Huntington Beach or Moab?

The gap here is total. Huntington Beach runs along about 14km of wide sand, with fire rings, a beachfront path and surfers in the water from dawn. The Pacific stays cool for most of the year and rip currents are common, so swimming means staying near the lifeguard towers.

Moab has no beach at all. In the summer heat people cool off in Mill Creek's shallow pools, at Ken's Lake or on the Colorado's sandbars, but the river is silty and cold and needs care. For most visitors, swimming means the pool back at the motel.

Neither town is a food destination, but Huntington Beach gives you more to work with. In town there are fish tacos by the pier and seafood with an ocean view. A short drive inland, Little Saigon's pho houses and banh mi bakeries are worth an evening of their own.

In Moab, eating is mainly about refuelling: big portions of burgers, pizza and tacos on Main Street, plus a few more ambitious Southwestern dinners. Utah's alcohol rules make a drink with your meal more formal than you might expect, and you may queue for a table in spring and autumn.

Neither place offers much in the way of museums or old architecture, but their heritage is very different. Huntington Beach tells a modern sporting story through its pier, the International Surfing Museum and the Surfers' Hall of Fame handprints on Main Street.

Moab's history is far older and lies out in the landscape. Ancestral Puebloan and Fremont petroglyphs line the cliffs along Potash Road and Kane Creek, and there are dinosaur trackways nearby. The small Museum of Moab is enough for a morning.

Huntington Beach has a real, if limited, night out. On Friday and Saturday, Main Street's sports bars, rooftop decks and a few dance spots fill with a young local crowd, and summer weekends can get loud.

Moab has no clubs, only a couple of brewpubs where bikers and rafters swap stories, and most of the town is asleep by eleven. The evening activity worth staying up for is the very dark, star-filled desert sky.

Moab is in another league. Arches National Park starts at the edge of town, and the canyon mazes of Island in the Sky and Dead Horse Point are under an hour away. Add the Slickrock Trail, the Whole Enchilada descent from the La Sal Mountains, rafting, canyoneering and climbing, and you could fill weeks.

Huntington Beach's outdoor life is about the ocean: consistent surf, paddling in the harbour channels and excellent birding at the Bolsa Chica wetland. For hills you have to drive about half an hour to the canyon trails at Crystal Cove.

Huntington Beach is a far better base for day trips to other places. Los Angeles is about an hour away and Laguna Beach and Mission San Juan Capistrano are closer. A ferry crossing to Catalina Island makes a full day out, and San Diego is within reach.

Around Moab, the rewarding outings are into the landscape rather than to other towns. Bluff's old stone houses, the Edge of the Cedars ruins in Blanding and the towers of Hovenweep are interesting, but each one means a long drive through empty country.

Huntington Beach is the stronger family base. Disneyland, California Adventure and Knott's Berry Farm are close, and so is the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. Back in town there is sand to dig in and lakes and playgrounds in Central Park. The waves are better suited to boogie boards than to toddlers.

Moab works for active school-age children who love scrambling on rocks. There are short walks to Sand Dune Arch, dinosaur tracks, gentle raft floats and Junior Ranger programmes. However, there are no attractions built for children, and summer heat and long unfenced drops make it hard going with very young ones.

You will want a car in both places, though Huntington Beach gives you a little more choice. Its downtown and pier can be walked, a bike along the flat beach path is the nicest way to travel the coast, and slow local buses and ride-hailing fill some gaps. Getting to the theme parks or Los Angeles still means busy freeways.

In Moab you can walk Main Street and cycle a paved path to the Arches entrance, and that is about it. The parks are spread across long desert roads, and many trailheads are at the end of dirt tracks. A high-clearance vehicle opens up much more, and visitors without one rely on outfitters' shuttles and tours.

Huntington Beach is much better for shopping. Main Street is lined with surf shops, board makers and swimwear, and a locally made surfboard is the souvenir that fits the town. About twenty minutes away in Costa Mesa is one of the country's largest luxury malls.

In Moab, shopping means gear and keepsakes: good bike, climbing and camping shops, rock shops selling geodes and fossils, and galleries with Navajo jewellery and weavings. There is nothing in the way of fashion or department stores.

Both are expensive, but you save money in different ways. In Huntington Beach the costs come from beachfront hotels, sit-down meals and the car and parking you can hardly avoid. Motels on the inland boulevards and the Vietnamese and Mexican places around the county bring them down.

Moab charges resort rates for simple rooms because there are few of them, and rafting or jeep tours add up quickly. On the other hand, one park entry covers a week, the best hikes are free, campgrounds and dispersed camping cost very little, and winter is much cheaper.

Huntington Beach has little on stage itself, but the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in nearby Costa Mesa brings the Pacific Symphony, ballet, opera and touring Broadway shows within easy reach. South Coast Repertory runs a respected theatre season there too.

Moab's stage life comes down to one event, the Moab Music Festival. At the end of summer it holds chamber concerts, some in canyon grottoes reached by boat. For the rest of the year, there is little more than a brewpub band at the weekend.

Huntington Beach is the easier place to slow down. There are resort spas along the coast highway, and the day can end with yoga on the sand or an evening around a beach fire.

Moab is built for early starts and long, hot days, and its few massage studios mostly treat sore cyclists. Its calm comes from quiet desert evenings and cliffs glowing red at sunset. Those who want real rest usually stay at a remote ranch or a cabin in the La Sal Mountains.