Newport Beach or Salt Lake City?

Newport Beach is a beach town in a way Salt Lake City cannot be. The Balboa Peninsula has surfing by the piers and the notoriously dangerous waves of the Wedge, Corona del Mar has calmer rocky coves, and the harbour has shallow strips of sand where toddlers can paddle. The Pacific stays cool, though, so wetsuits and boogie boards are more common than lazy floating.

Salt Lake City's nearest equivalent is the Great Salt Lake, where you float easily in brine off a muddy, fly-prone shore, usually once for the novelty. For a proper swim, locals drive to the Wasatch reservoirs such as Jordanelle or Pineview.

Newport Beach eats a little better, mostly because of the setting and its neighbours. Seafood with harbour views, fish tacos on the peninsula and the frozen banana on Balboa Island are pleasant, if expensive, and Costa Mesa and Little Saigon in Westminster add depth within a short drive.

Salt Lake City's food is homelier and quirkier, with fry sauce, pastrami burgers, fried scones and dirty sodas from drive-throughs. Its best meals come from the Mexican, Pacific Islander and Peruvian kitchens along State Street. Utah's drinking rules make a long wine-led dinner harder to come by than on the Californian coast.

Salt Lake City has much more to see. Temple Square, with the granite temple, the domed Tabernacle and its organ, and Brigham Young's Beehive House, gives the city a historic core you won't find on the coast. The Capitol, the painted Cathedral of the Madeleine and the dinosaur halls fill a second day.

Newport Beach has a handful of sights: the 1905 Balboa Pavilion, Schindler's Lovell Beach House for modernism enthusiasts and the gardens at Corona del Mar. Most of what you look at there is yachts and houses on the bluffs.

Neither city is somewhere to plan a vacation around nights out, and both wind down early, but the evenings feel different. Newport is split between rowdy beach and dive bars by the piers and dressier wine bars and hotel lounges around the harbour, and it has no real clubs.

Salt Lake City has breweries, a few dance clubs downtown and in the Granary District, and a long-standing gay bar scene. Utah's liquor laws limit strong drinks and late hours there in a way California's simpler 2am rule does not.

Salt Lake City has some of the best access to mountains of any American city. Peaks over 3,000m rise right behind town, with deep powder at Alta, Snowbird, Brighton and Solitude in winter and wildflower meadows, alpine lakes and climbing in summer. Westward, bison on Antelope Island and the Bonneville Salt Flats add a completely different landscape.

Newport's outdoors is coastal and gentler: birdwatching and cycling around Upper Newport Bay, bluff paths at Crystal Cove, kayaking in the harbour and year-round whale-watching boats. It is excellent for active days by the water, but real elevation means driving an hour inland.

Newport Beach is the better base for day trips. Laguna Beach's galleries and coves are twenty minutes away, Mission San Juan Capistrano half an hour, and the ferry from Balboa reaches Avalon on Catalina Island in just over an hour. Los Angeles and San Diego are both easy day outings, as long as you can put up with freeway traffic.

From Salt Lake City, Park City's Victorian Main Street and nearby Midway are lovely, and Ogden's 25th Street makes a good half day. After that the choice runs thin, because Arches, Zion and Bryce are too far for a day out.

Both cities make families welcome, and Newport Beach has the edge. Shallow harbour water, the ferris wheel at the Balboa Fun Zone, the little car ferry and tide pools at Crystal Cove fill the days, with Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm about half an hour inland.

Salt Lake City is just as clean, safe and used to children. Its attractions are more museums and animals than sand: the zoo, the aquarium, the planetarium and the dinosaur halls, plus Lagoon's roller coasters and ski schools in winter. In both cities, expect to spend much of the time in the car.

Salt Lake City is the easier of the two without a car. TRAX light rail links the airport, downtown and the University, the FrontRunner train runs to Ogden and Provo, and ski buses climb the canyons in winter. The wide grid makes walks feel longer than they look, but the central sights are close together.

Newport Beach really needs a hire car. Buses are sparse and everything spreads along freeways. The only easy car-free pocket is the flat Balboa Peninsula and Balboa Island, which are joined by the little ferry and good for bikes.

Newport Beach is far stronger for shopping, especially luxury. A palm-lined open-air centre above the harbour has department stores and designer names, and one of the country's largest luxury malls is ten minutes away in Costa Mesa. Corona del Mar's boutiques and Balboa Island's nautical gift shops add smaller browsing.

Salt Lake City's shopping is practical: a downtown mall with a creek running through it, Trolley Square's old streetcar barns, and vintage shops around 9th and 9th. It stands out only for outdoor gear, where the local ski and climbing shops are excellent.

Salt Lake City is clearly cheaper. Downtown hotels are moderately priced, Temple Square costs nothing and light rail is inexpensive. Winter is the exception, because lift tickets and lodging in the canyons or Park City push a ski week up sharply.

Newport Beach is expensive even for California. Harbour hotels charge resort prices in summer, restaurants charge for the view, and parking and car hire add to the bill every day. Staying inland in Costa Mesa or Irvine helps, but only a little.

Salt Lake City has the richer arts life of its own. The Tabernacle Choir's public rehearsals and broadcasts, often with the great organ, are a unique experience, and the Utah Symphony, Utah Opera and Ballet West give the city a full season.

Newport relies on its neighbour. The Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa, with the Pacific Symphony, touring musicals and South Coast Repertory next door, is only ten minutes away, but opera and big-name concerts mean a long drive to Los Angeles.

Both cities are calm places to stay rather than spa destinations, and they relax you in different ways. Newport Beach has a slight edge for an unhurried stay, with bluff walks, harbour coffee, sunsets over the Pacific and full spas at the hilltop resorts, though it has no thermal water.

Salt Lake City has the hot springs Newport lacks. The best is the Homestead Crater in Midway, a warm mineral soak inside a limestone dome. Otherwise, rest there tends to mean a resort spa after a day of skiing.