Las Vegas or Newport Beach?

Here the two could hardly be further apart. Las Vegas is a desert city with no coast. Its swimming means the resort pools on the Strip or a drive to the bare, unshaded shore of Lake Mead.

Newport Beach is built around the sand. Surfers use the breaks by the piers, Corona del Mar's coves are calmer, and the shallow harbour beaches suit small children, with tide pools at Little Corona and Crystal Cove. The Pacific here stays cool, but the beach is the reason to come.

Las Vegas has more range. The Strip gathers steakhouses, French dining rooms and tasting menus from well-known chefs. Spring Mountain Road's long Chinatown adds Sichuan, Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese cooking until late, which is often the better eating.

Newport is more relaxed and less varied: seafood with harbour views, brunch in Corona del Mar, fish tacos by the sand and frozen bananas on Balboa Island. For something more interesting you drive to Costa Mesa or to Little Saigon in Westminster. Neither town has a cuisine of its own, and both charge a lot for eating where the view is.

Neither is a sightseeing destination, and the difference is one of kind. Las Vegas offers spectacle: the themed resorts, the fountains and the light canopy over Fremont Street. The Neon Museum and the Mob Museum tell the city's short history well.

Newport's interest is quieter and older in feel. The 1905 Balboa Pavilion, the little island ferry, Schindler's modernist Lovell Beach House and the Sherman Library & Gardens fill a morning. For serious art you go to the museum in neighbouring Costa Mesa.

Las Vegas is one of the world's great places for a big night. DJs play weekend residencies in the resort clubs, pool parties run through the afternoon, you can carry a drink along the Strip, and it is still busy at three in the morning. Downtown's Fremont Street and the arts district offer cheaper dive bars and craft beer.

Newport has beach bars by the piers that fill with young locals on summer weekends, and calm harbour wine bars, but no real clubs. Last orders come at 2am and the town goes quiet out of season. Anyone after a big night here drives to Los Angeles.

Las Vegas looks out on desert and mountain. Red Rock Canyon, half an hour west, has sandstone cliffs for climbing and scenic drives, Valley of Fire has petroglyphs and flame-coloured washes, and Lake Mead suits kayaking among bare hills. From June to September those desert sites are only safe at dawn. Mount Charleston, an hour away and rising above 3,600m, stays cool enough for pine-forest walks in summer and has a small ski area in winter. A car is essential for all of it.

Newport's outdoors is coastal and gentler. You can cycle the loop around the Upper Newport Bay estuary and watch its herons and egrets, walk the bluff and canyon trails of Crystal Cove, paddle in the harbour, or take a boat out to see grey whales in winter and blue whales in summer.

Newport Beach is far better placed for outings. Laguna Beach's galleries are twenty minutes away, Mission San Juan Capistrano half an hour, and Catalina's harbour town of Avalon a ferry ride across. Los Angeles and San Diego are both possible in a day, as long as you allow for freeway traffic.

Las Vegas is isolated in the desert. Hoover Dam with Boulder City makes one good half day. After that, the trips sold on the Strip to the Grand Canyon, Zion or Death Valley are long drives to landscapes rather than to towns or heritage sites.

Newport Beach is much the easier choice with children. It has shallow water in the harbour, the ferris wheel at the Balboa Fun Zone, the car ferry, tide pools and bike paths, and Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm are within half an hour. The town is tidy and used to families. Expect plenty of time in the car.

Las Vegas can fill a day or two with its indoor amusement park, the shark aquarium and the Discovery Children's Museum. But casino floors stand between children and almost everything, and the Strip's late-night, adult tone is hard to avoid.

Las Vegas is the easier of the two without a car, though only up to a point. Most of what visitors come for lies along the 6km Strip. The monorail runs behind its east side, the buses run its length day and night and carry on to Fremont Street downtown, and taxis and ride-hailing fill the gaps. Resorts are further apart than they look, summer heat makes walking punishing, and the desert parks still need a car or a tour.

In Newport a car is really needed. Buses are slow and infrequent, and the town spreads along the coast and up the hills. The flat Balboa Peninsula with its boardwalk, Balboa Island and the little ferry between them are the exception, good for walking or cycling. Beach parking is scarce on summer weekends.

Las Vegas keeps its shopping indoors and open late, inside the resorts: the Roman arcade at Caesars Palace, the Venetian's canal-side shops and the luxury mall at the centre of the Strip, with Fashion Show for department stores and outlet centres north and south for bargains. It fits easily around a resort stay, but there is almost nothing local to take home.

Newport shops in the open air, in a centre among fountains and palms above the harbour, with one of the country's largest luxury malls ten minutes away in Costa Mesa. Boutiques along Coast Highway in Corona del Mar, nautical gift shops on Balboa Island and surf shops on the peninsula give it a little more local character.

Las Vegas is the less expensive of the two, if you plan for it. Midweek rooms on and near the Strip can be good value, downtown is cheaper still, and eating in Chinatown keeps costs down. Weekends, resort fees, shows and clubs push the bill up quickly.

Newport Beach offers few savings. Hotels by the water charge resort prices all summer, restaurants charge for the view, and car hire, fuel and parking come on top. Staying inland in Costa Mesa or Irvine helps only a little.

Las Vegas is a destination in its own right for live shows. Permanent theatres run acrobatic water spectacles, magicians and comedians every night, and stars take long residencies that you would rarely see elsewhere. The Smith Center downtown adds touring musicals and the Philharmonic.

Newport depends on its neighbour. The Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa, ten minutes away, has Broadway tours, ballet and the Pacific Symphony, and South Coast Repertory stages new American plays, a more serious offer than anything in Vegas. In town itself there is little beyond summer concerts by the water and bands in the beach bars.

Las Vegas has the grander spas, Newport the calmer setting. The Strip resorts run some of the country's largest hotel spas, with thermal circuits and salt and ice rooms open to day visitors, but they sit inside casinos built to keep you stimulated. A non-gaming hotel and spa time early in the day help.

Newport relaxes through its pace: morning walks on the bluffs, coffee by the harbour, sunsets over the water, with full spas at the hillside resorts and yoga studios around Corona del Mar. It is quieter away from the summer crowds on the peninsula.