Mammoth Lakes or Santa Monica?

Santa Monica has a real beach and Mammoth Lakes does not. Its wide pale sand runs the length of the town, and more scenic coves lie towards Point Dume. The catch is a cool Pacific that many visitors only wade in.

In Mammoth Lakes, swimming means a brief, cold dip in Horseshoe Lake or the slightly warmer Crowley Lake in July and August. Most people go to the shore to paddle or fish rather than swim.

Santa Monica eats noticeably better. The Wednesday farmers market shapes seasonal Californian menus, and there is good seafood, brunch on Main Street and Montana Avenue, and more creative places over the line in Venice.

In Mammoth Lakes, eating means refuelling after the slopes or trails: big breakfasts, burgers, steakhouses and beer brewed in town. A few restaurants also scale back in the quiet spring and autumn months.

Mammoth Lakes has almost nothing to see in town. It grew from a mining camp into a ski resort, so it is mostly lodges and condominiums, and a small history museum in a log cabin covers nearly everything there is. Its real heritage sites, Bodie and Manzanar, are an hour or more away.

Santa Monica has more to offer a curious visitor. It has the early twentieth-century pier with the end-of-Route-66 sign, the galleries of Bergamot Station and some Art Deco buildings near the ocean. Most importantly, the Getty Center and the Getty Villa are a short drive away.

Evenings in Mammoth Lakes follow the ski calendar. In winter the Village and the brewery taprooms fill with après-ski drinkers in the late afternoon. For the rest of the year, and on most ordinary nights, the town is asleep well before midnight.

Santa Monica keeps a steadier evening all year. There are rooftop cocktails over the bay near the Third Street Promenade, pubs along Main Street and a looser crowd in Venice next door. It still has no real clubs, and a big night out means a long taxi ride to Hollywood.

Mammoth Lakes is one of the great mountain bases in the American West. It has a huge ski mountain that becomes a bike park in summer, the granite-ringed Lakes Basin, the basalt columns of Devils Postpile, the tufa towers of Mono Lake, and Tuolumne Meadows about an hour away over Tioga Pass.

Santa Monica's outdoors are gentler. There are chaparral canyon trails in the Santa Monica Mountains, surf lessons, winter whale-watching and the 35km beach path. In return, it is usable on almost any day of the year.

From Santa Monica there are many more outings to choose from, as long as the traffic cooperates. Santa Barbara and its wine country lie to the north, Laguna Beach to the south and Catalina Island by ferry. Within Los Angeles there are the Huntington gardens in Pasadena and the downtown architecture.

Mammoth Lakes has a few strong single trips spread along the highway. The best are the ghost town of Bodie and the Manzanar historic site. In winter the closed passes cut the choice down further.

Santa Monica is the easier place to take children. It has a lifeguarded beach with good digging sand, and the pier has a Ferris wheel, a carousel and a small aquarium. The town is compact and mild all year, though the big theme parks take most of a day to reach.

Mammoth Lakes suits families who already love the outdoors, with a large ski school, a tubing hill and rowing boats on the lakes. However, there is nothing to do indoors on a stormy day, the altitude can tire small children at first, and most outings involve driving.

Santa Monica is a little easier. Downtown, the pier and Main Street are all walkable, blue buses cover the town, and the E Line light rail runs to downtown Los Angeles. A car or ride-hailing is still needed for the Getty or the canyons.

Mammoth Lakes is spread along a few roads. Free ski shuttles, the gondola and the summer trolley handle the basics, but the wider Eastern Sierra needs a car and sometimes snow chains.

Santa Monica is a real shopping destination: chains along the Third Street Promenade, upmarket boutiques on Montana Avenue, surfwear on Main Street and concept stores on Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice.

Mammoth Lakes is only worth shopping for gear. Its ski, climbing and fly-fishing shops are good, and a few galleries sell landscape photography, but there is no fashion at all.

Both are expensive, but Mammoth Lakes is slightly kinder outside winter. Summer hiking and scenic drives cost little beyond a park pass, and a condominium kitchen helps keep costs down. Peak ski weeks are another matter, because lift tickets and lodging are among the costliest anywhere.

In Santa Monica, ocean-view hotels, tax-and-tip restaurant bills and parking add up all year. The beach, the trails and the cheap buses do soften the total.

Santa Monica has more to see on stage. The Broad Stage offers chamber music, dance and theatre, there are intimate folk and acoustic rooms, and the Hollywood Bowl and Walt Disney Concert Hall are within a long drive.

Mammoth Lakes has a community theatre on the college campus and, in summer, a long-running jazz festival and chamber concerts outdoors with the peaks as a backdrop.

The two are about level, but they offer different ways to unwind. Mammoth Lakes has natural hot springs: simple, undeveloped pools out in the sagebrush, reached by dirt road, with the Sierra across the valley. Its lodge spas and hot tubs suit tired legs after skiing.

Santa Monica has no bathing culture at all. Its version of wellness is yoga on the sand, juice bars, morning runs along the ocean and polished beachfront spas, ending the day with the sunset over the bay.