Laguna Beach or San Diego?

The beaches are equally good in both, but they suit different days. Laguna is a string of small coves, such as Crescent Bay, Shaw's Cove and Thousand Steps, set between cliffs. The water is clear enough for snorkelling over the reefs, and many coves are reached by long stairways.

San Diego has broad, open sand over a much longer coast: the flat strand at Coronado, the boardwalk linking Mission and Pacific Beach, and the gentle surf at La Jolla Shores. The water temperature is identical, so the choice is between hidden coves and long walks along the sand.

San Diego eats far better. Its food is shaped by the border, with Baja fish tacos, carne asada and the California burrito, and it adds one of the country's densest craft-beer scenes and the Asian kitchens of Convoy Street.

Laguna's strength is the setting rather than the cooking. You get ocean-view dining rooms, poke and taco spots and a few serious seafood kitchens, but the range is narrow and many dishes are priced for the view, so visitors who want variety drive inland.

Laguna's culture is its art-colony past. The Laguna Art Museum and the galleries along Coast Highway and Forest Avenue fill a pleasant morning, and that is most of it.

San Diego has much more to see. Balboa Park alone holds the Museum of Art, the Museum of Us and the Air and Space Museum among its Spanish Colonial Revival buildings, and beyond it are the USS Midway, the adobe buildings of Old Town and Mission San Diego de Alcalá, the first of California's missions.

A night out in Laguna is a glass of wine on a hotel terrace or a beer in an old dive bar, and the village is quiet before midnight. For anything livelier you drive to Newport Beach or Costa Mesa.

San Diego gives you real options. The Gaslamp has rooftop bars and dance clubs, Pacific Beach is the rowdy student strip, and North Park and Hillcrest are better for cocktail bars, taprooms and the city's gay scene.

Both are excellent for the outdoors, but at different scales. Laguna's best nature is right outside the door: a marine protected area along its whole coast for tide pooling, shore diving and kayaking, and the chaparral canyons of Laguna Coast Wilderness and Aliso and Wood Canyons just behind the town.

San Diego covers more kinds of landscape. Within reach are the sandstone bluffs of Torrey Pines, the sea lions and sea caves at La Jolla, pine forest in the Cuyamaca and Laguna mountains, and the desert badlands of Anza-Borrego.

Laguna's position is its advantage. San Juan Capistrano's mission is twenty minutes away, ferries leave nearby for Catalina Island, and both Los Angeles and San Diego are about an hour and a half's drive, so you can see the best of Southern California from one base.

San Diego's day trips are more unusual than central. Tijuana is a trolley ride and a walk away, and the Valle de Guadalupe vineyards lie further into Mexico. Los Angeles is a long way north, though, and most other outings still need a car.

San Diego is one of the easiest cities anywhere to bring children to. It has a world-class zoo with its Safari Park, SeaWorld on Mission Bay, Legoland in Carlsbad, and the lawns and fountains of Balboa Park for the gaps in between.

Laguna works well for beach days, with lifeguarded sand, tide pools full of crabs and the free trolley. Disneyland is forty minutes away, but the steep stairs and scarce summer parking mean many families visit for the day rather than stay.

You will want a car in both. Laguna's village is walkable and its free trolley runs along the coast, but there is no rail and the town is long and hilly.

San Diego's centre is linked by trolley to Old Town and the border, and coastal trains reach the beach towns. Even so, La Jolla, the beaches and the big parks are spread far apart.

Neither is a place for serious shopping, and the difference is in what you take home. Laguna sells art: plein air paintings and glass from the gallery rows, and handmade crafts at the summer festivals.

San Diego leans towards malls, with luxury brands at Fashion Valley and a big outlet centre by the border. Mexican pottery in Old Town and vintage shops in North Park add some local flavour.

Neither is cheap, but Laguna is harder on the wallet. Even its simple motels charge clifftop rates, and paid parking adds to everything, so budget travellers often sleep elsewhere and come in for the day.

San Diego is expensive too, especially its big paid attractions. Its taco shops, brewery taprooms and free Balboa Park gardens make a careful day much easier to manage.

Laguna has one remarkable event, the Pageant of the Masters, where live performers recreate famous paintings in a canyon amphitheatre on summer evenings. The Laguna Playhouse runs all year, but for opera or symphony you drive to Costa Mesa.

San Diego has the deeper programme. The Old Globe and La Jolla Playhouse have both sent shows to Broadway, and the city also has a bayside symphony stage and an opera season.

Both offer resort spas and ocean sunsets rather than any bathing tradition. In Laguna the calm covers the whole town.

San Diego has to be chosen by neighbourhood. Encinitas, with its long-standing yoga culture, and the spas of Coronado and La Jolla are restful, while downtown and Pacific Beach are not.