Los Angeles or Miami?

This is Miami's strongest suit. Its long strip of pale sand runs from South Beach to Surfside, and the warm, gentle Atlantic means real swimming in every month, with Key Biscayne's calm shallows for quieter days. The setting is flat and built-up, and sargassum can wash in during the warm months.

Los Angeles has more variety of shore, from the Malibu coves of El Matador to the volleyball nets of Manhattan Beach, and surfing is part of everyday life. But the cold Pacific makes it a place for walking the sand and riding waves, not for long swims.

Los Angeles eats more widely. Korean barbecue, regional Chinese cooking in the San Gabriel Valley, Oaxacan kitchens and Ethiopian, Armenian and Thai neighbourhoods sit alongside a serious chef scene and year-round farmers' markets.

Miami's cooking is narrower but has a strong character of its own, built on Cuban lunch counters, cafecito from ventanita windows and Caribbean and South American kitchens. Stone crab and grouper sandwiches give it a seafood side that Los Angeles does not focus on. You go to Miami for flavour of one region, and to Los Angeles for range.

Los Angeles has more to fill a culture trip. The Getty Center and Getty Villa, LACMA, the Broad and the Huntington add up to a serious art circuit, and Hollywood's movie palaces and studio lots are sights in their own right.

Miami's best culture is its streetscape: the pastel 1930s hotels of the Art Deco district, Vizcaya's villa and gardens, and Wynwood's murals. Its museums are smaller and a few days covers them. Neither city has much old heritage, but Miami's Art Deco quarter can be seen on foot in a single area, which Los Angeles never manages.

Miami is the bigger night out. South Beach's clubs bring international DJs and bottle tables, the downtown venues run until dawn, and Calle Ocho adds salsa nights. Bring money and stamina.

Los Angeles is strong but shuts earlier, with last orders at 2am and a ride between districts. Its strengths lie elsewhere: the gay bars of West Hollywood, the dive bars of Silver Lake and Echo Park, and rooftop cocktails in old downtown banks.

Los Angeles has much wilder country nearby. You can hike up Mount Hollywood in Griffith Park, walk the ridge trails of the Santa Monica Mountains or drive into the San Gabriels, which rise above 3,000m and get winter snow. Add surfing and boats out to the Channel Islands, and there is plenty to do outdoors in almost every month.

Miami is flat and watery, and its outdoors is about wildlife and the sea. Alligators and wading birds line the Everglades boardwalks, and there is snorkelling in Biscayne Bay and off Key Largo. Summer heat and mosquitoes keep it to the winter months.

Santa Barbara, up the coast from Los Angeles, is a better day out than anything near Miami, with its mission, red-tile streets and the Santa Ynez vineyards behind it. Catalina's harbour town, Ojai's orange groves and the Laguna coast are good alternatives, though traffic decides how far you get.

Around Miami the towns are pleasant but less memorable. Palm Beach's Gilded Age mansions and the seafood shacks of the Upper Keys each make a good day. Key West is too far for a day, so most spare days end up on the beach or in the Everglades.

Los Angeles is one of the easiest cities to fill with children's days. Disneyland, Universal Studios and Magic Mountain are within reach, the La Brea Tar Pits and the space shuttle add learning, and the Santa Monica Pier adds a small fun fair.

Miami relies on its warm, calm sea and the quieter beaches at Key Biscayne and North Beach. Zoo Miami, the Frost Science Museum and the Venetian Pool fill other days, but the big rides are hours away and summer heat is punishing for young children.

Both are car cities, but Miami is somewhat easier to manage. If you stay in South Beach you can walk or cycle locally, the free Metromover links downtown and Brickell, and short rides cover Wynwood and Little Havana.

Los Angeles spreads its sights across a far larger basin. Hollywood, Santa Monica, Pasadena and downtown are long, often jammed drives apart, so most visitors hire a car and plan each day around one area.

Shopping in Los Angeles runs from the luxury houses of Rodeo Drive to the vintage stalls of the Rose Bowl flea market, and it covers more ground in between. Melrose mixes streetwear with designer boutiques, Abbot Kinney is lined with independent shops, and Silver Lake suits records and design objects.

Miami matches it at the top end, with the Design District's flagship stores, the exclusive open-air mall at Bal Harbour and the enormous Aventura Mall. Below that level the choice thins out. Apart from guayaberas and Cuban cigars in Little Havana, there is little in the way of markets, vintage or local design.

Neither city is cheap, but the bills build up in different ways. In Los Angeles the hire car, parking, long rides and theme park tickets add up. In Miami the damage comes from beachfront resort fees and South Beach club drinks.

Each city has cheap food to soften it: taco trucks and Koreatown in Los Angeles, Cuban lunch counters and bakeries in Miami. Miami's hot, stormy summer also brings cheaper rooms, if you can bear the heat.

The Philharmonic alone gives Los Angeles a stage Miami cannot match, with a full season at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and summer nights at the Hollywood Bowl. The Music Center adds the opera. Beyond those big stages come the rock rooms of the Sunset Strip, Hollywood's improv theatres and jazz in Leimert Park.

Miami has a few institutions of real standing, including Miami City Ballet and the New World Symphony in its Gehry building. Its season is concentrated in winter, and its most distinctive sound is the salsa and timba of Little Havana's clubs.

Los Angeles has a proper bathing culture in Koreatown's late-night bathhouses, with hot and cold pools, scrubs and heated floors, plus yoga everywhere and retreats in Ojai and the Palm Springs desert.

Miami's wellness centres on hotel spas with ocean views, sunrise yoga on the sand and one long-established Russian and Turkish bath house. Rest there means the pool and shade of Key Biscayne or Surfside.