Laguna Beach or Palm Desert?

This is the widest gap between the two. Laguna Beach is spread along small sandy beaches and rocky coves, from Main Beach with its volleyball nets to Crescent Bay, Thousand Steps and the broad sand at Aliso. The water over the reefs is clear enough for snorkelling. The Pacific is only really warm in late summer, though, and the steep stairways and rip currents need some care.

Palm Desert has no beach and no water you can swim in nearby, and the Salton Sea is not for bathing. Swimming means the resort pool, which is heated in winter. A day on the sand means a two-hour drive over the mountains, in practice to the same Orange County coast that Laguna sits on.

Neither town is a food destination, and both rely more on the setting than the cooking. Laguna's strengths are seafood, fish tacos and poke, breakfast cafés for surfers and clifftop dining rooms at sunset, where the view is built into the price. Palm Desert has resort steakhouses and patio bistros along El Paseo, which are reliable but much alike. Its one regional speciality is the date, with date shakes and Medjool dates from the groves near Indio, and there are family-run taquerias in Indio and Coachella.

For more variety, Laguna diners drive inland to Orange County's Vietnamese, Mexican and Korean restaurants. In Palm Desert, people head to Palm Springs.

Neither town has much to see, and a morning or two covers either one. Laguna at least has a story. It grew up as a plein air painters' colony in the early twentieth century, and that past lives on in the Laguna Art Museum's California collection, the gallery rows on Coast Highway and Forest Avenue and the craftsman cottages. For real history, Mission San Juan Capistrano is close by.

Palm Desert is a resort town built after the war. It has a branch of the Palm Springs Art Museum with a sculpture garden, and the valley's mid-century modern architecture is twenty minutes west in Palm Springs.

Both are early-night towns. In Laguna an evening out means a drink in an old beach bar, a dive bar or a terrace lounge, the town goes quiet before midnight, and the nearest proper night out is in Newport Beach or Costa Mesa. Palm Desert has patio happy hours and wine bars on El Paseo with a crowd of retirees and golfers. Its advantage is the rest of the valley, where casino bars stay open into the small hours and downtown Palm Springs has the area's liveliest bars, including a well-known gay scene.

Both are strong bases for the outdoors, but the scenery could hardly be more different. Laguna combines the sea with coastal hills. Its whole coast is a marine protected area for tide pooling, snorkelling, kayaking and spotting dolphins, and grey whales pass Dana Point in winter. Inland, the chaparral trails of Laguna Coast Wilderness Park and Crystal Cove have views across to Catalina.

Palm Desert is all desert and mountain. Trails climb straight into the Santa Rosa Mountains, fan-palm oases fill the Indian Canyons, and the Palm Springs tramway rises to pine forest at about 2,600m. The boulders and night skies of Joshua Tree are an hour away. The desert's season runs from October to May, while Laguna's coast works all year.

Laguna is better placed for days out. Mission San Juan Capistrano is twenty minutes away, Newport, Huntington Beach and Dana Point lie along the coast, and ferries cross to Catalina. San Diego and Los Angeles can both be done in a day.

The list from Palm Desert is shorter and more unusual. It runs from Palm Springs next door to the mountain village of Idyllwild, the old Western film set at Pioneertown and Salvation Mountain near the Salton Sea. The big cities are at the limit of a day's drive and work better as separate stays.

Laguna is the better choice with children. Lifeguarded beaches, tide pools full of anemones and crabs, easy snorkelling and the free trolley fill the days, and Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm are about forty minutes away. The drawbacks are the steep stairs down to the beaches and the high cost of family rooms.

Palm Desert has one excellent outing in the Living Desert zoo and gardens, plus the tramway and the resort pools. Beyond those, the valley is built around golf and adults, and in summer the heat makes midday outdoors unwise for small children.

You need a car in both, but Laguna is easier on foot once you arrive. The village around Main Beach and Forest Avenue is easy to walk, and a free trolley runs along the coast road. Parking, though, is a struggle in summer, and many coves are reached only by stairs.

Palm Desert is a spread of resorts and shopping centres along wide boulevards, and only a few blocks of El Paseo are pleasant to walk. In return, the roads are quiet and parking is easy almost everywhere.

Both towns sell to wealthy visitors, but in different ways. Laguna is about art. Its galleries on Coast Highway sell plein air landscapes, ocean paintings and glass, Forest Avenue has beachwear and jewellery, and the summer art festivals sell handmade crafts. The luxury malls of Newport Beach and Costa Mesa are half an hour away.

Palm Desert gathers fashion boutiques, jewellers and galleries on one palm-lined boulevard, El Paseo, where browsing is as much a social outing as shopping. A large designer outlet centre half an hour west draws bargain hunters.

Laguna is the far more expensive stay. Clifftop resorts and even plain motels charge high rates, ocean-view meals cost a lot and parking adds up, so many budget travellers sleep inland and come for the day. The free beaches, trails and trolley soften the cost a little.

Palm Desert has normal US resort prices in winter, plus the cost of a hire car. Chain hotels and rentals are cheaper all year, though, and from June to September resort rooms drop to a fraction of their winter rates for anyone who can take the heat.

There is about as much on stage in each, but the shape is different. Laguna's highlight is the Pageant of the Masters, a summer tradition since the 1930s in which live performers recreate famous works of art in a canyon amphitheatre, and the long-running Laguna Playhouse stages plays all year. Palm Desert has the McCallum Theatre for touring Broadway shows, ballet and orchestras in winter, big concerts at the casinos, and Coachella and Stagecoach in nearby Indio each spring.

So Laguna's stage peaks in summer, while Palm Desert's peaks in winter and spring.

Palm Desert is the more natural place to unwind. The valley was built as a winter retreat and its resorts are full of spas and pools. Half an hour north, Desert Hot Springs has spa hotels that fill their pools from natural hot mineral springs.

Laguna's calm is real, with clifftop walks, yoga studios and long sunsets over the water. It has no bathing tradition, though, and most of its spas are in expensive resorts on the bluffs.