Las Vegas or Los Angeles?

The gap here is wide. Las Vegas has no coast at all. Swimming there means resort wave pools, or the gravel shore of Boulder Beach on Lake Mead, which is warm in summer but has no shade.

Los Angeles has more than 100km of real shoreline, from the Malibu coves at El Matador and Zuma to the volleyball nets of Manhattan and Hermosa, with surf breaks, the bike path and boardwalk life at Venice. The Pacific is cool, though, so expect to wade or wear a wetsuit. Oddly, Lake Mead is the warmer water of the two.

In Las Vegas, the best cooking happens inside the resorts. Famous chefs from around the world run restaurants there, alongside steakhouses, French dining rooms and the classic buffets, and the standard at the top end is high. The most interesting meals are off the Strip, in the Sichuan, Korean and Vietnamese kitchens along Spring Mountain Road.

Los Angeles has food rooted in its own neighbourhoods. You'll find taco stands across the Eastside, charcoal barbecue in Koreatown, regional Chinese cooking in the San Gabriel Valley and Ethiopian, Armenian and Oaxacan cooking in their own districts. It also has Grand Central Market, farmers' markets all year and a coffee culture that Las Vegas lacks. It is the better food trip, as long as you don't mind driving to the meals.

For sightseeing, Los Angeles is well ahead. Las Vegas offers the Strip itself as spectacle, the light canopy over Fremont Street and two good museums downtown, the Neon Museum's yard of old signs and the Mob Museum. A curious visitor can see it all in a day or so.

Los Angeles has a deep art circuit in the Getty Center, LACMA and the Broad, along with the Huntington's library and gardens, Griffith Observatory and Hollywood's old movie palaces. Its architecture runs from Art Deco downtown to the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Neither city has an old quarter worth the name.

Las Vegas is the stronger night out, and the main difference is the clock. Its casino bars never close, the resort clubs book star DJs, and dayclubs start the party by the pool, all along one strip. Fremont Street and the arts district add cheaper dive bars and craft beer.

Los Angeles has more variety, from West Hollywood's gay bars to natural wine in Silver Lake and Hollywood's velvet-rope clubs. But bars stop serving at 2am, and each district is a ride from the next, so a night usually stays in one neighbourhood.

Both cities sit near striking country, but Los Angeles has more variety and more months to enjoy it. Griffith Park, the Santa Monica Mountains and the San Gabriels have trails starting at the edge of the city, and the coast adds surfing, kayaking, winter whale watching and boats to the Channel Islands.

Las Vegas has superb desert within an hour: the climbing walls of Red Rock Canyon, the petroglyphs of Valley of Fire and the pine forests of Mount Charleston. In summer, though, the heat limits hiking to dawn, and you need a car to reach any of it.

Los Angeles has much the better choice of outings. Santa Barbara's mission and red-tile streets, the ferry to Catalina, Laguna Beach, Ojai and the Temecula vineyards give you towns, coast and wine country within a day, as long as the traffic cooperates.

From Las Vegas, the one easy day out is Hoover Dam combined with Boulder City. The Grand Canyon and Zion tours are long journeys to see landscape, and the desert towns along the way have little to stop for.

This is the clearest difference between the two. Los Angeles has Disneyland, Universal Studios and Knott's Berry Farm, a space shuttle at the California Science Center, the La Brea Tar Pits and the aquarium in Long Beach, with beaches and mild weather on top.

Las Vegas can fill a day or two with indoor rides, a shark aquarium and the Discovery Children's Museum. But the routes through casino floors, the adult advertising and the summer heat make it tiring with children, and it works better as one stop on a road trip to the national parks.

Neither city is easy to get around, but Las Vegas is the simpler of the two. Most of a visit takes place along about 6km of Strip plus downtown, linked by buses that run day and night and by a monorail. Still, the resorts are huge, walking routes cut through casinos, and summer heat makes walking punishing.

Los Angeles spreads its sights across a basin of separate cities, and the Metro reaches only some of them. Santa Monica, Venice and Old Pasadena are pleasant on foot, but to get between them you will drive or ride-hail and sit in traffic.

Shopping in Las Vegas is all about brands and all indoors. The resort malls hold the luxury houses, the large Fashion Show mall adds department stores, and there are two outlet centres, all open late.

Los Angeles has the same luxury brands on Rodeo Drive, plus what Las Vegas lacks. There are independent shops on Abbot Kinney, vintage on Melrose and at the Rose Bowl flea market, and records and design objects in Silver Lake. Its local surf and denim style is also worth taking home.

Neither city is cheap, but Las Vegas gives you more ways to save. Midweek rooms on the Strip and downtown can be good value, though weekend rates, resort fees and the cost of drinks and shows on the Strip add up quickly.

Los Angeles costs more across the board: hotels in the popular areas, tax and tip on sit-down meals, and a hire car with parking on top. In both cities the cheapest good meals are well away from the tourist zones, in Chinatown off the Strip or at the taco trucks and Koreatown tables.

Las Vegas sells polished spectacle, and Los Angeles offers music and theatre with deeper roots. On the Strip, purpose-built resort theatres stage acrobatic water shows, magicians and comedy revues, and big pop stars play long residencies, with dozens of shows on any night.

Los Angeles has the Philharmonic at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and, in summer, at the Hollywood Bowl, as well as LA Opera. Below that come the rock rooms of the Sunset Strip, small clubs in Silver Lake, jazz in Leimert Park and some of the best improv anywhere.

Los Angeles is the better place to unwind, mainly because of Koreatown's bathhouses, with hot and cold pools, scrubs and heated floors, open late. It also has yoga studios everywhere, and the retreats of Ojai and the springs around Palm Springs are within reach.

Las Vegas has enormous resort spas that can be restful on a weekday morning. But the noise of the casinos around them works against any real calm, so it helps to stay at a non-gaming hotel.