Newport Beach or Palm Desert?

The gap here is total. Newport Beach has ten kilometres of sand along the Balboa Peninsula, surf by the piers, the calmer coves of Corona del Mar and sheltered harbour strips for small children. The Pacific stays cool enough that wetsuits are common.

Palm Desert has no beach. Water there means the resort pool, often heated in winter, and a trip to the sea is a full day's drive to the Orange County coast, which is Newport's own stretch of shore.

Newport eats better, mostly because it has more variety around it. The harbour and Lido area have waterfront seafood, the peninsula has fish tacos and Balboa Island has its frozen bananas. Costa Mesa and the Vietnamese cooking of Little Saigon, twenty minutes inland, add more choice.

Palm Desert's resort steakhouses and patio bistros on El Paseo are dependable but much alike. Its own flavour is at the eastern end of the valley, in the Mexican taquerias of Indio and Coachella and the date groves, where a date shake is the thing to try.

Neither town is built for sightseeing, and what they do have is different. In Newport it comes from the harbour's old resort past, with the Balboa Pavilion of 1905 and Schindler's Lovell Beach House, a landmark of early modernism.

Palm Desert, a post-war resort town, has an outdoor sculpture garden and the galleries of El Paseo, with the mid-century houses of Palm Springs twenty minutes away. In both places the serious art museum is in the town next door.

Newport has more going on after dark, though not a lot. Loud beach and dive bars by the Newport and Balboa piers fill with a young crowd on summer weekends, while the harbour's wine bars and hotel lounges suit a dressier, earlier evening.

Palm Desert winds down even sooner, with patio happy hours and cocktail lounges on El Paseo for retirees and golfers. A late night there means the tribal casinos or downtown Palm Springs. Neither town has proper clubs.

Both have real outdoors, but Palm Desert's setting is more dramatic. The Santa Rosa Mountains rise from the edge of town and the Indian Canyons hide palm oases. The aerial tramway climbs to pine forest, and Joshua Tree is an hour away. All of it is at its best from October to May.

Newport's outdoors is about water and wildlife: the birds of Upper Newport Bay, kayaking in the harbour, whale-watching boats all year and the bluff trails of Crystal Cove. It works in summer, when the desert is too hot for hiking.

Newport sits in the middle of Southern California, so far more is within reach. Laguna Beach and Mission San Juan Capistrano are close, the ferry to Avalon on Catalina makes an easy day out, and both Los Angeles and San Diego can be done in a day if the traffic allows.

Palm Desert has fewer outings, and odder ones: Palm Springs next door, the old film set at Pioneertown, Salvation Mountain by the Salton Sea, Idyllwild in the hills and the wine country around Temecula. The big coastal cities are too far for a comfortable day.

Newport is the easier choice with children. Shallow harbour beaches, the ferris wheel at the Balboa Fun Zone, the car ferry and the tide pools fill the days, and Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm are about half an hour inland.

Palm Desert has one excellent draw in the Living Desert zoo and garden, plus big resort pools and the tramway for older children. Beyond that the valley is made for golf and adults, and summer heat keeps small children indoors at midday.

You need a car in both, and the difference is where the hassle lies. Newport has one walkable corner, the flat Balboa Peninsula with its boardwalk, Balboa Island and the ferry between them, but freeway traffic and beach parking on summer weekends are a real nuisance.

Palm Desert is hardly walkable beyond a few blocks of El Paseo, but its wide boulevards are free of congestion and parking is easy almost everywhere.

Newport has more to offer, and most of it is in luxury malls: the open-air centre above the harbour and, ten minutes away in Costa Mesa, one of the largest designer malls in the country. Corona del Mar has boutiques and the peninsula has surf shops.

Palm Desert's shopping is centred on El Paseo, a palm-lined street of boutiques, jewellers and galleries. A designer outlet centre is half an hour west, and Palm Springs has vintage furniture. Neither town has much in the way of markets or crafts.

Neither is cheap, but Newport is harder on a budget. Resort hotels, restaurants that charge for the view, car hire and beach parking all add up, and staying inland in Costa Mesa or Irvine saves only a little.

Palm Desert has normal American resort prices in winter and spring, but chain hotels and rentals are cheaper all year. In summer, resort rooms drop to a fraction of their winter rates for anyone who can bear the heat. Golf and spa treatments are where the bills climb.

Newport is slightly ahead, thanks to its neighbour. The Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa, ten minutes away, brings touring Broadway shows, ballet and the Pacific Symphony, and South Coast Repertory next door stages new American plays.

Palm Desert's McCallum Theatre has a similar touring mix, mostly in the winter season, and the casinos add big-name concerts. What it has that Newport lacks is Coachella and Stagecoach at the Indio polo grounds each spring, though they last only a few weekends.

Palm Desert is built for slowing down. Resort spas, long afternoons by the pool and a winter routine of golf and early nights set the pace of the whole town. Half an hour north in Desert Hot Springs, spa hotels fill their pools straight from natural mineral springs.

Newport relaxes you through its pace instead: walks on the bluffs, coffee by the harbour and sunsets over the water, with resort spas in the hills and yoga studios around Corona del Mar. It has no hot springs, and the peninsula is crowded on summer weekends.