Laguna Beach or South Lake Tahoe?

Laguna Beach has the better swimming. Its coastline is a chain of coves, from Main Beach in the village to Crescent Bay, Victoria Beach and the broad sand at Aliso, with clear water over reefs for snorkelling and the sea warm enough to enjoy in late summer.

South Lake Tahoe's beaches, at Pope, Baldwin and across the line at Zephyr Cove, are beautiful, with turquoise shallows and Jeffrey pines behind. The catch is altitude: the lake stays cold, and swimming is really only a July and August pleasure. For the rest of the year these beaches are for walking along.

Neither town is somewhere you go for the food, but Laguna Beach eats better. It has clifftop dining rooms, fish tacos and poke, and a handful of serious seafood kitchens, and the wider Orange County scene, with its Vietnamese, Mexican and Korean cooking, is a short drive inland.

South Lake Tahoe runs on casino steakhouses, buffets, brewpubs and pizza, and the local craft beer is the highlight. Quality varies and weekend waits are long, so plenty of visitors end up cooking in their cabin.

Laguna Beach has more to see, though not a great deal. Its art-colony past survives in the Laguna Art Museum and in the galleries on Coast Highway and Forest Avenue, and the San Juan Capistrano mission is close by.

South Lake Tahoe has history rather than culture: the summer estates of the Tallac Historic Site, Vikingsholm at the head of Emerald Bay and a small museum covering the Washoe and the logging era. Both can be seen in a morning, and after that the landscape takes over.

South Lake Tahoe gives you more chance of a late night, all thanks to the state line. The Stateline casinos keep their bars and gaming floors open all night, with lounges and the odd club that fill in peak weeks, and après-ski at the gondola base is lively in winter.

Laguna Beach goes no further than a drink after dinner at a dive bar, wine bar or hotel terrace, and the village is quiet well before midnight. For anything more you drive to Newport Beach or Costa Mesa.

Both towns are built around their landscape, but South Lake Tahoe works on an altogether bigger scale. It has a deep alpine lake ringed by granite peaks, the lake basins of the Desolation Wilderness, the Rim Trail around the whole basin and deep winter snow for skiing, so it suits trips of several days in the mountains.

Laguna's nature is coastal and close at hand. Chaparral canyons in Laguna Coast Wilderness and Aliso and Wood Canyons are good for hiking and biking, and offshore a protected coast offers tide pools, kelp dives, kayaking, dolphins and grey whales in winter.

From Laguna Beach you have the whole of Southern California to choose from. The Capistrano mission, Newport and Huntington Beach, the ferry to Catalina and Temecula's vineyards are all close, and San Diego and Los Angeles are each about a long morning's drive away.

South Lake Tahoe's outings are smaller in scale and centre on the Gold Rush: Virginia City, Genoa, Coloma and the Amador wine country, with Reno for a bigger city. They are good for filling a day of bad weather rather than reasons to make the trip.

Laguna Beach is the easier choice with children. Lifeguarded beaches, tide pools and the Main Beach playground keep them busy, and Disneyland, Knott's and the San Diego Zoo give you options for the days away from the sand. Steep beach stairways and costly family rooms are the drawbacks.

South Lake Tahoe works best for active families: shallow lake beaches and bike paths in summer, ski schools and sledding hills in winter. With no zoo, aquarium or theme park, a snowed-in day is harder to fill, and the casino strip is not a place for children.

Both places really need a car, and both have a small walkable centre with free transport along the main road. In Laguna Beach that is the trolley on Coast Highway, and the headaches are freeway distances and scarce summer parking.

In South Lake Tahoe the shuttles run to the ski areas, and the problems depend on the season: crawling Highway 50 traffic in summer, and chain controls and pass closures on the drive in during winter storms.

Laguna Beach offers real browsing. Gallery rows sell plein air painting and glass, Forest Avenue has boutiques, the summer art festivals sell crafts direct from the makers, and the luxury malls of Newport Beach and Costa Mesa are half an hour away.

South Lake Tahoe's shops are practical, mostly ski gear, rental counters, souvenirs at the gondola base and a supermarket run for the cabin.

South Lake Tahoe is the more forgiving of the two, though neither is cheap. Peak ski weeks and high summer push its prices up, but casino hotels discount heavily midweek and in the shoulder seasons, and a cabin kitchen keeps meals affordable.

Laguna Beach is costly all year round, from clifftop resorts and simple motels to ocean-view dinners and parking. Its free beaches and trails help, but many visitors stay inland and come for the day.

Laguna Beach has the more distinctive stage. In summer the Pageant of the Masters recreates famous artworks as live tableaux in a canyon amphitheatre, the Laguna Playhouse runs plays and musicals all year, and Costa Mesa's large arts centre is half an hour away.

South Lake Tahoe's shows come mainly from the casino showrooms, with touring rock, country and comedy acts. In summer there is Shakespeare on the beach at Sand Harbor and concerts at the Tallac estates.

Neither has a bathing tradition. Laguna Beach has the edge for a pampered stay, with ocean-view spas in its bluff-top resorts, yoga studios in the village and slow, sunset-paced days.

South Lake Tahoe's spas are mostly in the casinos and ski lodges, but it has something the coast lacks: natural hot springs. You can soak at Grover Hot Springs in an alpine meadow, or at the resorts in the Carson Valley over the pass.