Laguna Beach or Mammoth Lakes?

Laguna is a real beach town, built along a chain of coves from Crescent Bay and Shaw's Cove in the north down to Victoria Beach, Thousand Steps and Aliso. The water is clear enough for snorkelling around the reefs, and the lifeguarded stretches suit children. The catch is the steep stairways and cool water outside late summer.

Mammoth Lakes sits far inland at altitude, so the only swimming is in mountain lakes. Horseshoe Lake or the warmer Crowley Lake will do for a brisk dip in July or August. Most people paddle or sit on the shore, and Hot Creek is closed to bathers.

Neither town has a cuisine of its own, but Laguna eats rather better. You get local seafood, fish tacos and poke, clifftop dining rooms where the sunset is part of the meal, and a few serious kitchens pouring California wine. When you want more choice, the Vietnamese, Mexican and Korean cooking of wider Orange County is a short drive away.

Mammoth feeds skiers: big breakfasts, burgers, steak and pizza, washed down with beer brewed in town. It is filling after a day outdoors, but there is little beyond it, and some places cut their hours in the quiet spring and autumn weeks.

Laguna has a modest cultural life, but a real one, built on its past as a plein air painters' colony. The Laguna Art Museum's California collection, the galleries along Coast Highway and Forest Avenue, and the craftsman cottages make a pleasant morning. Mammoth grew from a mining camp into a ski resort, and a small log-cabin history museum is about all the town offers, so sightseeing there means getting in the car.

Both towns are quiet at night and neither has clubs. What differs is the season. Laguna is busiest on summer weekends, with old beach bars, wine bars and hotel lounges on ocean terraces, and Newport Beach and Costa Mesa are close by for a longer night.

Mammoth's evenings follow the snow. Après-ski fills the Village and the bars near the lifts in late afternoon, brewery taprooms keep going after that, and long ski weekends can run late. In summer the town is in bed early.

Laguna's outdoors are mostly coastal. A marine protected area runs the length of the town, with tide pools, kelp dives and kayaking. Behind it, the chaparral ridges of Laguna Coast Wilderness Park and Crystal Cove have trails with views to Catalina.

Mammoth is on another scale altogether. The ski mountain turns into a bike park in summer, granite lakes sit just above town, and trails lead into the Ansel Adams and John Muir wildernesses. Within an hour or so you reach Devils Postpile, Convict Lake, the tufa towers of Mono Lake and Tuolumne Meadows. The town lies at about 2,400m, so give yourself a day or two to adjust before long hikes.

From Laguna you can reach much of Southern California by car. Mission San Juan Capistrano is twenty minutes inland, a ferry goes to Catalina, and San Diego and Los Angeles are each about an hour and a half away. The Temecula vineyards make a slower day out.

Mammoth's outings are fewer and further apart, scattered along the highway at the foot of the Sierra. The ghost town of Bodie and the Manzanar internment camp are both moving, and Bishop and June Lake make shorter trips. In winter the passes close, so most days out from Mammoth head into the mountains rather than to other towns.

Laguna has the edge for most families. Tide pools of anemones and crabs, lifeguarded beaches and easy snorkelling keep children busy, and Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm are about forty minutes away. Steep beach stairs and costly family rooms are the main drawbacks.

Mammoth suits families who are happy outdoors. It has a large ski school, a tubing hill, rowing boats and trout fishing in the Lakes Basin, and condominiums with kitchens. A snowbound day leaves little to fall back on, though, and the altitude can tire small children at first.

You will want a car in either town, but Mammoth asks less of it. Free winter shuttles and the gondola from the Village to the slopes make a ski week possible without driving. In summer a trolley serves the Lakes Basin and a shuttle runs into Reds Meadow.

In Laguna you can walk the village and take the free trolley along Coast Highway, but the town is long and hilly. Many coves are reached only by stairs, and summer parking fills early. Both have no train, so you will be driving to reach the wider region.

Laguna has proper shopping, centred on art. Its gallery rows sell plein air and ocean painting and glass, Forest Avenue has boutiques for beachwear and jewellery, and the summer festivals sell crafts straight from the makers. For luxury labels, the malls of Newport Beach and Costa Mesa are half an hour away. Shopping in Mammoth means gear: ski, climbing and fly-fishing shops, rental outlets and a few galleries of landscape photography.

Neither is cheap, but Mammoth gives you more ways to cut costs. In summer the trails, lakes and scenic drives cost little, rooms come down in spring and autumn, and a condominium kitchen saves on meals. Only the peak ski weeks, when lift tickets are very expensive, are truly costly.

Laguna stays expensive in every season, from clifftop resorts to plain motels, and paid parking adds up quickly. Its beaches, tide pools and trolley are free, and many budget travellers sleep inland and come in for the day.

Laguna has much more to offer here. The Pageant of the Masters, staged each summer evening since the 1930s, recreates famous artworks with live performers, an orchestra and narration in a canyon amphitheatre. The Laguna Playhouse puts on plays and musicals all year, and opera and touring Broadway shows are half an hour away in Costa Mesa.

Mammoth offers community theatre on the college campus and, in summer, a jazz festival and chamber concerts in meadows below the peaks. It makes a pleasant evening, but it is not a reason to go.

Laguna offers ocean-view spas in its bluff-top resorts, while Mammoth has undeveloped volcanic hot springs out in the sagebrush. Laguna's side is the polished one: yoga and meditation studios in the village, day spas for massage, and a clifftop walk with coffee to begin the morning. There are no thermal springs or public baths, though, and most of the pampering happens inside expensive resorts.

Mammoth's springs are simple pools reached by dirt road, with no facilities and the Sierra rising across the valley. Go early, because they fill up around sunset. Back in town, the lodge hot tubs and massage rooms take care of legs tired from the slopes.