Los Angeles or Palm Springs?

This is no contest. Los Angeles has more than 100km of shore, from the Malibu coves of Zuma and El Matador to the volleyball nets of Santa Monica and the surf breaks of the South Bay. The cool Pacific means most visitors wear a wetsuit or only wade.

Palm Springs is a desert town two hours from the ocean, so swimming means the hotel pool. Those pools are a pleasure for much of the year, but anyone who wants sand and waves should choose Los Angeles.

Los Angeles is one of the reasons people travel to eat in America. It has charcoal barbecue in Koreatown, regional Chinese cooking in the San Gabriel Valley, taco trucks across the Eastside, Thai Town and Little Ethiopia, and a serious chef-driven scene on top. You will drive between them, but it is worth it.

Palm Springs eats more gently, with long brunches on shaded patios and mid-range American cooking along Palm Canyon Drive. Date shakes from the Indio groves and the taquerias further down the valley are worth seeking out, but fine dining is thin.

Los Angeles has much more to see: the Getty Center and Getty Villa, LACMA and the Broad, the Huntington's library and gardens, Griffith Observatory and the old movie palaces of Hollywood. It has no old town, though, and the sights are long drives apart.

Palm Springs has one strong subject, and it covers it very well. The Frey and Neutra houses and the folded roofs of Twin Palms and Vista Las Palmas draw mid-century design fans from far away. The Art Museum and the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum complete a short list.

The gap here is one of scale. A night out in Los Angeles can mean velvet-rope clubs in Hollywood, rooftop bars in old downtown bank buildings, dive bars in Silver Lake and Echo Park, or West Hollywood's gay strip on Santa Monica Boulevard. Bars stop serving at 2am and the districts are far apart, so most nights stay in one area.

Palm Springs is small and sociable instead. The LGBTQ bars of Arenas Road, drag nights, retro cocktail lounges and spring pool parties make for a friendly evening, but there are hardly any clubs and most places close early.

Both are strong for the outdoors, but in different ways. Los Angeles combines mountains and ocean: hikes in Griffith Park and the Santa Monica Mountains, pine forest in the San Gabriels, surfing at Malibu, winter whale watching and boats to the Channel Islands.

Palm Springs is all desert and mountain. The tramway lifts you to pine forest on Mount San Jacinto, the Indian Canyons hide palm oases, and the boulders and night skies of Joshua Tree are about an hour away. Its outdoor season runs from autumn to spring. Los Angeles works in more months, but you lose more time in traffic getting to the trailheads.

Santa Barbara, up the coast from Los Angeles, is the best day out on offer to either city: Spanish Colonial streets, an old mission and the Santa Ynez wine country behind it. Add the ferry to Catalina and Laguna Beach with the mission at San Juan Capistrano, and the choice is wide. Palm Springs itself is at the far edge of a day out. Traffic decides how far you get.

From Palm Springs the outings are smaller and odder: the pine village of Idyllwild, the old film set at Pioneertown, and Salvation Mountain by the Salton Sea. They make good half days, but there are fewer of them.

Los Angeles gives children far more to do: Disneyland, Universal Studios and Magic Mountain, the space shuttle at the California Science Center, the La Brea Tar Pits and the Aquarium of the Pacific. The price is logistics, with a car and a lot of driving.

Palm Springs suits a quieter pool vacation with a few outings, such as the Living Desert, the Air Museum and the tramway up to the winter snow. Many boutique hotels are adults-only, so families usually stay in the big resorts down the valley.

Both need a car, and neither makes getting around easy. Los Angeles at least has Metro lines linking downtown with Hollywood, Pasadena, Long Beach and Santa Monica, but most days still mean jammed freeways between scattered districts.

Palm Springs is small, so the downtown strip is easy to walk, bikes reach the mid-century neighbourhoods in the cooler months, and the airport is on the edge of town. Beyond that, the canyons, the rest of the valley and Joshua Tree all mean driving, and in summer it is too hot to walk at midday.

Los Angeles is a serious shopping city, with luxury houses on Rodeo Drive, streetwear and vintage on Melrose, independent boutiques on Abbot Kinney and the Rose Bowl flea market for vintage hunters.

Palm Springs has one real speciality: mid-century furniture, lighting and vintage clothes in the Uptown Design District. With El Paseo in Palm Desert and the Cabazon outlets added, it makes a good day's shopping, but it has nothing like the variety of Los Angeles.

Neither is cheap, but Palm Springs costs less. Its high season from winter into spring brings resort prices, but in summer rooms drop sharply for anyone who can bear the heat, and simple motels keep costs down all year.

Los Angeles adds up quickly: costly hotels in the popular districts, tax and tips on meals, a hire car with parking, and theme park tickets. Taco trucks and free sights such as the beaches and the Getty help, but it is still the more expensive trip.

Los Angeles is a major music city. It has the Philharmonic at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl, LA Opera at the Music Center, Broadway tours at the Pantages, rock rooms on the Sunset Strip, Hollywood comedy clubs and jazz in Leimert Park.

Palm Springs relies on drag cabaret, piano bars and touring shows at the McCallum Theatre, with concerts at the casinos around the valley. Its big moment is April, when Coachella and Stagecoach fill the polo grounds in Indio. There is no resident orchestra or opera, and summer goes quiet.

Palm Springs grew up around a hot spring, and soaking is still central to a stay. The Agua Caliente bathhouse downtown and the spa motels of Desert Hot Springs fill their pools with natural mineral water. Days of pools and pink evening light on the mountains make it easy to rest.

Los Angeles has a real draw in the Korean bathhouses of Koreatown, open late or around the clock, plus yoga studios and luxury spas. The city around them is tiring, though, and people who want real calm often drive out to Ojai or to Palm Springs itself.