Mammoth Lakes or Palm Desert?

Neither town is a beach destination, but Mammoth Lakes at least has natural water. In July and August you can take a cold dip in Horseshoe Lake or the slightly warmer Crowley Lake, and the shores are good for paddling and fishing.

Palm Desert has no open water to swim in. The Salton Sea is out of the question and the coast is two hours away. Swimming here means the resort pool, heated in winter and pleasant, but never wild.

Palm Desert eats a little better. The resort restaurants along El Paseo are polished if rather alike, but the taquerias and bakeries of Indio and Coachella and the date shakes from the groves give it a regional flavour, and Palm Springs is close for more choice.

Mammoth Lakes serves filling ski-town food, from big breakfasts to steakhouses and craft beer brewed in town. It does this well for a small place, but there is nothing you would travel for.

Neither town is built for sightseeing, but Palm Desert has more within reach. The sculpture garden at the Palm Springs Art Museum branch and the galleries of El Paseo fill a morning, and the mid-century modern houses of Palm Springs are only twenty minutes away.

In Mammoth Lakes, culture comes down to a small history museum in a log cabin. The region's heritage sites, such as Bodie, are an hour or more away.

Both are early-to-bed towns, and the difference is in the kind of evening. Mammoth Lakes livens up with après-ski in the Village and brewery taprooms in winter, and long ski weekends can run late, but summer nights are quiet.

Palm Desert's evenings mean patio cocktails and wine bars on El Paseo, among golfers and retirees. For a later night you drive to the valley's casinos or to the bars of Palm Springs, including its well-known gay scene.

This is Mammoth Lakes' strongest card. A huge ski mountain rises above the town, and in summer the same area offers a bike park, the granite-ringed Lakes Basin, Rainbow Falls, the tufa towers of Mono Lake and Tuolumne Meadows over Tioga Pass. Few places can match that variety through the seasons.

Palm Desert has a fine desert setting of its own: the Santa Rosa Mountains, the palm oases of the Indian Canyons and Joshua Tree about an hour away. But it is a winter landscape, and in summer the heat leaves only the hours around dawn for being outdoors.

Palm Desert has more places to go. Palm Springs is twenty minutes away, and Temecula wine country, the cool mountain village of Idyllwild, the old film set at Pioneertown and painted Salvation Mountain make for varied days out.

From Mammoth Lakes, outings are long drives along one highway. The Bodie ghost town and the Manzanar internment site are both memorable, but there are few such places, and in winter the Sierra passes close.

Mammoth Lakes has the edge for active families. In winter there is a ski school and a tubing hill, and in summer rowing boats, trout fishing and the gondola to the summit keep children busy outdoors. Condominiums with kitchens make life easier. However, there is nothing indoors for a snowbound day, and the altitude can tire small children at first.

Palm Desert has the Living Desert zoo, resort pools with slides and the tramway in Palm Springs. Beyond that, the valley caters to golfers and adults, and summer middays are too hot for little ones.

Neither is a place to go without a car, but Mammoth Lakes manages better. In winter, free shuttles and the gondola from the Village mean a ski stay can work without driving. In summer, a trolley and a shuttle reach the Lakes Basin and Reds Meadow, although you need a car for the wider Eastern Sierra.

Palm Desert is a spread of resorts and wide boulevards, and its buses are slow and little used. Only a few blocks of El Paseo are made for walking, but quiet roads and easy parking make driving painless.

Mammoth Lakes is a place to kit yourself out rather than to shop. Its ski, snowboard, climbing and fly-fishing specialists are worth knowing if you need to hire or replace gear and want advice on local conditions. A Sierra landscape print from one of the photography galleries is about the only souvenir worth carrying home, and there is little in the way of clothes, gifts or browsing for its own sake.

Palm Desert treats shopping as one of the pleasures of a stay. El Paseo is lined with fashion boutiques, jewellers and art galleries that cater to a wealthy winter crowd, so you can spend an afternoon looking at clothes, jewellery and paintings that have nothing to do with sport. A large indoor mall nearby has the familiar American chains. Local goods are few, but a box of Medjool dates from one of the date farms, or something from the weekly street fair, makes a better gift than a T-shirt from the Village.

Both are American resort towns with prices to match, but Palm Desert is easier on a budget. Chain hotels and vacation rentals offer cheaper stays all year, and in the summer heat resort rooms drop to a fraction of their winter rates. A hire car is a steady extra cost.

Mammoth Lakes is at its most expensive in the ski season, when lift tickets, rental and lodging add up fast. Summer and the shoulder months are kinder, and a self-catering condominium is the usual way to save.

Palm Desert has the real stage. Through the winter the McCallum Theatre hosts touring Broadway shows, ballet, orchestras and well-known singers, and the casinos add big concerts. Coachella and Stagecoach take over the polo grounds in Indio for a few spring weekends.

Mammoth Lakes offers smaller pleasures: community theatre on the college campus, and in summer a jazz festival, chamber music and outdoor concerts with the mountains as a backdrop.

Palm Desert was built for slowing down. Its resorts have full spas and long poolside afternoons, and the dry, sunny winter is a reason to come in itself. Desert Hot Springs, half an hour north, adds small hotels with pools filled straight from mineral springs.

Mammoth Lakes offers a wilder kind of soak, in primitive hot pools out in the sagebrush with the Sierra across the valley. These have no facilities, and the spas and hot tubs in the lodges are mostly about easing legs after a day on the slopes.