Laguna Beach or Phoenix?

This is the widest gap between the two. Laguna Beach is a string of coves and beaches, from Main Beach in the village to Crescent Bay, Thousand Steps and the broad sand at Aliso. The water is clear over reefs and good for snorkelling, though the Pacific stays cool outside late summer.

Phoenix has no coast at all. Swimming means a day at Saguaro or Canyon Lake among bare desert cliffs, a summer float down the Salt River or, most often, an afternoon at a resort pool with slides.

Phoenix eats better, mainly because it has a cooking of its own. There is Sonoran carne asada, flour tortillas thin enough to see through, family Mexican kitchens across the south and west of the city, and serious wood-fired pizza. The catch is the driving between central Phoenix, Roosevelt Row and Scottsdale.

Laguna has less range: fish tacos, poke, surfers' breakfast cafés and clifftop dining rooms where the sunset does much of the work. For variety, visitors drive inland to Orange County's Vietnamese, Mexican and Korean restaurants.

Neither city has old streets to wander, but Phoenix has more to fill a few days. The Native American collection at the Heard Museum, the Musical Instrument Museum and Taliesin West are each worth the drive, even though they sit far apart.

Laguna's culture is its past as an art colony. The Laguna Art Museum's California painting and the galleries along Coast Highway and Forest Avenue are easily seen in a morning. Its biggest historic sight, the mission at San Juan Capistrano, lies outside town.

Phoenix gives you a real choice of nights out. There are clubs and rooftop bars in Old Town Scottsdale, student bars on Tempe's Mill Avenue, and cocktail and craft beer bars downtown. Each district makes its own evening, though, with a ride-hail home.

In Laguna, going out stops at a drink after dinner in a beach bar, wine bar or hotel lounge, and the village is quiet before midnight. For anything livelier you drive to Newport Beach or Costa Mesa.

Both are strong outdoors, in opposite settings. Laguna's outdoors is ocean and coastal hills. Its protected coast is good for tide pooling, snorkelling, kayaking and spotting dolphins, and behind the town are chaparral trails in Laguna Coast Wilderness Park and Crystal Cove.

Phoenix has rocky desert mountains rising straight out of the suburbs, from the steep scramble up Camelback to the saguaro forest of the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, with Sedona's red rock further out. Its limit is the season: summer heat makes hiking dangerous after mid-morning, while Laguna's trails can be walked all year.

Laguna has more within an easy drive. Mission San Juan Capistrano is twenty minutes inland, the Catalina ferry leaves from Dana Point, and the Temecula vineyards are about an hour away. Both San Diego and Los Angeles are about an hour and a half by car.

Distances from Phoenix are longer. Jerome, Prescott, Montezuma Castle, Sedona and Tucson all make good outings, but the Grand Canyon is too far for a comfortable day.

Laguna is the better choice for families. It has lifeguarded beaches, tide pools full of crabs and easy snorkelling, and Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm are about forty minutes away. The drawbacks are the steep stairways down to many beaches and expensive family rooms.

Phoenix has more indoor attractions, from the Science Center to the zoo, and its hotels are roomier, with pools and water parks besides. But everything is spread across the metro area, and from June to September the heat limits young children to early mornings outdoors.

You need a car in both, but Laguna asks less of it. The village is walkable and a free trolley runs along Coast Highway between the beaches. The effort is summer parking and the stairways down to the coves.

Phoenix is a flat sprawl, with Scottsdale, Tempe, downtown and the trailheads far apart. Light rail covers only the corridor from the airport through downtown to Tempe, so most visitors rent a car or use ride-hailing. Driving and parking are at least easy.

The two are close on shopping, but you bring home different things. Laguna means galleries and boutiques: plein air canvases, glass and jewellery along Coast Highway and Forest Avenue, and summer art festivals where the makers sell their own work.

Phoenix's speciality is Native American work, such as Navajo and Zuni silver and turquoise, Hopi carvings and rugs, alongside the big Scottsdale malls. In both places luxury brands are in malls rather than on shopping streets. For Laguna, those malls are half an hour away in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa.

Phoenix is much easier on the wallet. Prices are in the middle of the American range, room rates fall sharply in summer, and freeway chain hotels are good value all year. Sonoran food is cheap and good, and the main extra cost is a rental car.

Laguna is among the most expensive beach towns in California. Even simple motels charge high rates, restaurants are priced for the view and parking adds up. The beaches, trails and trolley are free, but many visitors on a budget sleep elsewhere.

The two are roughly level: one famous event against a full city calendar. Laguna has the Pageant of the Masters, where live performers recreate famous artworks on stage each summer evening in a Laguna Canyon amphitheatre, and the long-running Laguna Playhouse.

Phoenix has a symphony, an opera and a ballet company, and touring Broadway shows play at ASU Gammage, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Its seasons run from autumn to spring, so Laguna is the place for a summer show and Phoenix for a winter one.

Phoenix is the stronger choice for a resort rest. The desert resorts at the foot of Camelback and in north Scottsdale combine full spas, several pools and golf. Their treatments use desert ingredients like sage, clay and agave, and there is reliable winter sun.

Laguna's calm comes more from the setting: clifftop walks, long sunsets, a few yoga studios and spas in the bluff-top resorts. Neither city has hot springs or public baths.