Huntington Beach or Napa?

Huntington Beach is a beach town first. It has some 14km of broad sand, with surfers at dawn, volleyball nets and fire rings for the evening. The sea is cool for much of the year and the surf brings rip currents, so people swim near the lifeguard towers.

Napa has nothing comparable. The coast at Bodega Bay is more than an hour away and too cold and rough for a swim. In summer, swimming means a resort pool or a drive to Lake Berryessa in the eastern hills.

Napa is one of the country's great places to eat and drink. The valley floor makes Cabernet, Carneros makes Pinot Noir and sparkling wine, and the celebrated restaurants of Yountville and St Helena cook with produce from local farms. The Oxbow Public Market covers the casual end, though cheap eating beyond the taquerias is limited.

In Huntington Beach, meals are informal: fish tacos near the pier, surfer breakfasts and brewpubs with a sea view. Its best food is a short drive inland in Little Saigon, where the pho and banh mi are worth a trip of their own.

Neither town is a sightseeing destination, but Napa has a little more to look at. It has the 1880 opera house and the Victorian buildings along First Street, old stone wineries up the valley and contemporary art at di Rosa in Carneros.

Huntington Beach's sights are about surfing: the pier, the International Surfing Museum and the handprints of the Surfers' Hall of Fame, surrounded by largely postwar suburbs. For serious museums, you would go to Los Angeles from here, or to San Francisco from Napa.

Huntington Beach has the livelier evenings. Sports bars, rooftop beach bars and a few dance spots along Main Street draw a young and often loud crowd on summer weekends, until the 2am close.

Napa's nights are a long dinner and perhaps a glass of wine downtown, and the rest of the valley is asleep by late evening. From either town, a proper night out means driving to a big city: Los Angeles from one, San Francisco from the other.

The outdoors here come in two different kinds. Huntington Beach's are in the water: surfing either side of the pier, paddling in the harbour channels and birding at the Bolsa Chica wetland. Crystal Cove's canyon trails are half an hour south, but the town itself is surrounded by flat suburb.

Napa's outdoors are on land. Vineyards fill the valley floor between two mountain ranges, balloons rise at dawn and a paved trail suits cycling. There are redwoods in Bothe-Napa Valley State Park and a climb up Mount St Helena, both best started early before the summer heat.

Napa has the richer choice close at hand. The wine towns of Yountville, St Helena and Calistoga are a short drive apart, and Sonoma is about half an hour over the Carneros hills. San Francisco is around an hour away by car, or by ferry from Vallejo.

Huntington Beach is a good base too, but its outings mean longer freeway drives. Los Angeles is about an hour away, Laguna Beach and San Juan Capistrano lie to the south, and ferries run to Catalina Island. San Diego is the longest regular outing.

Huntington Beach is by far the easier choice with children. Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm are close inland and the Long Beach aquarium is a short outing. In town there is wide sand, playgrounds in Central Park and pelicans at Bolsa Chica, though the waves suit boogie boards more than toddlers.

Napa is built for adults. Tasting rooms bore children, and summer heat and long drives tire them out. The family options, a park in Vallejo and a geyser and petting farm near Calistoga, fill a day or two at most.

Both towns have a walkable centre and need a car for anything beyond it. In Huntington Beach that centre is Main Street and the pier, and in Napa it is the riverfront and the market hall.

What differs is where the car takes you. In Huntington Beach it means freeways to the theme parks and Los Angeles, while a bike is pleasant along the beach path. In Napa it means some 50km of wine roads, and because tasting and driving do not mix, many visitors hire a driver or join a tour.

Neither is a shopping destination, and what you take home differs. Huntington Beach sells surf: boards, swimwear and surf-brand clothing along Main Street, with the luxury houses of South Coast Plaza about twenty minutes away.

Napa sells wine, often shipped home by the case. It also has olive oil and kitchenware at the market hall, and gift and homeware shops along St Helena's main street.

Both are expensive, but Napa is harder on a budget. Its hotels are priced for luxury travel, the well-known estates charge heavily for tastings, and a driver for a wine day adds more.

Huntington Beach also costs a good deal in summer, with high beachfront rates and a rental car to budget for. But the beach is free, the motels inland are cheaper, and the Vietnamese and Mexican cooking nearby keeps meals modest.

The two are much alike here, and the real difference is where the stage is. Huntington Beach has almost nothing of its own beyond bar bands and summer concerts in the park. A short drive inland, though, Costa Mesa runs Orange County's main arts season: symphony nights, ballet, opera and big touring musicals at the Segerstrom Center, plus South Coast Repertory's plays. A night at the theatre from here means booking ahead and driving over.

Napa works the other way round, with a smaller programme that you can walk to. Downtown, the restored opera house and an Art Deco theatre close by put on comedy, singers and touring bands. The year is busiest when a classical festival plays among the wineries in summer and a large rock and pop festival comes to the fairgrounds in late spring. Outside those seasons there is little on, and an orchestra or opera means an evening in San Francisco.

Napa is the place to unwind properly. Calistoga has offered volcanic mud baths and mineral pools since the nineteenth century, the resorts in Carneros and the hills have large spas, and the whole day is built around a slow pace.

Huntington Beach has no bathing tradition, only resort spas and day spas in the shopping centres. Relaxing here is simpler: yoga on the sand, a sunset walk on the pier and an evening around a beach fire.