Newport Beach or Palm Springs?

Newport Beach is built around its shoreline: surf by the piers, the dangerous waves at the Wedge, gentler rocky coves at Corona del Mar and harbour sand where toddlers can paddle. The water stays cool for most of the year, so it suits surfing and boogie boarding better than floating in warm water.

Palm Springs has no beach at all. The ocean lies about two hours west over the mountains, and the Salton Sea is not a place to swim. Here the water you get is the pool, which in the hot months is a pleasure of its own.

Newport Beach eats somewhat better. It has harbour dining rooms with boat views, fish tacos by the sand and a frozen banana on Balboa Island, and Costa Mesa next door and Little Saigon in Westminster are both close enough to widen the choice.

Palm Springs is more about the meal as a slow occasion than about the food itself: shaded patio brunches, poolside cocktails and mid-range American places on Palm Canyon Drive. Its one local speciality is the date shake from the groves around Indio, and summer service thins out.

Both towns have a link to modernist architecture, but at very different scales. Newport has a single landmark in Schindler's Lovell Beach House, plus the old Balboa Pavilion and a quiet garden. For a serious art museum you go next door to Costa Mesa.

Palm Springs has whole neighbourhoods of mid-century design, with Frey's houses, Neutra's Kaufmann House and the Alexander homes in Twin Palms and Vista Las Palmas, which you can see in a day of cycling or driving. Its art museum and the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum, which tells the story of the Cahuilla people, give it more to see.

Neither town has proper clubs, and both are better for a few drinks than a late night. In Newport that means loud dive bars by the piers full of young locals, or a quieter glass of wine around the harbour. In Palm Springs it means the LGBTQ bars and drag nights of Arenas Road, weekend pool parties and retro cocktail lounges.

Their quiet seasons are opposite. Newport goes to bed early once summer is over, while Palm Springs is at its liveliest in winter and spring and empties in the summer heat.

Palm Springs has the more dramatic landscape. The aerial tramway climbs to pine forest and winter snow on Mount San Jacinto, palm oases fill the Indian Canyons, and Joshua Tree is about an hour away. The catch is summer, when hiking shrinks to the first hour after dawn.

Newport's outdoors is gentler and centred on the water. You get herons and shorebirds on Upper Newport Bay, bluff paths at Crystal Cove, kayaks in the harbour and whale-watching boats in every season.

Newport sits within reach of most of Southern California. Laguna Beach, Mission San Juan Capistrano and the ferry to Catalina are all close, and Los Angeles and San Diego can each be done in a day if the freeways behave.

Palm Springs offers smaller and stranger outings: the pine village of Idyllwild, the old film set at Pioneertown, and the abandoned resorts and Salvation Mountain on the Salton Sea. The big coastal cities are too far for a comfortable day from the desert.

Newport Beach is much the easier choice with children. Small swimmers have shallow water in the harbour, the Balboa Fun Zone has its ferris wheel, the car ferry is an outing in itself, and Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm are about half an hour inland.

Palm Springs has good outings in The Living Desert, the tramway and the Air Museum, but it leans towards adults. Many boutique hotels do not take children, and from late spring the midday heat keeps everyone indoors.

You will want a car in either place, and each has only a small patch that works without one. In Newport that is the flat Balboa Peninsula, with its boardwalk beside the sand, and Balboa Island across the little ferry. Everything else is reached by freeway, and beach parking is scarce on summer weekends.

Palm Springs has a compact downtown along Palm Canyon Drive and Indian Canyon Drive, and bikes suit the modernist neighbourhoods in the cooler months, though in summer nobody walks anywhere at midday. Both towns have an airport close by, John Wayne on the edge of Newport and Palm Springs International beside downtown, so arriving is easy either way.

Newport is the place for big-name luxury. Fashion Island has designer stores among fountains and palms, a major luxury mall is ten minutes away in Costa Mesa, and there are surf shops on the peninsula and nautical gifts on Balboa Island.

Palm Springs has a narrower but more distinctive speciality. The Uptown Design District is full of mid-century furniture, lighting and vintage clothing, and the Village Fest street fair adds crafts. For mainstream brands, El Paseo in Palm Desert and the Cabazon outlets are a short drive away.

Neither is cheap, but Newport Beach costs more, with resort prices on the waterfront, restaurants that charge for the view and a hire car you cannot do without. Staying inland in Costa Mesa or Irvine saves a little.

Palm Springs is expensive from winter into spring, and dearer still on festival weekends. In the hottest months, though, room rates fall sharply, and simple motels make it workable on a smaller budget at any time of year.

Newport has a slight edge because of what lies next door. The Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa, ten minutes away, stages touring musicals, ballet and the Pacific Symphony, and South Coast Repertory is a respected theatre company. In town there is little beyond summer concerts by the water.

Palm Springs offers drag cabaret, piano bars, touring shows at the McCallum Theatre and casino concerts. In April the Coachella and Stagecoach festivals in Indio draw crowds from around the world, but in summer the programme largely stops.

This is where Palm Springs is far ahead. The town grew up around the Agua Caliente spring, which still has a bathhouse for mineral soaks, and in Desert Hot Springs the small spa motels fill their pools with hot water straight from the ground. Unwinding is the whole point of a stay.

Newport offers a calmer kind of rest: morning walks on the bluffs, sunsets over the harbour, resort spas and yoga studios. It has no thermal water, and the crowds on summer weekends make it harder to relax.