Huntington Beach or Los Angeles?

Huntington Beach has the better beach to stay on. It has around 14km of wide, flat sand right in town, with fire rings for evening bonfires, volleyball nets and surf on either side of the pier, and you can walk straight out of your hotel onto it.

Los Angeles has far more shoreline, from the Malibu coves at Zuma and El Matador to Venice and the South Bay. But it is spread along a long coast, and getting there from Hollywood or downtown means a drive. The water is the same cool Pacific in both places, with rip currents and grey early-summer mornings, so neither suits a warm-water swimming vacation.

Food alone is a reason to fly to Los Angeles. It has charcoal barbecue in Koreatown, regional Chinese cooking in the San Gabriel Valley and taco trucks across the Eastside, plus Thai Town, Little Ethiopia and a serious chef-driven scene. Grand Central Market makes an easy place to graze.

Huntington Beach eats casually: fish tacos by the pier, surfers' breakfasts, brewpubs on the coast highway and plenty of chains. Its best meals are a short drive inland in Little Saigon, where the pho and banh mi stand up to anything in the region.

Huntington Beach's sights take an hour or two: the long concrete pier, the International Surfing Museum and the Surfers' Hall of Fame handprints at the foot of Main Street. Apart from its surf history, the town is postwar suburb and old oil field, with little old architecture, so visitors staying there drive to Los Angeles for museums.

Los Angeles is far ahead. The Getty Center, on a hilltop in Brentwood, combines its collection with gardens and wide views, and the Getty Villa in Malibu is given over to Greek and Roman antiquities. LACMA is the large all-round museum, and the Broad and MOCA cover modern and contemporary art. Griffith Observatory, the Huntington's library and botanical gardens, Hollywood's old movie palaces and the Art Deco downtown add more. Neither place has an old city, and in Los Angeles the sights are a long drive apart.

In Huntington Beach, going out means one strip: Main Street, near the pier. Its sports bars and rooftop beach bars fill with a young local crowd at weekends and go quiet midweek. Los Angeles has whole districts with different moods: Hollywood clubs with guest lists, the gay strip on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, cocktail rooms in old downtown banks, and dive bars in Silver Lake and Echo Park.

Both stop serving at 2am. In Los Angeles, a night usually stays in one neighbourhood because the rest of the city is a ride away.

In Huntington Beach, the outdoors means the ocean and a flat shore. There are surf schools by the pier, paddling in the harbour channels and the herons and pelicans of the Bolsa Chica wetland. For hills, you drive half an hour to Crystal Cove or the Laguna coast.

Los Angeles has real mountains within reach. Griffith Park, Runyon Canyon and the Santa Monica Mountains give hikes inside the city, and the San Gabriels climb above 3,000m behind it. The coast adds surfing at Malibu, whale watching in winter and boats to the Channel Islands.

The two share much of the same Southern California list: Catalina, Laguna Beach and Mission San Juan Capistrano work from either. Huntington Beach is better placed for the south, with Laguna half an hour away and San Diego a little closer. Los Angeles itself is its biggest day out, about an hour north.

From Los Angeles, the best trips go north and inland: Santa Barbara's mission and red-tile streets, the Santa Ynez vineyards, Ojai and Palm Springs. From either base, traffic shapes the day more than distance does.

Both are excellent with children, and they share Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm and the Aquarium of the Pacific. Huntington Beach is the calmer base, closer to the Anaheim parks, with wide sand, Bolsa Chica's pelicans and the lakes of Central Park nearby. Its surf suits boogie boards better than toddlers.

Los Angeles adds Universal Studios, Six Flags Magic Mountain, the space shuttle at the California Science Center, the La Brea Tar Pits and the zoo. Every one of them means more time on the freeway.

Neither works well without a car. Huntington Beach is small enough to walk between the pier and Main Street, and its flat beach path makes a bike the nicest way along the shore. There is no rail, though, and the buses are infrequent.

Los Angeles has the Metro, which helps between downtown, Hollywood, Pasadena, Long Beach and Santa Monica. Its distances are far greater and its freeways often jammed, so each day is best planned around one neighbourhood.

Los Angeles is the shopping city. It has the luxury houses of Rodeo Drive, streetwear and vintage on Melrose, independent shops on Abbot Kinney, and the Rose Bowl flea market for serious vintage hunting.

Huntington Beach keeps to surf shops, board makers and swimwear around Main Street. That is good for a local board or surf-brand clothing but not much else. Its big asset is South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, twenty minutes away, which has the major fashion houses under one roof.

Both are expensive. Hotels near the sand cost a lot, every sit-down meal carries tax and a tip, and you will need to pay for a car or for rides.

Where you save money differs. In Huntington Beach, it means Vietnamese and Mexican places inland, cheaper motels on the boulevards and, above all, the free beach. Los Angeles has taco trucks, Koreatown and the San Gabriel Valley for eating well for little, and free sights such as Griffith Observatory and the Getty.

Los Angeles has a programme you can plan a trip around. The Philharmonic plays at Walt Disney Concert Hall, with summer picnics at the Hollywood Bowl, and LA Opera is at the Music Center. Beyond that there are rock rooms on the Sunset Strip, Hollywood's comedy clubs and jazz in Leimert Park.

Huntington Beach has cover bands on Main Street, summer concerts in the park and community theatre. For a serious evening, you drive to the Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa for the Pacific Symphony and touring Broadway, or to South Coast Repertory.

Los Angeles has a real draw in the Korean bathhouses of Koreatown, with hot and cold pools, scrubs and heated floors open late, plus the spas of Beverly Hills and yoga everywhere, though the city itself is not restful. Huntington Beach has no bathing tradition, only resort and day spas. Its slower pace makes up some of the difference: yoga on the sand, sunset on the pier and an evening by a beach fire.