Laguna Beach or Scottsdale?

This is Laguna Beach's clearest advantage. The town is a chain of beaches and rocky coves, from Main Beach in the village to Crescent Bay, Victoria Beach and the wide sand at Aliso, with clear water for snorkelling over the reefs. The trade-offs are a cool Pacific, steep stairways down to many coves and crowds on summer weekends.

Scottsdale has no sea at all. In its place you get hotel pools, sandy coves on Saguaro and Canyon Lakes, and tubing on the Salt River in summer. These make good outings, but they are no substitute for the coast.

Neither place is a dining destination, but Scottsdale offers a little more. Laguna's best moments come from setting: fish tacos, poke and seafood on the cliffs at sunset. Range is thin, and many dishes are priced for the view.

Scottsdale's steakhouses and patio grills are just as predictable. However, it has a real regional cooking style in Sonoran Mexican food, with carne asada, giant flour tortillas and green chile, and Phoenix's tables are a short drive away.

Scottsdale gives the curious visitor more to see. Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright's desert studio with its UNESCO listing, is a serious sight. Add the Museum of the West, the Heard Museum and the Musical Instrument Museum close by, and you have several days of material.

Laguna's culture is its art-colony past: the Laguna Art Museum's focus on California painting, the galleries along Coast Highway and a few craftsman cottages. It is charming, but a morning covers it.

If you want to go out, Scottsdale wins easily. Old Town's entertainment district packs patio bars, dance clubs and rooftop lounges into a few blocks. On weekends and in spring it is loud, glossy and party-minded until closing time.

Laguna Beach winds down early. A night out means a beach bar, a wine bar or a hotel terrace after dinner. A real night out means driving to Newport Beach or Costa Mesa.

Both towns have outstanding scenery on the doorstep, of very different kinds. Laguna combines a marine protected coastline, where you can snorkel, shore dive, kayak and explore tide pools, with chaparral-covered canyons and the Top of the World viewpoint looking out to Catalina. Dolphins are common, and grey whales pass in winter.

Scottsdale's outdoors is the Sonoran Desert: saguaro trails in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, short steep climbs up Camelback Mountain and longer routes into the Superstition Mountains. It is superb from autumn to spring, but in summer hiking is only possible at dawn.

Laguna Beach has more within easy reach. Mission San Juan Capistrano is about twenty minutes away, ferries run to Catalina Island, and the coast towns of Newport and Huntington Beach are close by. San Diego, Los Angeles and the Temecula vineyards each make a full day out.

Scottsdale's best outings take longer. Sedona's red rocks, the Montezuma Castle cliff dwelling and the mining town of Jerome are a two-hour drive north. The Grand Canyon really needs an overnight stay.

Laguna Beach suits children a little better, mainly because the shore keeps them busy for free. There are lifeguarded beaches, tide pools full of crabs and anemones and easy snorkelling, and Disneyland is about forty minutes away. The catch is the steep stairs down to many beaches and the cost of family rooms.

In Scottsdale, family days revolve around the resort, with its lazy rivers, water slides and kids' clubs. Add the miniature trains at McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park and the Phoenix Zoo. Summer heat keeps children indoors from midday.

You need a car in both places, but Laguna Beach is slightly easier without one. Its village is walkable, and the free trolley along Coast Highway links the northern and southern beaches, so a beach stay can mostly be done on foot and by trolley. Parking, though, is a summer headache.

Scottsdale is spread along wide arterial roads that the light rail doesn't reach. Only Old Town works on foot. On the other hand, driving is easy there, with a simple grid and plenty of parking.

Scottsdale is the better place to shop. A large luxury mall on Scottsdale Road holds the big fashion houses, and Old Town's dealers sell Navajo and Hopi silver, turquoise, Pueblo pottery and western boots of real quality.

Laguna Beach has galleries selling plein air landscapes and glass, boutiques along Forest Avenue and handmade crafts at the summer art festivals. For major labels, shoppers drive to Newport Beach or Costa Mesa.

Both are expensive, but Laguna Beach is harder on the wallet. Even simple motels charge high rates, ocean-view dinners cost a lot, and parking adds up. Many budget travellers sleep inland and come in for the day, relying on the free beaches and trails.

Scottsdale leaves more ways to save. Resort rates drop sharply in the summer heat, the main corridors have business hotels and motels, and cheap Mexican food is found all over the metro area.

The two are evenly matched, each with its own focus. Laguna's highlight is the Pageant of the Masters, a summer evening tradition in a canyon amphitheatre, where performers recreate famous paintings as live tableaux. The long-running Laguna Playhouse stages plays all year round.

Scottsdale's strength lies in a range of venues: chamber music and jazz in Old Town, world-music concerts at the Musical Instrument Museum, and symphony, opera and ballet in Phoenix. Winter is its main season.

Scottsdale is built for pampering. It has an unusual number of large resort spas, with desert-inspired treatments, steam rooms and outdoor pools, many of them open to day guests. The dry air and early nights add to the effect.

Laguna Beach relaxes you in a quieter way, through clifftop walks, yoga studios and long sunsets over the water. It has fewer spas, and most are inside costly bluff-top resorts.