Laguna Beach or Santa Monica?

Laguna has the better swimming. Its shore is broken into small coves such as Crescent Bay, Shaw's Cove and Victoria Beach, with clear water and reefs that reward a mask and snorkel. Many are reached by long stairways, though, and conditions change from one cove to the next.

Santa Monica trades variety for space. It has one broad, flat band of sand with lifeguard towers and the pier in the middle, easy to reach and easy to spread out on. The water is a touch cooler, and the most scenic coves are a drive north in Malibu.

Santa Monica eats noticeably better. Its restaurants take their lead from the town's farmers market. Between the seasonal Californian cooking, the Italian and Japanese places, the neighbourhood spots on Main Street and Montana Avenue and the more casual kitchens in Venice, a week brings real variety.

In Laguna, eating out is mostly about the setting: fish tacos, breakfast cafés and clifftop dining rooms where you pay a lot for the view. Neither town has a cuisine of its own, and in both the best immigrant cooking is a drive away, in inland Orange County or eastern Los Angeles.

Neither is a sightseeing destination, but Santa Monica has more within easy reach. The pier with its Route 66 sign, the galleries at Bergamot Station and the Art Deco buildings near the ocean fill a morning. Both Getty museums, with their European art and Roman antiquities, are a short drive away.

Laguna's story is its art colony. The Laguna Art Museum and the galleries along Coast Highway show California painting well, but they take only a morning, and the mission at San Juan Capistrano is the main historic sight nearby.

Santa Monica gives you a proper evening out, even though it is not a clubbing town. There are rooftop bars and wine bars around the Third Street Promenade, pubs along Main Street and a more local crowd across the line in Venice. For dancing you go to Hollywood or West Hollywood.

Laguna winds down far earlier. A handful of beach bars, wine bars and hotel terraces serve a drink after dinner, and for anything more you drive to Newport Beach or Costa Mesa.

Both have hills behind them and the ocean in front, so the difference is in emphasis. Laguna's strength is in the water. Its whole coastline is a marine protected area, with tide pools, kelp beds for shore diving and coves for kayaking. Inland, there are chaparral trails in Laguna Coast Wilderness Park and Aliso and Wood Canyons.

Santa Monica leans towards the land. The Santa Monica Mountains begin at the edge of town, with Temescal Canyon and Topanga State Park for ridge walks. Its paved path along the sand also makes it the better base for cycling and skating.

Laguna is better placed for days out. Mission San Juan Capistrano is twenty minutes away, the Catalina ferry leaves from nearby Dana Point, and San Diego, the Temecula vineyards and Los Angeles all make realistic days out.

Santa Monica has good choices too, including Malibu, Santa Barbara and the Huntington Library in Pasadena. But the Los Angeles freeways decide how far you get, and catching the Catalina ferry means first crossing the city to Long Beach or San Pedro.

Both work well with children, in different ways. Santa Monica is flatter and simpler, with wide sand for digging, the amusement park, carousel and small aquarium at the pier, and a level beach path for bike rides. The visible homelessness downtown puts some families off.

Laguna is more about exploring: tide pools with crabs and anemones, easy snorkelling and a free trolley, though many beaches are reached by steep stairways. It is also the closer base for Disneyland, about forty minutes away, while Santa Monica is nearer to Universal Studios.

In Santa Monica you can manage without a car. The centre, the pier and Main Street are walkable, blue buses cover the rest of town, and the E Line light rail runs to downtown Los Angeles and the museums at Exposition Park.

Laguna has only its walkable village and the free coastal trolley. There is no rail and the buses are slow, so a car is close to essential, and parking it on summer weekends takes patience.

Santa Monica has more range. There are chains on the Third Street Promenade, boutiques on Montana Avenue, surf shops on Main Street and design-led stores on Abbot Kinney in Venice, and Rodeo Drive is close for luxury labels.

Laguna's shopping is narrower but more distinctive: plein air paintings, glass and jewellery from the galleries, and handmade crafts at the summer art festivals. For fashion you drive to the malls of Newport Beach and Costa Mesa.

Both are among the most expensive places to stay on this coast, so neither suits a tight budget. Laguna's clifftop resorts and restaurants that charge for the view leave few cheap options, and budget visitors usually stay inland and come for the day.

Santa Monica has one small advantage: cheap buses and light rail make it practical to stay further inland on the Westside without a car. In both towns the beaches, trails and sunsets cost nothing.

Each has one thing the other lacks. Laguna has the Pageant of the Masters, the long-running summer evenings in Laguna Canyon where performers recreate famous artworks as live tableaux, and year-round plays at the Laguna Playhouse.

Santa Monica has chamber music and dance at the Broad Stage and a small-venue folk and acoustic scene. For bigger nights it looks to the Hollywood Bowl and Walt Disney Concert Hall, while Laguna looks to the performing arts centre in Costa Mesa.

Neither has thermal springs or a bathing culture, and in both, resort spas, ocean views and a slow pace do the work. The mood differs, though. Laguna's calm comes from clifftop walks and a quiet village, while Santa Monica is more active, with yoga on the sand, juice bars and morning runs along the beach path.