Los Angeles or Sonoma?

Los Angeles has more than 100km of shore. It runs from the Malibu coves at Zuma and El Matador to the volleyball nets, bike path and boardwalk of Santa Monica, Venice and the South Bay. The water is cool, so this is a coast for surfing and sunbathing more than swimming, but the beach is part of everyday life.

Sonoma has no beach of its own. The coast around Bodega Bay is well over an hour away and colder still, a shore of headlands for looking at rather than swimming. In summer, a swim means a hotel pool or the gravel banks of the Russian River.

Los Angeles wins on breadth. Its immigrant kitchens give you tacos on the Eastside, charcoal barbecue in Koreatown, regional Chinese food in the San Gabriel Valley, and Thai Town and Little Ethiopia besides. On top of that come chef-driven restaurants and year-round farmers' markets. The price is the long drive between them.

Sonoma does one thing well. Wine from the valley and the Carneros hills comes with seasonal Californian cooking, local cheese and coast oysters, around the plaza and in Glen Ellen. It is wonderful for a long lunch, but there is little street food, late eating or choice of cuisines.

Los Angeles has a real art circuit: the Getty Center and Getty Villa, LACMA, the Broad and the Huntington's library and gardens. Add Hollywood's studio lots and movie palaces and the Walt Disney Concert Hall. What it lacks is an old town, and the sights are a long drive apart.

Sonoma has, on a small scale, the history Los Angeles is missing. Its plaza is where the Bear Flag Revolt took place in 1846, and Mission San Francisco Solano, the adobe barracks and General Vallejo's house all stand close together. Together they make a pleasant half day rather than a reason to come.

On nightlife the two are far apart. Los Angeles has guest-list clubs in Hollywood, the gay bars of West Hollywood, rooftop cocktail bars downtown and dive bars in Silver Lake and Echo Park. Bars stop serving at 2am, though, and a night usually stays in one neighbourhood.

In Sonoma the evening is dinner followed by a glass in a wine bar or saloon on the plaza, and the town is quiet by late evening. For a real night out, people drive to Santa Rosa.

Los Angeles has more range. Griffith Park and Runyon Canyon are inside the city, the Santa Monica Mountains run down to Malibu, and the San Gabriels rise above 3,000m, with snow on Mount Baldy in winter. The coast adds surfing, winter whale watching and boats to the Channel Islands. Traffic is the hurdle.

Sonoma's outdoors is gentler and right on the doorstep. Trails climb from the plaza to the Sonoma Overlook, there are redwoods and views at Sugarloaf Ridge, and flat back roads through the vines are good for cycling. In both places, summer heat and the fire season make inland trails harder going.

Sonoma is better placed for day trips. San Francisco is about an hour away, close enough for a full day of sights before returning to the valley. Napa, Healdsburg, Petaluma's Victorian river town and Sausalito on the bay are all near, although many outings are simply another wine town.

From Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Catalina and Laguna Beach make good days out, but traffic can stretch every drive by an hour. Palm Springs and San Diego sit at the very edge of what a day allows.

Few cities give children as much to do as Los Angeles. Disneyland is in Anaheim, Knott's Berry Farm is in neighbouring Buena Park, and Universal Studios and the roller coasters of Six Flags Magic Mountain are also within reach. Between theme-park days come the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum, the fossil pits at La Brea, the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach and the small fun fair on Santa Monica Pier. Families do best with a car and one area a day.

Sonoma is safe and calm, but its days are built around tasting rooms. A playground on the plaza, a miniature railway south of town and an African wildlife park near Santa Rosa will not fill many days. That is why families often stay in San Francisco and come to Sonoma for a day.

You will want a car in both, but the problem is different. Los Angeles is a basin of scattered cities joined by jammed freeways. Metro rail links downtown with Hollywood, Pasadena, Long Beach and Santa Monica, and areas such as Venice and Old Pasadena are pleasant on foot, but crossing town takes time.

Sonoma's plaza is compact and walkable, with tasting rooms a few blocks apart. Beyond it there is no useful bus service, and the wineries are scattered along the valley. A driver or tour solves the question of who drives after tasting, and cycling covers the nearby vineyards.

Los Angeles is a serious shopping city. Rodeo Drive has the luxury houses, Melrose mixes streetwear and vintage, Abbot Kinney is lined with independents, and the Rose Bowl flea market rewards an early start. Local style runs to surf, denim and relaxed Californian labels.

Sonoma's shopping is a stroll round the plaza arcades. It has galleries, kitchen shops, olive oil and cheese, and above all wine bought at the winery. It is good for gifts, but there is little fashion.

Neither is cheap, but Los Angeles leaves more ways to save. Hotels, the hire car, parking and theme-park tickets cost a lot. Taco trucks and San Gabriel Valley restaurants feed you well for little, though, and the beaches, Griffith Observatory and the Getty's collections are free.

Sonoma has fewer ways around the cost. Rooms are scarce and priced for wine-country weekends, restaurants aim at well-off visitors, tasting fees add up and there is no cheap street food. Staying in Santa Rosa or Petaluma and picnicking among the vines helps.

Los Angeles is a major music city. The Philharmonic plays at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and moves to the Hollywood Bowl in summer. LA Opera and big productions play at the Music Center, there are rock rooms on the Sunset Strip and jazz in Leimert Park, and Hollywood's comedy and improv clubs are among the best.

Sonoma's season is short and mostly outdoors, with concerts at Jack London State Historic Park and at wineries, plus some live shows at the 1930s theatre on the plaza. The Green Music Center, about half an hour away, brings in touring orchestras, but for opera or theatre you go to San Francisco.

The two are fairly level, but they relax you in different ways. Los Angeles has the Korean bathhouses of Koreatown, with hot and cold pools, scrubs and heated floors open late, plus yoga studios and luxury spas. The city around them, with its traffic, is anything but restful.

Sonoma has a single historic spring at Boyes Hot Springs, which feeds a resort spa that sells day passes. Bathing there comes at resort prices. What Sonoma really offers is pace: quiet mornings on the plaza and silent evenings, with Calistoga's mud baths about an hour away.