Huntington Beach or Sonoma?

This is where the two differ most. Huntington Beach is built along about 14km of flat sand with lifeguard towers, surf breaks and fire rings, and the beach shapes the whole day. The Pacific only warms properly in late summer, though, and rip currents mean swimming near the towers.

Sonoma has no beach life at all. The nearest shore, around Bodega Bay, is well over an hour away and too cold and rough for swimming, so summer swimming means a hotel pool or the gravel banks of the Russian River.

Sonoma is the better place to eat, because it sits in the middle of a wine valley. Tasting rooms surround the plaza, and Zinfandel, Cabernet and Carneros Pinot Noir are all close by. The cooking is seasonal Californian, built on local cheese, olive oil and oysters. Its weakness is range, with few restaurants and almost nothing late or foreign.

Huntington Beach eats casually: fish tacos by the pier, surfers' breakfasts and brewpubs with sea views, with plenty of chains. Its strongest card is just inland, where the pho houses and banh mi bakeries of Little Saigon offer a variety Sonoma cannot match.

Neither town is a cultural destination, but Sonoma has more history to walk through. Around its large plaza stand the last of California's Franciscan missions, the adobe barracks and the spot where the Bear Flag Revolt declared a short-lived republic in 1846. General Vallejo's Gothic house and Jack London's ruined Wolf House add a little more.

Huntington Beach's sights are about surfing: the pier, the International Surfing Museum and the handprints of the Surfers' Hall of Fame. That fills a morning, and the rest is postwar suburb.

Huntington Beach is the place for a night out, though only on one strip. 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.

Sonoma's evening is dinner, followed perhaps by a glass at a wine bar or a saloon on the plaza. The town is quiet well before midnight, and there are no clubs.

Sonoma has the better landscape for walking and cycling. Vineyards roll between two mountain ranges, trails climb from the plaza to the Sonoma Overlook, and Sugarloaf Ridge and Jack London park have redwoods and views from Bald Mountain. Balloons rise over the valley on calm mornings, and Point Reyes is within reach.

Huntington Beach's outdoor life is on the water: surfing either side of the pier, and paddling in the harbour channels. The Bolsa Chica wetland is excellent for birds, but for hills you have to drive half an hour or more through flat suburbs.

Sonoma has the edge as a base. San Francisco is close enough for a full day, Napa is just over the hills, and Healdsburg, Petaluma and Sausalito are all easy drives, though many outings turn out to be yet another wine town.

From Huntington Beach the choice is broader: Los Angeles, Laguna Beach, the mission at San Juan Capistrano and ferries to Catalina. Reaching them means long stretches on busy freeways, and San Diego is a much longer day.

Huntington Beach is far easier with children. Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm are short drives inland, and the Long Beach aquarium makes an easy morning. At home there are the sand, the pelicans at Bolsa Chica and the lakes in Central Park. The surf suits boogie boarding better than toddlers.

Sonoma is safe and calm, but it is built for adults tasting wine. The playground on the plaza, a miniature railway park and an African wildlife park near Santa Rosa are about all there is for children.

You will need a car in both, and in neither do buses help much. In Huntington Beach, the pier and Main Street can be walked, and the flat beach path makes a bike the nicest way along the coast, but the theme parks and Los Angeles mean freeway driving.

In Sonoma, the compact plaza puts several tasting rooms within a few blocks, and quiet valley roads suit cycling. For a day among the wineries, most visitors book a driver or a tour so that nobody has to drive after tasting.

Huntington Beach offers more. Main Street sells surfboards, swimwear and surf brands, and South Coast Plaza, one of the country's great luxury malls, is about twenty minutes away.

Sonoma's shopping is a slow loop of the plaza: boutiques, kitchenware, galleries, olive oil, cheese and wine bought straight from the producers. It is good for gifts and food to take home, but there is little fashion.

Both are costly, and Huntington Beach is the easier of the two on a budget. Inland motels cost less than the beachfront, the beach is free, and the Vietnamese and Mexican places nearby feed you well for little.

Sonoma has few rooms, all priced for wine-country weekends. Add tasting fees and a car or driver, and costs rise fast. Visitors watching their spending often stay in Santa Rosa or Petaluma.

Neither town has much stage life of its own, and both depend on venues nearby. Huntington Beach has the year-round option. The Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa, a short drive away, hosts the Pacific Symphony, ballet, opera and touring Broadway, and South Coast Repertory runs its theatre season close by.

Sonoma's programme is seasonal and mostly outdoors: summer shows among the oaks and ruins of Jack London State Historic Park, and concerts at wineries. For classical music, the Green Music Center is about half an hour away.

Sonoma is the better place to rest. Hot mineral water at Boyes Hot Springs has fed a historic resort spa for over a century, Calistoga's mud baths are an hour away, and quiet days on the plaza and terraces set the pace.

Huntington Beach has no bathing tradition, only hotel spas and ordinary day spas. Here you relax by doing little: yoga on the sand, a sunset walk on the pier and an evening around a beach fire.