Newport Beach or Page, Arizona?

Newport is the true beach town of the two. It has ten kilometres of sand along the Balboa Peninsula with surf breaks by the piers, calmer coves at Corona del Mar and harbour strips where toddlers can paddle. The Pacific stays cool even at its warmest, though, so wetsuits and boogie boards are common.

Page has no seafront and no lifeguards. What it does have is a lake that gets warmer than the ocean in midsummer. The best swimming is from boats or kayaks, jumping off sandstone ledges into deep coves, or from the open sand at Lone Rock. These beaches move with the lake level, so it suits adventurous swimmers more than a day on a towel.

Newport gives you far more choice. There's seafood with harbour views around Lido, brunch in Corona del Mar, fish tacos by the sand and frozen bananas on Balboa Island. Costa Mesa and Little Saigon in Westminster add range and better value nearby.

In Page, eating is a matter of refuelling between outings, with diners, barbecue, Mexican places and chains along the main strip. The one dish worth seeking out is the Navajo taco on frybread, which you won't find on the coast.

Neither place is a sightseeing destination, and the difference is in kind. Newport's sights are its old resort harbour: the Balboa Pavilion, the little island ferry, and Schindler's Lovell Beach House for anyone interested in early modernism. Page offers engineering and frontier history instead, with the Glen Canyon Dam visitor centre, the John Wesley Powell museum and the wider Navajo Nation, which gives the area a deeper cultural background than anything in Newport.

Newport has an evening scene, but a modest one. There are rowdy beach and dive bars by the piers on summer weekends and quieter wine bars and hotel lounges around the harbour. There are no clubs, and people wanting a big night head to Costa Mesa or Los Angeles.

Page barely goes out at all. There's a brewpub and a few bars, the town is asleep well before midnight, and most visitors are in bed early for sunrise canyon tours. The best thing to do after dark is look up at the desert stars.

This is where Page leaves Newport far behind. Antelope Canyon's glowing slot walls and the drop at Horseshoe Bend are minutes from town. Lake Powell's flooded red canyons lead by boat to Rainbow Bridge, and Lees Ferry is where Grand Canyon rafting begins. The Wave, Buckskin Gulch and the Grand Staircase are within an hour or two.

Newport's outdoors is gentler and centred on the sea. You can cycle the Upper Newport Bay loop among wintering herons and egrets, walk the bluffs and canyons of Crystal Cove, and paddle the harbour. It also has something Page can't offer: whale-watching boats all year, with grey whales in winter and blues in summer.

Newport is far better placed for outings to other towns. Laguna Beach and Mission San Juan Capistrano are under half an hour away, a ferry runs to Avalon on Catalina, and Los Angeles and San Diego are both easy day trips. The price is freeway traffic, which can double the journey times.

Around Page, the trips are mostly long drives through empty country to small places. Lees Ferry's pioneer ranch, the Betatakin cliff dwellings, Kanab's film-set history and Pipe Spring are each worth a day, but the region's main draws are landscapes rather than towns.

Newport is built for children. It has shallow harbour water, the Ferris wheel and arcades of the Balboa Fun Zone, the car ferry to Balboa Island and tide pools at Crystal Cove. Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm are close enough for families to stay by the sea and drive to the parks.

Page works for older, outdoorsy children. A lake day and a short Antelope Canyon tour go down well, but there are no attractions made for children. Summer heat, steep ladders on some canyon tours and unfenced drops at Horseshoe Bend make it harder going with toddlers.

Both need a car, but Newport gives you a few places where you can do without one. The flat Balboa Peninsula has a boardwalk you can walk or cycle, Balboa Island is small enough to stroll and the little ferry links the two. Summer beach parking and freeway traffic are the hassles.

In Page you can walk the motel strip and nothing else. There's no public transport, the lake and Horseshoe Bend are outside town, the parks are an hour or more down the highway, and the nearest major airports are hours away.

The two could hardly be more different for shopping: designer labels on one side, Navajo craft on the other, and Newport has far more of it. Department stores and big fashion names fill the palm-lined centre above the harbour, and most of the major fashion houses have stores in the vast Costa Mesa mall ten minutes inland. Smaller boutiques line Coast Highway in Corona del Mar and Marine Avenue on Balboa Island.

In Page you mostly buy supplies and souvenirs, with one real exception. Navajo silver and turquoise, rugs and pottery are sold at trading posts, often straight from the maker. Newport's malls have nothing like it.

Neither is cheap, but Newport costs noticeably more. Hotels on the sand and the harbour charge resort rates, restaurants charge for the view, and parking and car hire add up. Staying inland in Costa Mesa or Irvine helps a little.

In Page, ordinary meals and fuel cost what they would in any small American town. The money goes on rooms in the busy months, compulsory guided tours of Antelope Canyon and boat or houseboat hire. Camping at Lone Rock or Wahweap, or coming in winter, keeps costs down.

Newport borrows its culture from next door, and it's well worth having. Ten minutes away in Costa Mesa, the Segerstrom Center stages touring musicals, ballet and the Pacific Symphony, and South Coast Repertory puts on new American plays. For opera or big concerts you have to drive to Los Angeles.

Page has no theatre or concert venue. You might catch a Navajo dance presentation or a dinner show put on for visitors, or a local band in a bar.

Neither town has hot springs or a bathing tradition, so this comes down to pace, and Newport's is far slower. Nothing here asks you to set an alarm. A day can drift from coffee by the harbour to an afternoon on the sand and a sunset over the Pacific, and a massage or a full spa day is easy to book. Summer weekends crowd the peninsula, so Corona del Mar and the coast towards Crystal Cove make the more peaceful base.

Page's calm is a different kind: empty desert, long views and silent evenings. Beyond motel pools and a few hotel treatments, though, there is little to book, and a stay built around dawn canyon tours and long drives leaves little room for lazy mornings.