twenty minutes away. Neither city has markets worth seeking out.

Neither city is cheap, but Las Vegas gives you more room to save. Midweek hotel rooms can be inexpensive for their size, downtown costs less still and Chinatown meals are modest. Weekend rates, resort fees, shows and club entry quickly cancel out those savings.

Huntington Beach's beachfront hotels stay expensive, especially in summer, and you will almost certainly need to pay for a rental car and parking. Staying in a motel inland and eating at the county's Vietnamese and Mexican places are the main ways to cut costs. The beach itself is free.

Shows are a reason to visit Las Vegas in their own right. Permanent theatres stage water-based acrobatics, aerial spectacles, magicians and comedians, and pop, rock and country stars who rarely tour play long residencies. The Smith Center downtown adds touring Broadway shows and the Philharmonic.

Huntington Beach itself has cover bands, summer concerts in the park and a community theatre. Serious culture is a short drive away at the Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa, home to the Pacific Symphony and South Coast Repertory's respected theatre season. It offers more serious drama than the Strip, though far less spectacle.

For rest, the two cities come out about level, but they offer opposite kinds of it. Huntington Beach has no spa scene worth travelling for. What it offers is an easy coastal pace, so it suits someone who unwinds by doing very little, with mornings on the sand and evenings by a fire, and who has no need of a treatment menu.

Las Vegas is the reverse. Its resort spas are a real draw, with thermal suites and steam rooms far grander than anything on the Orange County coast, but the casinos around them never quiet down. A visitor who wants a pampered day between busier ones will be happier there. One who wants the whole trip to feel calm will find that easier beside the Pacific.