Los Angeles or Mammoth Lakes?

Los Angeles has a real coast, more than 100km of it, from the coves of Malibu to the volleyball courts of Hermosa and the boardwalk at Venice. The Pacific is cool, so most people wade or surf rather than swim, but the beach culture is genuine.

Mammoth Lakes is far from the sea. The nearest thing to a swim is a cold summer dip at Horseshoe Lake or Crowley Lake, and the inviting pools at Hot Creek are off limits.

Food is a reason to choose Los Angeles. Its immigrant communities cook their own cuisines in Koreatown, Thai Town and the San Gabriel Valley, and it also has serious chef-led restaurants and Grand Central Market for grazing. The catch is that you drive between them.

Mammoth Lakes feeds people well after a day outside, with big breakfasts, burgers, steak and beer brewed in town. There is no local cuisine and no market scene, though, and some kitchens close or cut back in the quiet months.

Los Angeles is a twentieth-century city to look at. Griffith Observatory gazes across the basin to the Hollywood Sign, the Walk of Fame and the old movie palaces line Hollywood Boulevard, and the studio lots show where films are made. Architecture is a reason to come in itself, from the steel curves of Frank Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall to the Art Deco towers downtown and the mid-century houses. There is no old quarter to speak of, since Olvera Street is small, and the sights lie far apart.

Mammoth Lakes has almost nothing to see in town. It grew from a mining camp into a ski resort, so its streets are modern lodges, condominiums and the pedestrian Village. A single small history museum tells the mining story, and people come here for the mountains instead.

Los Angeles has several kinds of night out in different places. There are velvet-rope clubs in Hollywood, the gay bars of Santa Monica Boulevard, cocktail rooms in old downtown banks and dive bars in Echo Park. The bars close at 2am and each district needs a ride, but the choice is wide.

Mammoth Lakes has après-ski and little else. The Village bars and brewery taprooms fill up at the end of the ski day, and outside the busy winter weekends the town is quiet well before midnight.

Los Angeles does well for a big city, with Griffith Park, the ridge trails of the Santa Monica Mountains and surfing at Malibu. You will spend a lot of time in traffic getting to them, and the summer heat and fire season limit the inland hiking.

Mammoth Lakes is built around the outdoors, and it is the stronger of the two by a wide margin. The ski mountain rises right above town and often runs into early summer, and the granite lakes of the Lakes Basin are just beyond it. Devils Postpile and Mono Lake's tufa towers are a short drive further, and Tioga Pass leads to Yosemite's high country about an hour away.

From Los Angeles there is a good choice of outings. Santa Barbara has its mission and red-tiled streets, Catalina is a ferry ride away, and Laguna Beach, Ojai and Palm Springs are all within a drive. Traffic decides how far you get in a day.

Mammoth Lakes has fewer places to go, and they lie a long way apart along the highway. Bodie ghost town and Manzanar are the strongest, and Mono Lake and June Lake are short outings. When the passes close in winter, most trips go into the mountains rather than to other towns.

Los Angeles gives children a great deal: Disneyland, Universal Studios, the space shuttle at the California Science Center, the La Brea Tar Pits and the aquarium in Long Beach. It works best if parents plan one area per day and accept the driving.

Mammoth Lakes suits outdoor families well. It has a ski school, a snow tubing hill, rowing boats on the lakes and a gondola to the summit. It has nothing indoors for a stormy day, though, and the altitude can tire young children for the first day or two.

Mammoth Lakes is the easier of the two to manage. In winter, free shuttles and the Village gondola make a ski vacation possible without a car, and in summer a trolley and a shuttle cover the Lakes Basin and Reds Meadow. You still need a car to explore the wider Eastern Sierra.

Los Angeles covers a whole basin, and its freeways are often jammed. The Metro reaches Santa Monica, Hollywood, Pasadena and Long Beach, but most visitors still hire a car or use ride-hailing and walk only within single neighbourhoods.

Los Angeles is a real shopping city. It has luxury houses on Rodeo Drive, streetwear and vintage on Melrose, independent shops on Abbot Kinney, and the flea market at the Rose Bowl for serious bargain hunters.

Mammoth Lakes sells what you need for the mountains: ski and climbing gear, fly-fishing tackle, rental shops and landscape photography. For anything else, people wait until they are back in a city.

Both places are expensive, but in different ways. In Los Angeles the costs build up through hotels near the coast, tips and tax on meals, and a hire car with fuel and parking. Taco trucks, Koreatown and the free beaches and Getty soften the bill.

In Mammoth Lakes the cost depends on the season. Lift tickets and peak ski-week lodging are steep, while a summer of hiking and lakes costs little beyond a park pass. Self-catering in a condominium is the usual way to save, which Los Angeles rarely needs.

In Los Angeles you can plan a trip around performances. The Philharmonic plays at Disney Hall and the Hollywood Bowl, LA Opera is at the Music Center, rock bands play the Sunset Strip and improv runs every night in Hollywood.

Mammoth Lakes offers a community theatre on the college campus, and in summer a jazz festival and chamber concerts in a meadow. These are pleasant evenings, but not a reason to go.

Los Angeles has the more developed wellness scene, mostly thanks to Koreatown's bathhouses with their hot and cold pools and body scrubs, many open late. It also has the spas of Beverly Hills and yoga studios everywhere, but the city itself is not restful.

Mammoth Lakes offers something simpler: soaking in a primitive hot spring in the sagebrush with the Sierra across the valley, then a hot tub at your lodge. It is calmer than Los Angeles but has fewer facilities.