Los Angeles or Taos?

Los Angeles has more than 100km of coast, from the Malibu coves at El Matador to the volleyball sands of Hermosa and Manhattan Beach. The cool Pacific means wetsuits and wading more than long swims, but beach days, surf and the bike path along the sand are central to a visit.

Taos sits on a high plateau far from any sea. The Rio Grande is for rafting, and the closest thing to a swim is a hotel pool or a hot spring.

This is one of the widest gaps between the two. Los Angeles feeds you through dozens of immigrant communities: Oaxacan kitchens in Mid-City, Thai Town, Little Ethiopia, Persian shops in Westwood and Koreatown's late-night soup houses. On top of those come a serious chef-led scene and California produce at the farmers' markets.

Taos does one thing with conviction: northern New Mexican cooking with red or green chile, plus horno bread from the Pueblo. It is worth tasting, but after a few days the choice runs out.

Los Angeles has much more to see: the Getty Center and Getty Villa, LACMA and the Broad, the Huntington's library and gardens, Hollywood's movie palaces and the Disney Concert Hall. Its weakness is age, with little beyond Olvera Street to show an old city.

Taos turns that around on a small scale. Taos Pueblo has been lived in for about a thousand years, and the buttressed church at Ranchos de Taos is famous from O'Keeffe's paintings. Add the small art-colony museums and you have two or three quiet days rather than a long art circuit.

Los Angeles gives you real choices after dark: velvet-rope clubs in Hollywood, the gay bars of Santa Monica Boulevard, cocktail rooms in old downtown banks and natural-wine bars in Highland Park. Last orders are at 2am, though, and moving between districts means a ride.

In Taos a night out is a margarita in an adobe hotel bar or a band in a saloon, and most evenings end soon after dinner.

Both are excellent for the outdoors, in different ways. Los Angeles mixes mountains and ocean. It has Griffith Park and Runyon Canyon inside the city, ridge trails above Malibu, the San Gabriels behind, and surfing, winter whale watching and boats to the Channel Islands. Traffic is the price of reaching any of it.

Taos edges ahead because wild country is the whole point of a stay. Wheeler Peak rises to 4,013m, rafters run the Taos Box in spring, and the West Rim has mountain biking and walks along the gorge. Allow for the altitude in your first days.

The day trips are about as good from one as from the other, but they lead to very different places. From Los Angeles you head along the coast: Santa Barbara and its mission, the ferry to Catalina, Laguna Beach's galleries, or inland to Ojai and the Temecula vineyards. When you set off decides how long you sit in traffic.

From Taos the outings are richer in history. The High Road passes old adobe villages such as Truchas and Las Trampas on the way to Chimayó and Santa Fe, and O'Keeffe country lies at Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch.

Los Angeles is one of the easiest big cities to bring children to. There are several theme parks, dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum, the Aquarium of the Pacific and the fun fair on Santa Monica Pier. The only real effort is planning around the drives.

Taos suits outdoor families who are happy with ski lessons, float trips and horse riding. It has no zoo or aquarium, and the altitude can tire younger children at first.

Plan on a car in both. Los Angeles is a little easier, because Metro rail links downtown with Hollywood, Pasadena, Long Beach and Santa Monica, and Venice and Old Pasadena are pleasant to explore on foot. The catch is the jammed freeways between districts.

In Taos you can walk the plaza and Bent Street, and that is all. The Pueblo, the gorge, the ski valley and the High Road all need your own wheels, and the trip usually starts with a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Albuquerque airport.

Los Angeles covers nearly every kind of shopping: luxury on Rodeo Drive, streetwear and vintage on Melrose, independent shops on Abbot Kinney, and the Rose Bowl flea market for serious hunting.

Taos is a specialist. It is good for galleries, turquoise and silver, Rio Grande weaving and micaceous pottery bought straight from makers at the Pueblo. Beyond that there is little to browse.

Taos is the cheaper of the two, but neither is a bargain. In Los Angeles the cost comes from coastal hotels, parking, long rides across the city and theme park tickets, softened by cheap taco trucks and free sights such as Griffith Observatory and the Getty.

Taos has simple motels and fair-priced diners. Historic inns and ski-valley lodging charge resort rates, though, and you need a hire car here too. Spring and late autumn are the cheapest times to go.

Los Angeles has a full calendar. The Philharmonic plays at the Disney Concert Hall, LA Opera performs at the Music Center, bands play on the Sunset Strip and in Echo Park clubs, Hollywood has top-rank improv theatres, and Leimert Park has jazz.

Taos offers rare moments rather than a programme. Pueblo feast-day dances such as San Gerónimo can be watched under strict rules, and a summer chamber music festival brings serious concerts. Most other nights there is little to attend.

The two are equally good for relaxing, in different ways. Los Angeles has Koreatown's bathhouses, with their hot and cold pools, scrubs and heated floors, often open late or around the clock, plus spas and yoga studios everywhere. The city itself is not restful, though.

Taos is calm by nature. Its pace and silence do most of the work, helped by outdoor mineral pools at Ojo Caliente and primitive hot springs by the Rio Grande at the bottom of the gorge.