Mammoth Lakes or Palm Springs?

Neither town is a beach destination, and both are hours from the ocean. Mammoth Lakes at least has natural water to swim in. In July and August people take a short, chilly dip at Horseshoe Lake in the Lakes Basin or in the slightly warmer Crowley Lake lower down.

Palm Springs has nowhere natural to swim, since the salty Salton Sea is no place for bathing. Swimming there means the pool at your hotel or rental house. The pools are pleasant and there is a long hot season to use them, but they are not a lake under the peaks.

Mammoth Lakes eats like the ski town it is: big breakfasts before the lifts, burgers, pizza, steakhouses and beer brewed in town. It fills you up after a day outside, but the choice is narrow and there is no dish of its own.

Palm Springs is not a place to travel for food either, but you will eat better there. There are long patio brunches along Palm Canyon Drive and date shakes made with fruit from the groves around Indio. The farming towns further east have honest Mexican taquerias and panaderias.

Mammoth Lakes has almost nothing to visit in town apart from a small history museum in a log cabin. The region's real history is at Bodie and Manzanar, an hour or more down the highway.

Palm Springs has a real subject in its mid-century modern architecture. Highlights include Albert Frey's angular houses, Richard Neutra's Kaufmann House and the folded roofs of Twin Palms and Vista Las Palmas, all best seen by bike or on a driving tour. The Palm Springs Art Museum and the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum, which tells the Cahuilla story, fill out a rewarding day.

In Mammoth Lakes, going out means après-ski. The bars near the lifts and in the Village fill in the late afternoon, and there are a few brewery taprooms. Out of season the town is asleep well before midnight.

Palm Springs has more of a scene, centred on the LGBTQ bars, patios and drag nights around Arenas Road. There are also retro cocktail lounges on Palm Canyon Drive and hotel pool parties at spring weekends. Neither town has real clubs, but in Palm Springs an evening out can be part of the trip.

Both are excellent bases for the outdoors, but Mammoth Lakes has more to offer. One of North America's largest ski areas rises above town and becomes a bike park once the snow melts. The Lakes Basin, Devils Postpile, Rainbow Falls and Mono Lake are all close. In summer Tioga Pass also opens the way to the Yosemite high country.

Palm Springs has the tramway up Mount San Jacinto, the palm oases of the Indian Canyons and Joshua Tree about an hour away, a superb winter landscape. In summer, though, the heat limits hiking to dawn or the upper mountain, while summer is Mammoth's best season for walking.

Neither town has grand excursions nearby, and you need a car for all of them. From Mammoth Lakes the outings are about history and empty country. Bodie's ghost town lies to the north, with Manzanar and Bishop to the south and Mono Lake and June Lake close by. In winter the closed Sierra passes cut the options further.

Palm Springs has quirkier and more varied trips: the pine village of Idyllwild, the old film set at Pioneertown and Salvation Mountain near the Salton Sea. The Temecula wineries are within reach, and Palm Desert and La Quinta are short hops.

For families who like the outdoors, Mammoth Lakes is the better choice. There are a large ski school and beginner slopes, a tubing hill, and rowing boats and trout fishing in the Lakes Basin. Condominiums with kitchens make daily life easier. The weak spot is a snowbound day with nothing indoors, and the altitude can tire young children at first.

Palm Springs has some good single outings: the Living Desert zoo, the tramway and the Air Museum. The town leans towards adults, though, with many adults-only boutique hotels, and from late spring the midday heat keeps everyone indoors.

In both towns a car helps, but Mammoth Lakes manages better without one. In winter, free shuttles and the gondola from the Village make a car-free ski trip realistic. In summer a trolley runs to the Lakes Basin and a shuttle goes into Reds Meadow. Beyond those routes you need to drive, and winter roads may call for snow chains.

Palm Springs has a flat, walkable downtown, and bikes are a good way to see the modernist neighbourhoods in the cooler months. Valley buses are slow and sparse, so the tramway, the canyons and Joshua Tree all need a car. The airport on the edge of town is a real convenience.

Shopping in Mammoth Lakes is about gear: ski, climbing and fly-fishing shops, rental outlets, a few galleries of landscape photography and souvenirs around the Village.

Palm Springs has a real speciality in mid-century furniture, lighting and vintage clothing, found in the consignment shops of the Uptown Design District. Village Fest, the weekly street fair, sells crafts and local food downtown. El Paseo in Palm Desert has the valley's luxury shops, and the big outlet centres at Cabazon are a short drive west.

Neither town is cheap, but Mammoth Lakes is the more expensive, above all in winter. Lift tickets, ski rental and peak-week lodging add up quickly. Summer and the shoulder months are kinder, and cooking in a condominium helps.

Palm Springs is expensive from winter into spring, but in the hottest months room rates fall sharply for anyone who can take the heat. Simple motels and supermarket picnics keep costs down all year. In both places, the cost of a car is part of the budget.

Mammoth Lakes has a community theatre company on the college campus, plus a long-running summer jazz festival and chamber concerts in mountain meadows. It is pleasant, but small.

Palm Springs offers much more. The McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert hosts touring shows and concerts, the valley's casinos book well-known acts, and drag cabaret and piano bars fill evenings in town. Each April the Coachella and Stagecoach festivals take over the polo grounds at Indio. Its programme largely stops in summer, which is when Mammoth's is at its fullest.

Mammoth Lakes has hot springs too, but they are wild ones: simple pools out in the sagebrush, reached by dirt road, with no facilities and often a crowd at sunset. Most rest here comes at the end of an active day, with a hotel hot tub or a massage after the slopes and then a quiet evening. Outside the busiest ski weeks, lakeside mornings and the slow pace make it easy to unwind, but few people come only to rest.

In Palm Springs the springs are part of the town itself, in developed pools you can walk to rather than drive out to find. Rest is also the point of the place, not a reward for hard exercise. Days start late and end with a drink as the evening light turns San Jacinto pink, and from winter into spring the quiet streets and mild days make it easy to do very little. In summer the heat keeps you by the pool whether you planned it or not.