Los Angeles or Palm Desert?

Los Angeles has a real coastline, more than 100km of it, from the Malibu coves through Santa Monica and Venice to the South Bay. There are surf breaks, volleyball nets and a bike path along the sand. The water is cool, though, so it suits surfing in a wetsuit or an afternoon on the sand better than a warm-sea swim.

Palm Desert has no beach at all. The coast is about two hours away over the mountains, and nobody swims in the Salton Sea. Here, water means the resort pool, often heated in winter, which is fine for lounging but has no surf.

For eating, the gap is wide. Los Angeles has the immigrant kitchens that make food a reason to travel: street tacos on the Eastside, charcoal barbecue in Koreatown, regional Chinese in the San Gabriel Valley, plus Thai Town and Little Ethiopia. Grand Central Market is an easy place to graze.

Palm Desert offers dependable resort dining along El Paseo. Its steakhouses and patio bistros suit a warm evening but rarely surprise. The local flavour is found further east in the valley, in the Mexican taquerias around Indio and the date shakes from the groves nearby.

Los Angeles has a full art circuit, from the Getty Center and Getty Villa to LACMA, the Broad and the Huntington. Add Griffith Observatory, Hollywood's old movie palaces and the Walt Disney Concert Hall. It has no old town, but there are several days of sightseeing.

Palm Desert, a resort town built after the Second World War, has a branch of the Palm Springs Art Museum with a sculpture garden, plus the galleries on El Paseo. Together they fill a morning. The valley's real architectural interest is the mid-century modern houses of Palm Springs.

A night out in Los Angeles can mean Hollywood clubs with guest lists, the gay strip in West Hollywood, rooftop bars downtown or dive bars in Silver Lake, although bars close at 2am and a night usually stays in one district. Palm Desert goes to bed early, with wine bars and patio happy hours around El Paseo, and for a late night you have to go to the casinos or downtown Palm Springs.

Both have mountains within easy reach, but Los Angeles offers more variety. Griffith Park and Runyon Canyon are inside the city, the Santa Monica Mountains run down to the sea and the San Gabriels rise behind. On the coast there is surfing, whale watching and boats out to the Channel Islands, and you can be outdoors in almost every month.

Palm Desert's landscape is drier and starker. Trails climb the Santa Rosa Mountains from the edge of town, the Indian Canyons hide palm oases, and the boulders and night skies of Joshua Tree are about an hour away. In summer the heat leaves only the hours around dawn for being outside.

Los Angeles has the stronger list of day trips. It is led by Santa Barbara, with its mission and red-tile streets, followed by Catalina Island by ferry and the galleries of Laguna Beach, although traffic can stretch any of these.

Palm Desert's outings are quirkier: Palm Springs twenty minutes away, the old Western film set at Pioneertown, cool Idyllwild in the mountains and the painted hillside of Salvation Mountain. Temecula wine country can be reached from either, and each city is only just within day-trip range of the other.

Los Angeles is one of the easiest places to keep children busy. It has Disneyland, Universal Studios and Magic Mountain, the space shuttle at the California Science Center, the fossils of the La Brea Tar Pits and the Aquarium of the Pacific, as well as beaches and the Santa Monica Pier.

Palm Desert's main attraction for children is The Living Desert, a zoo and botanical garden worth a full morning. The tramway in Palm Springs and the resort pools and slides fill the rest of the time. It is calm and safe, but the valley is built for golf and adults, and summer middays are too hot for small children.

Neither works without a car, but Los Angeles at least has Metro rail linking downtown, Hollywood, Pasadena, Long Beach and Santa Monica, plus walkable areas such as Venice and Old Pasadena, although jammed freeways shape every day. Palm Desert has slow buses and a few strollable blocks of El Paseo, so a hire car is essential there, but its roads are clear and parking is easy.

Los Angeles covers every level, from the luxury houses on Rodeo Drive to streetwear on Melrose, independent shops on Abbot Kinney and vintage at the Rose Bowl flea market. Palm Desert is narrower: upscale boutiques and galleries on El Paseo, a chain mall and a big designer outlet half an hour west, with mid-century furniture and vintage shops in nearby Palm Springs.

Neither is cheap, but Palm Desert is easier on the budget, especially from June to September, when the heat empties the town and resort rooms drop sharply. Chain hotels and vacation rentals there are reasonable all year, though golf and spa treatments add up fast.

Los Angeles costs more at almost every turn: expensive rooms near the coast, a hire car with parking, and steep theme park tickets. The savings come from excellent cheap food at taco trucks and in Koreatown, and from free sights such as the beaches and Griffith Observatory.

Los Angeles has a deep programme. The LA Philharmonic plays at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and in summer at the Hollywood Bowl, and there is LA Opera, Broadway tours at the Pantages, rock venues on the Sunset Strip, jazz in Leimert Park and some of the best comedy clubs anywhere.

Palm Desert depends on the winter season at the McCallum Theatre, with touring shows, ballet and well-known singers, plus concerts at the casinos. Its big moment is Coachella and then Stagecoach at the Indio polo grounds each spring, but they last only a few weekends.

Los Angeles has a remarkable bathing scene in Koreatown, where the bathhouses offer hot and cold pools, body scrubs and heated floors late into the night. Yoga studios and Beverly Hills spas add more. The city around them is not restful, though, and the traffic wears away the calm.

Palm Desert is better if the whole trip is about unwinding. The town runs at a retreat pace of resort spas, afternoons by the pool and early nights, and the mineral-spring pools of Desert Hot Springs are half an hour north. The desert is where many Angelenos go when they want to slow down.