Newport Beach or San Francisco?

Newport Beach is a real beach town. Sand runs the length of the Balboa Peninsula, there are surf breaks by the piers, and Corona del Mar and the harbour have calmer water where children can paddle. The sea is cool rather than warm, so bodyboards and wetsuits are common, but in summer people spend whole days on the sand.

San Francisco's beaches are scenic but not for swimming. Baker Beach looks at the Golden Gate Bridge and Ocean Beach runs for miles, but the water stays cold, rip currents are strong and fog often arrives by afternoon. People go there for bonfires and sunsets, not sunbathing.

Food is one of the main reasons to choose San Francisco. It has Mission burritos, sourdough, cioppino and Dungeness crab, the Ferry Building market, deep Cantonese cooking in Chinatown and the Richmond, Italian bakeries in North Beach, and one of the strongest fine-dining scenes in the country.

Newport eats well but simply. Expect seafood with harbour views, brunch in Corona del Mar, fish tacos on the peninsula and frozen bananas on Balboa Island. For more variety, people drive inland to Costa Mesa or to Little Saigon for Vietnamese food.

Newport has little to see beyond the harbour itself: the Balboa Pavilion, Schindler's Lovell Beach House and a quiet garden in Corona del Mar. Its serious art museum is next door in Costa Mesa.

San Francisco offers several days of proper sightseeing. There are the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, the cable cars and the Victorian houses at Alamo Square, plus SFMOMA, the de Young, the Legion of Honor and the Asian Art Museum. Chinatown, the Mission's murals and the Castro add neighbourhood history.

San Francisco gives you more choice after dark. There are cocktail and mezcal bars in the Mission, old saloons in North Beach, the Castro's gay bars and warehouse clubs in SoMa, although the night is spread across districts rather than concentrated in one area.

Newport has beach bars by the piers, busy with young locals on summer weekends, and calm wine bars and hotel lounges around the harbour. There are no clubs, and out of season the town goes quiet early.

Both have good outdoors, but San Francisco's surroundings are more dramatic. In the city there are the Lands End cliff trail, the Presidio woods and Golden Gate Park. Across the bridge are the Marin Headlands, the redwoods of Muir Woods, Mount Tamalpais and the wild coast at Point Reyes.

Newport's outdoors centre on the water. Upper Newport Bay is a tidal estuary full of wading birds in winter, the harbour suits kayaks and paddleboards, and Crystal Cove has bluff and canyon trails. For mountains you drive an hour inland.

The two are about level for day trips, but they lead to different places. From Newport you head along the Southern California coast: Laguna Beach, the mission at San Juan Capistrano, the ferry to Catalina Island, and Los Angeles or San Diego for longer days. Almost all of it means freeway driving.

San Francisco's best outing is the Napa and Sonoma wine country. Ferries to Sausalito and Tiburon, the train to Berkeley, and the coast road to Santa Cruz, Monterey and Carmel round out the choice, and several of these work without a car.

Newport is the easier base with children. It has shallow harbour beaches, the Fun Zone's ferris wheel and arcades, the little car ferry to Balboa Island, tide pools and flat bike paths. Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm are about half an hour inland, though that means time in traffic.

San Francisco works for families who like museums. The Exploratorium and the California Academy of Sciences can each fill a day, and the sea lions and cable cars are treats. Steep hills with a pushchair, cold water and the lack of any theme park make it harder work.

This is one of the biggest differences between the two. San Francisco is compact, with Muni, BART, streetcars, cable cars and bay ferries on one card, so most visitors never need a car. The catch is the steep hills, which turn short walks into climbs.

In Newport a car is close to essential. Buses are infrequent and almost every outing means the freeway. Only the flat Balboa Peninsula and Balboa Island are easy to explore on foot or by bike, and beach parking is hard to find on summer weekends.

Both have good shopping but in different styles. Newport is about polished luxury malls: the open-air centre above the harbour and the large designer mall in nearby Costa Mesa, with surf shops and nautical gift shops on the side.

San Francisco has its department stores and flagships around Union Square. Its more distinctive shopping is in the neighbourhoods: design boutiques in Hayes Valley, bookshops and vintage on Valencia Street, Haight-Ashbury's secondhand clothes, and tea and ceramics in Chinatown.

Both are among the costliest places in California to visit. The costs differ, though. In Newport, resort-priced hotels and restaurants come on top of car hire, fuel and parking, and staying inland in Costa Mesa or Irvine saves only a little.

San Francisco's hotels and sit-down meals are steep, but the city gives budget travellers more ways to save. Transit is reasonably priced, taquerias and dim sum places are good value, and the parks, coastal trails and the walk across the bridge cost nothing.

San Francisco has a full performing-arts calendar. San Francisco Opera and Ballet at the War Memorial Opera House, the symphony at Davies Hall, serious drama at the American Conservatory Theater, jazz at SFJAZZ and rock at the Fillmore are all in the city.

Newport relies on its neighbour. The Segerstrom Center and South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, ten minutes away, bring touring musicals, ballet and new plays. Opera and big concerts mean a long drive to Los Angeles.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, so relaxation works differently in each. In Newport it comes from the slow coastal pace: morning walks on the bluffs, sunsets over the water and full spas at the clifftop resorts.

San Francisco feels busier in the centre, but it has a traditional Japanese-style bathhouse in Japantown and the calm of the Japanese Tea Garden. The mineral pools and mud baths of Calistoga are a two-hour drive away.