Newport Beach or Santa Fe?

Newport Beach is built around its beaches: long sand along the Balboa Peninsula for surfers and volleyball, quieter coves at Corona del Mar and sheltered harbour strips for toddlers. The water is cool, so wetsuits and boogie boards are more common than lazy floating.

Santa Fe has no coast at all. The nearest thing is a summer outing to Abiquiu Lake or a float on the Rio Grande, so anyone who wants sand and waves should choose Newport.

Santa Fe has a cuisine of its own: red and green chile, blue corn, posole and sopaipillas, served in old adobe dining rooms. It also has a surprisingly ambitious fine-dining scene and a farmers' market in the Railyard. Choice beyond the regional cooking is narrow.

Newport eats well rather than distinctively, with harbour-view seafood, brunch in Corona del Mar and fish tacos by the sand. Its strength is what lies nearby, with more variety in Costa Mesa and excellent Vietnamese food in Little Saigon.

Santa Fe is the clear choice for sightseeing. Its adobe centre dates from 1610, with the Palace of the Governors, the cathedral and the Loretto Chapel's spiral staircase all a short walk from the Plaza. Museum Hill and the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum give it depth well beyond its size.

Newport offers an afternoon's worth at most: the 1905 Balboa Pavilion, Schindler's Lovell Beach House for architecture fans and the gardens in Corona del Mar. The real sights are the yachts and the bluff-top houses.

Neither town is made for late nights, but Newport has more going on. On summer weekends the beach and dive bars by the Newport and Balboa piers fill with a young crowd, and harbour wine bars suit a dressier evening.

In Santa Fe, a night out means a long dinner and then a margarita on a rooftop facing the Jemez Mountains, with a brewery or two at the Railyard. The streets go quiet early. In both places, a proper big night means driving to a larger city.

Santa Fe has the bigger landscapes. Foothill trails leave from the edge of town, the ski road climbs into aspen forest, and the Pecos Wilderness, Valles Caldera and the Rio Grande Gorge offer real mountain and desert country. Altitude and summer heat mean starting early.

Newport's outdoors is coastal and gentler: cycling around the Upper Newport Bay estuary, birdwatching in winter, paddling in the harbour and whale-watching boats all year. Crystal Cove's canyon trails add some hiking, but the real mountains are an hour inland.

Both make good bases, but the trips are very different. From Newport you follow the coast and the freeways to Laguna Beach, Mission San Juan Capistrano, Los Angeles and San Diego, or take the boat to Catalina Island. Rush-hour traffic is the main cost.

From Santa Fe the outings go into history and open country: the High Road through Chimayo to Taos Pueblo, the cliff dwellings at Bandelier, O'Keeffe's Abiquiu and the mining villages on the Turquoise Trail. Apart from the train to Albuquerque, a car is needed for almost all of them.

Newport is much easier with children. Shallow harbour water, the ferris wheel at the Balboa Fun Zone, the little car ferry, tide pools and bike paths fill the days, and Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm are a short drive inland.

Santa Fe is safe and relaxed, but it is aimed at adults. The children's museum, the toys at the folk art museum and the ladders at Bandelier help, yet galleries and the altitude can wear out small children. It suits older children who enjoy hiking.

Newport is close to unmanageable without a car. The town sprawls along the coast and hills, buses are sparse, and beach parking is hard in summer. Only the flat Balboa Peninsula and Balboa Island, linked by the ferry, work on foot or by bike.

Santa Fe has a walkable core, with the Plaza, Canyon Road, the downtown museums and the Railyard all within easy walking distance of each other. You will still want a car for Museum Hill, trailheads and the pueblos.

Both are good for shopping, but for completely different buyers. Newport is about luxury fashion: an open-air centre above the harbour, a huge designer mall in Costa Mesa, boutiques in Corona del Mar and surf shops on the peninsula.

Santa Fe is about art and craft. Native American artists sell silver and pottery under the Palace of the Governors portal, Canyon Road is lined with galleries, and the summer markets draw collectors from far away. There is very little fashion or department-store shopping.

Newport is the harder of the two on the wallet, because what you pay for is the coastline itself. Rooms near the sand or the harbour and tables with a water view carry a premium, and the car adds its own running cost on every day of the stay, from fuel to beach parking. Staying inland saves a little, but then you drive back each morning to the sea you came for.

Santa Fe is the cheaper choice, although it is still not a budget destination. Its high prices are concentrated in the hotels around the Plaza, which are at their dearest during the summer markets, the opera season and Christmas. Much of what draws people here costs nothing: walking the adobe centre, browsing Canyon Road and hiking into the foothills. The hire car only becomes a real expense once you head out to the pueblos and the mountains.

Santa Fe has the stronger draw, at least in summer, when its open-sided opera house hosts performances at sunset, alongside a chamber music festival and a flamenco tradition. In winter, the Lensic and concerts in the old churches make up a smaller programme.

Newport has little on its own doorstep, but the Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa, ten minutes away, offers touring musicals, ballet and the Pacific Symphony all year, with South Coast Repertory next door.

Santa Fe offers more for a restorative stay. It has outdoor soaking tubs among the pines in the style of a Japanese onsen, the historic mineral springs at Ojo Caliente an hour north, and a large number of spas and healers for a town its size.

Newport has no springs at all. Here relaxation comes from bluff walks, harbour coffee, sunsets and the spas at the hillside resorts, although summer weekends on the peninsula are anything but calm.