Huntington Beach or South Lake Tahoe?

Huntington Beach has the bigger beach: about 14km of wide sand with volleyball nets, fire rings and lifeguard towers, and the whole town is built around it. The Pacific is cool for much of the year and the surf brings rip currents, but in late summer it is the more dependable swim of the two.

South Lake Tahoe's beaches, among them Pope, Baldwin and Zephyr Cove, are beautiful in their own way, with clear turquoise shallows under pines and granite. At about 1,900m, though, the water is cold, swimming is limited to July and August, and there is no surf, only afternoon wind to chop the surface.

Neither is a food destination, but Huntington Beach gives you more. Fish tacos by the pier and seafood with an ocean view are pleasant enough, and the real prize is Little Saigon a short drive inland, where the pho and banh mi justify a trip of their own.

South Lake Tahoe eats for fuel: casino steakhouses and buffets, plus pizza and brewpubs along Highway 50, with local craft beer the one distinctive note. Many visitors end up cooking in their cabin.

Both are thin on sights, and each has its own small story to tell. In Huntington Beach the story is surfing, told by the pier, the International Surfing Museum and the Hall of Fame handprints at the foot of Main Street. In South Lake Tahoe it is the lake's past as a retreat for wealthy San Franciscans, preserved in the Tallac estates and at Vikingsholm, a Scandinavian-style mansion reached by a steep walk down to Emerald Bay.

Huntington Beach has the livelier weekend. Main Street's sports bars, rooftop beach bars and a few dance spots fill with a young local crowd, though everything closes at 2am and weeknights are quiet.

South Lake Tahoe splits at the state line. The California side goes to bed early after the brewpubs and après-ski, while the casinos at Stateline keep their bars open all night, so you can stay out later but have far less choice of where to go.

This is where South Lake Tahoe pulls far ahead. The lake ringed by granite peaks, Emerald Bay, the lake-dotted basins of the Desolation Wilderness and the Tahoe Rim Trail make it a serious place for hiking and for mountain biking on the Flume Trail. In winter there is deep-snow skiing at Heavenly, Kirkwood and Sierra-at-Tahoe.

Huntington Beach's outdoor life is the ocean: steady surf either side of the pier, paddling in the harbour channels and the birdlife of Bolsa Chica. For hills you drive half an hour to Crystal Cove or the Laguna coast.

Huntington Beach has the wider and grander choice: Los Angeles about an hour away, Laguna Beach and Mission San Juan Capistrano close by, the ferry to Catalina, and San Diego for a long day.

South Lake Tahoe's outings lead into Gold Rush and silver-boom history, from the boardwalks of Virginia City and old Genoa to Coloma, where gold was found in 1848, with Reno and the loop round the lake as well. They are good ways to fill a day of bad weather rather than reasons to come.

Huntington Beach is one of the easiest family bases on this coast, with Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm about half an hour away, the Long Beach aquarium for a morning and Legoland for a longer day. The waves suit boogie boarding more than toddlers, but the tide pools at Crystal Cove make up for that.

South Lake Tahoe suits active families, with shallow lake beaches in summer and ski schools and sledding hills in winter. It has nothing for children indoors, though, so a stormy day drags, and the casino strip at Stateline is no place to linger with them.

Both need a car, but South Lake Tahoe is a little easier without one. Its core around Stateline and the gondola is walkable, and in winter free shuttles run along the highway and up to the ski areas. The catches are winter chain controls and the summer weekend crawl round Emerald Bay.

In Huntington Beach only the pier and Main Street can be walked, and a bike on the beach path is the best way along the coast. Everything else, from the theme parks to Little Saigon, means freeway driving, and beach parking fills up on summer weekends.

Huntington Beach is the place to shop. Surf shops and board makers line Main Street, a surfboard or a piece of local surf-brand clothing makes the obvious souvenir, and one of the country's largest luxury malls is twenty minutes away in Costa Mesa.

In South Lake Tahoe, shopping means ski and outdoor gear, rental stores, souvenirs at the gondola base and a few galleries selling lake photography.

Both are expensive when people most want to go, and the ways to save differ. In Huntington Beach the beach costs nothing, and motels on the inland boulevards and the Vietnamese and Mexican cooking of the county keep costs down, though you cannot avoid paying for a car and parking.

At South Lake Tahoe, the peak ski weeks and high summer cost the most, and lift tickets are steep. Casino hotels on the Nevada side discount midweek and in spring and autumn, though, and a cabin kitchen saves on meals.

Neither town has much stage life of its own, but Huntington Beach has better within reach. In nearby Costa Mesa, the Segerstrom Center for the Arts hosts the Pacific Symphony, ballet, opera and touring Broadway, and South Coast Repertory runs a respected theatre season.

South Lake Tahoe relies on the casino showrooms for touring rock, country and comedy acts. Its best evenings come in summer, with Shakespeare on the beach at Sand Harbor and concerts at the Tallac estates.

Huntington Beach relaxes you by the sea, with yoga on the sand, a slow sunset walk along the pier and an evening around a beach fire. Treatments mean the resort hotels on the coast highway or an ordinary day spa.

South Lake Tahoe is better for a soak. Grover Hot Springs has a mineral pool in an alpine meadow about 45 minutes south, and the hot spring resorts of the Carson Valley are half an hour over the pass. Back in town, a cabin in the pines makes for quiet mornings.