Huntington Beach or Santa Monica?

These are two of the best town beaches in Southern California, and there is little to choose between them. The difference is in character. Huntington Beach is a surf town first, with about 14km of flat sand, bonfire rings and volleyball, and its late-summer water is a degree warmer. Steady waves and rip currents keep swimmers close to the lifeguard towers.

Santa Monica's wide pale sand is centred on its pier, where the water is often the least clean, so it pays to walk a little way off. Its real advantage lies up the coast. The Malibu beaches at Zuma, El Matador and Point Dume have the coves and cliffs that Huntington Beach visitors drive south to Laguna to find.

In Huntington Beach itself, eating out mostly means fish tacos by the pier, surfers' breakfasts and brewpubs with an ocean view, and there are a lot of chains. Its trump card is Little Saigon, a short drive inland, where pho and banh mi are as good as anywhere in the country.

Santa Monica eats better on its own doorstep. Its kitchens are shaped by the downtown farmers market, and it has seasonal Californian cooking, strong Italian and Japanese places and a more creative edge across the line in Venice. What it lacks is cheap immigrant food nearby, which is exactly what Huntington Beach has close at hand.

Neither town is a sightseeing destination, but Santa Monica gives you more to do. Huntington Beach has its surf heritage and little more: the pier, the International Surfing Museum and the handprints of the Surfers' Hall of Fame, set among postwar suburbs.

Santa Monica adds the end of Route 66 on its early twentieth-century pier, galleries at Bergamot Station and some fine Art Deco and Spanish Colonial Revival buildings. Above all it puts both Getty museums within a short drive, with European art at one and Roman antiquities at the other.

Nights out are on a similar scale, but the mood differs. Huntington Beach packs everything into one strip of Main Street, where young locals fill sports bars, rooftop decks and a few dance spots, and summer weekends get rowdy. For a bigger night, people drive to Long Beach.

Santa Monica is about drinks rather than dancing, with wine bars, hotel rooftops, British-style pubs and a looser crowd over in Venice. The town goes quiet early, and anyone after clubs faces a long taxi ride to Hollywood.

Santa Monica has the mountains right behind it. Topanga, Temescal Canyon and Will Rogers park lead through chaparral and oak to ridges above the bay, the Malibu canyons lie beyond, and whale-watching boats leave in winter and spring. Its beach path also runs for about 35km.

Huntington Beach is flatter and centred on the sea, with reliable surf breaks and paddling in the harbour channels. Its standout is the Bolsa Chica wetland, a first-rate spot for herons and terns. For real hills you drive half an hour south to Crystal Cove.

Both make good bases for day trips by car, and they differ mainly in which direction they face. From Huntington Beach the pull is south and inland: Laguna Beach, the mission at San Juan Capistrano, Temecula's wineries and even San Diego. Catalina is easy to reach from Newport. Santa Monica looks north, to Malibu, quiet Ojai and the red-tiled centre of Santa Barbara, and it is better placed for Hollywood and Pasadena's Huntington Library.

Huntington Beach has the edge for children because the big attractions are so close. Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm are under half an hour away and the Aquarium of the Pacific makes an easy morning, all from a beach town with wide sand and pelican-spotting at Bolsa Chica. The surf suits boogie boards better than toddlers.

Santa Monica is simpler day to day, with a Ferris wheel and carousel on the pier, a small aquarium and a compact, mild town. A theme-park day from there, though, takes most of the day, and some parents are unsettled by the homelessness downtown.

This is where the two differ most. Santa Monica is walkable from the pier to Main Street, its blue buses cover the rest of town, and the E Line light rail runs to downtown Los Angeles and Exposition Park's museums. You only need a car or ride-hailing for the canyons, the Getty and the theme parks.

In Huntington Beach you can walk the pier area and cycle the beach path, and that is about it. There is no rail, the buses are slow, and Little Saigon, the theme parks and Laguna all mean a drive on the freeway.

Santa Monica offers more variety within easy reach. It has chain flagships on the Third Street Promenade, upmarket boutiques on Montana Avenue, independents on Main Street and design-led stores on Abbot Kinney in Venice.

Huntington Beach is narrower but has character. Its board makers and surf shops sell the most authentic thing to take home from either town. For luxury it has a quiet advantage: South Coast Plaza is about twenty minutes away, while Santa Monica shoppers face a slow drive to Rodeo Drive.

Neither is cheap, but Santa Monica is the costlier of the two, with oceanfront rooms and restaurant bills that are steep even for California. Its free trails and cheap buses and light rail help to offset that.

Huntington Beach is easier to do for less. You can stay at a motel on an inland boulevard and eat at the Vietnamese and Mexican places nearby. Car hire and parking are the costs you cannot avoid there.

The two are close on live culture, and both rely on bigger neighbours. Huntington Beach itself has little more than cover bands and summer concerts in the park. A short drive away in Costa Mesa, though, the Segerstrom Center has the Pacific Symphony, ballet, opera and touring Broadway shows, and South Coast Repertory has a respected theatre season.

Santa Monica has more of a stage of its own, with chamber music and dance at the Broad Stage and a long-standing folk and acoustic scene in small rooms. Its big nights, at Walt Disney Concert Hall or the Hollywood Bowl, mean a long drive across Los Angeles.

Neither has thermal springs or a bathing culture. Santa Monica takes wellness more seriously, with a real yoga and fitness culture, juice bars, morning runs by the ocean and polished spas in its beachfront hotels. Huntington Beach is about switching off rather than any treatment: a sunset walk on the pier and an evening around a beach fire, with massages mostly in shopping-centre day spas.