Mammoth Lakes or South Lake Tahoe?

Mammoth Lakes has no beach life to speak of. A summer dip in Horseshoe Lake or the slightly warmer Crowley Lake is for the hardy, and most visitors sit on the shore or take out a boat instead.

South Lake Tahoe has real beaches on the edge of town: Pope, Baldwin and Kiva under the pines, Zephyr Cove and Nevada Beach across the state line, and Sand Harbor's boulder coves further round. The water is cold too, but turquoise shallows over white sand make a beach afternoon in July or August worth planning.

Neither town is a reason to travel for food. Both serve hearty ski-town fare with good local craft beer. The difference is in the setting. Mammoth Lakes keeps its more ambitious kitchens in and around the Village, and some places cut back in the quiet months. South Lake Tahoe adds Nevada casino steakhouses, buffets and diners that serve late, along with a few dining rooms with a lake view for a special night.

South Lake Tahoe has a little more to see, all of it tied to the lake's past as a summer retreat. The early 20th-century estates of the Tallac Historic Site stand by the shore, Vikingsholm sits at the head of Emerald Bay, and a local museum covers the Washoe people and the logging era.

In Mammoth Lakes the list is close to one log-cabin museum on the mining and settler story. The town is modern lodges and condominiums, and any history means driving out of town.

South Lake Tahoe can give you a late night thanks to the state line. Walk into Nevada and the Stateline casinos keep gaming floors, bars and a club or two open until dawn, busiest on long weekends and in peak weeks.

Mammoth Lakes stops at après-ski. The Village bars and taprooms fill up after the lifts close, and a ski-season weekend can run late, but the town has no clubs and most nights it is quiet well before midnight.

Both are first-rate mountain bases, and the choice comes down to the landscape you prefer. Mammoth Lakes sits higher in the volcanic, dry Eastern Sierra. You get one very large ski mountain with an unusually long season, the granite lakes of the Lakes Basin, Devils Postpile and Rainbow Falls, the tufa towers of Mono Lake, and in summer the road over Tioga Pass to Tuolumne Meadows.

South Lake Tahoe is built around the lake itself, with Emerald Bay as the signature view, the Desolation Wilderness a few minutes away and the Tahoe Rim Trail along the ridges. For skiers it offers a choice of mountains rather than one: Heavenly straight from town, and Kirkwood and Sierra-at-Tahoe within the hour.

South Lake Tahoe has the better spread of outings. The boardwalks of Virginia City, Carson City and Genoa lie on one side of the mountains, and Coloma, Placerville and the Amador wine country on the other. Reno and old Sacramento are both within a long day.

From Mammoth Lakes the choices are fewer and further apart along one highway. Bodie's ghost town and the Manzanar internment site are both very much worth the drive, but in winter the Sierra passes close and most excursions lead into the mountains rather than to other towns.

Both work well for outdoor families, and both have the same weak spot: nothing indoors for children on a stormy day. The difference is in the summer activities. Mammoth Lakes offers rowing boats and trout fishing in the Lakes Basin, the bike park and the gondola to the summit, though the higher altitude can tire young children for the first day or two.

South Lake Tahoe has sandy beaches with shallow water, bike paths through the pines and the short trails at Taylor Creek, where salmon run in autumn. Parents will want to keep children moving past the casino strip at Stateline.

Mammoth Lakes is the easier town to manage without driving, at least in winter. Free shuttles link the lodging areas with the lift bases and a gondola rises from the Village, and in summer a trolley runs to the Lakes Basin with a shuttle into Reds Meadow.

South Lake Tahoe has a walkable core around Stateline and the gondola base, plus buses along the highway, but its beaches, trailheads and other ski areas are spread out. Summer weekend traffic on Highway 50 and the Emerald Bay road is slow. Beyond the basics, both need a car and snow chains in winter.

There is little to choose between them, as both offer practical gear shopping and nothing more. Mammoth Lakes is stronger for specialists, with climbing and fly-fishing shops alongside the ski stores. South Lake Tahoe's shops cluster around the gondola base, with apparel, souvenirs and galleries of lake photography.

South Lake Tahoe is the cheaper of the two expensive mountain towns, mainly thanks to the Nevada casino hotels, which cut their rates sharply midweek and in spring and autumn. Its beaches and lake views cost nothing.

Mammoth Lakes is hardest on the budget in winter, when lift tickets, rentals and lodging all carry peak resort prices. A summer visit spent hiking and driving the lakes, with a condominium kitchen, brings costs down a good deal.

South Lake Tahoe has more live entertainment, mostly because of the casinos. Their showrooms and arena bring touring rock and country acts and comedians all year. Summer adds Shakespeare on the beach at Sand Harbor and concerts at the Tallac estates.

Mammoth Lakes is smaller but different in kind. It has a resident community theatre with a season of plays, something Tahoe lacks, and in summer a jazz festival and chamber music in mountain meadows.

Mammoth Lakes is the better place to unwind. Its volcanic ground feeds primitive hot springs a short drive out into the sagebrush, and soaking there with the Sierra across the valley is a local ritual. The lodge spas look after tired legs.

South Lake Tahoe has no bathing culture in town, and its spas mostly belong to casino hotels. A soak means an outing to Grover Hot Springs or the Carson Valley resorts, so its calm comes mostly from quiet mornings by the lake.