Huntington Beach or Palm Desert?

Huntington Beach has a real beach and Palm Desert has none. The coast town runs along about 14km of flat sand with volleyball nets, fire rings and a beachfront path. The catch is the Pacific itself: the water is cool for most of the year, rip currents are common, and swimming means staying near the lifeguard towers.

In Palm Desert, water means the swimming pool, which is often heated in winter, and lounging beside it is part of the routine. Anyone who wants surf faces a two-hour drive over the mountains to the coast, Huntington Beach included. The Salton Sea is no substitute.

Huntington Beach eats better, mostly thanks to its neighbours. In town the food is casual: fish tacos near the pier, surfers' breakfasts and brewpubs with sea views. A short drive inland, though, Little Saigon's pho houses and banh mi bakeries are worth a meal of their own.

Palm Desert's restaurants on El Paseo and in the resorts are polished but similar to one another, and best enjoyed as a long dinner on a warm patio. Its most local flavours are at the eastern end of the valley, in the taquerias of Indio and the date shakes from the groves.

Neither town is a sightseeing destination, but Palm Desert has slightly more to look at. Its branch of the Palm Springs Art Museum has an outdoor sculpture garden, there are galleries along El Paseo, and Palm Springs, twenty minutes away, adds mid-century modern houses and the main museum.

In Huntington Beach, culture means surf culture: the pier, the International Surfing Museum and the handprints of the Surfers' Hall of Fame. All of it fits into a short walk. For more serious heritage, you need to head to Los Angeles.

Huntington Beach has a real, if small, 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 get loud. Weeknights are much quieter.

Palm Desert winds down early. Its wine bars and patio happy hours suit golfers and retirees, and they close early. Anyone wanting a late night drives to the valley's tribal casinos or to downtown Palm Springs and its well-known gay scene.

Huntington Beach's outdoor life is in the water: surfing, paddling in the harbour channels and birdwatching at the Bolsa Chica wetland. Inland, though, it is flat suburb, and the nearest hills are half an hour away.

Palm Desert has the more dramatic landscape. The Santa Rosa Mountains rise right at the edge of town, the Indian Canyons hide palm oases, the Palm Springs tramway climbs into pine forest, and Joshua Tree's boulders and night skies are an hour away. All of this is for October to May, because summer heat closes the trails by mid-morning.

Huntington Beach makes the better base for exploring Southern California. Los Angeles is about an hour away, Laguna and the San Juan Capistrano mission are close, and ferries from nearby harbours go out to Catalina Island. San Diego is near enough for a long day.

Palm Desert's outings have more desert character but fewer big names: Palm Springs, the cool mountain village of Idyllwild, the old Western set at Pioneertown and the painted hillside of Salvation Mountain. Los Angeles and the coast are really too far for a day out from here.

Huntington Beach is clearly the better place for children. Disneyland, California Adventure and Knott's Berry Farm are all within about half an hour, and the Long Beach aquarium makes an easy morning. At home base there is the sand, there are tide pools a short drive south, and restaurants are used to families. The waves are better for boogie boarding under a lifeguard's eye than for toddlers.

Palm Desert has one excellent draw, the Living Desert zoo, as well as the tramway and resort pools with slides. After that, the valley's golf-and-adults focus leaves little else for children, and summer middays are too hot for small ones.

Both towns need a car, and the difference lies in where you lose time. In Huntington Beach, the pier, Main Street and the flat beach path are easy to cover on foot or by bike, but trips to the theme parks or Los Angeles mean busy freeways, and beach parking fills on summer weekends.

Palm Desert is harder to explore without a car, since only a few blocks of El Paseo are made for walking. On the other hand, the wide boulevards rarely clog and parking is easy almost everywhere.

Palm Desert has the better shopping street in town. El Paseo is a palm-lined boulevard of fashion boutiques, jewellers and galleries, and browsing it is a social outing in itself. A large designer outlet centre half an hour away and the vintage furniture shops of Palm Springs add to the choice.

Huntington Beach is about surf shops, board makers and swimwear around the pier, and a locally made board is the souvenir worth having. For luxury fashion, you drive twenty minutes to South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa.

Both are pricey American resort towns, but Palm Desert offers more ways to spend less. In summer, when the heat empties the valley, resort rooms drop to a fraction of their winter rates, and chain hotels and rentals are reasonable all year. Golf and spa treatments are where the money goes.

Huntington Beach is at its most expensive in its best beach months, with high summer and weekend rates on the coast, plus parking. Motels on the inland boulevards and the Vietnamese and Mexican places nearby help keep costs down.

Palm Desert has a proper stage of its own. The McCallum Theatre puts on Broadway tours, ballet, orchestras and big-name singers through the winter, and casino concerts continue all year. Every spring the Coachella and Stagecoach festivals come to Indio, though only for a few weekends.

Huntington Beach itself offers cover bands, summer park concerts and community theatre. Its serious culture is a drive away at the Segerstrom Center and South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa.

Unwinding is what Palm Desert is built for. Resort spas, long afternoons by the pool and early nights set the pace, and in Desert Hot Springs, half an hour north, small spa hotels fill their pools straight from natural hot mineral springs.

Huntington Beach has no bathing tradition, and its spas are ordinary day spas and hotel treatment rooms. Its kind of relaxation is simpler: yoga on the sand, a slow walk along the pier at sunset and an evening around a beach fire.