Newport Beach or Snowbird?

Newport Beach is a beach town through and through. Its sand runs from the surf breaks by the piers to the notorious waves of the Wedge, with gentler coves at Corona del Mar, sheltered harbour strips for toddlers and tide pools at Crystal Cove. The Pacific stays cool, so this is a coast for boards and wetsuits more than for floating in warm water.

Snowbird has nothing comparable. A swim there means the resort's heated pools or a drive of about an hour to cold reservoirs in the Heber Valley. The Great Salt Lake is something to look at, not a place for a swim.

Newport eats much better: waterfront seafood around the harbour and Lido, brunch in Corona del Mar, fish tacos on the peninsula and a frozen banana on Balboa Island. Costa Mesa next door and Little Saigon's Vietnamese cooking inland widen the choice a lot.

At Snowbird you eat at the resort, in lodge restaurants, slopeside cafeterias and the dining room at the top of the tram, and it is all priced for people with nowhere else to go. For variety, guests drive down the canyon to Salt Lake City.

Neither is a sightseeing destination, but Newport has a little more to see. The 1905 Balboa Pavilion and the island ferry keep some old resort charm, Schindler's Lovell Beach House draws architecture fans, and Sherman Library & Gardens fills a quiet hour.

Snowbird's concrete lodges date from 1971, and the canyon's mining and quarrying past has left almost nothing for a visitor to see. In both places, museums mean a drive, to Costa Mesa or to Salt Lake City.

Newport has an actual night out, if a modest one. There are loud beach and dive bars by the piers on summer weekends and wine bars and hotel lounges around the harbour for a dressier, earlier evening. There are no clubs, though.

Snowbird's evening peaks at après-ski on a sunny deck and in a couple of lodge bars, and most people are in bed by mid-evening, ready for the first tram. Anything more means driving a mountain road to Salt Lake City or Park City.

Snowbird is in another league. The tram climbs to Hidden Peak at about 3,350m, the canyon often gets more than 12m of light, dry snow a season, and the chutes, bowls and trees run on through Mineral Basin to Alta. In summer the same mountain opens onto the Twin Peaks and Lone Peak wilderness, Albion Basin's wildflowers and granite climbing.

Newport's outdoors are coastal and gentler. There is the bird-filled estuary of Upper Newport Bay, canyon trails in Crystal Cove, kayaking in the harbour and whale-watching boats all year. Real elevation is an hour inland.

From Newport, the whole of Southern California is within a drive: Laguna Beach's galleries, Mission San Juan Capistrano, the ferry to Avalon on Catalina Island, and Los Angeles and San Diego further off. The price is freeway traffic.

Snowbird has two strong outings: Salt Lake City for Temple Square and the Capitol, and Park City's Victorian Main Street. After those come smaller, pleasant places such as Midway, Sundance and Ogden's 25th Street, and then mostly open country.

Newport is one of the easier coastal bases for children. It has shallow harbour water, the ferris wheel and arcades of the Balboa Fun Zone, tide pools and bike paths, and Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm are about half an hour inland.

Snowbird suits families of keen skiers, especially teenagers, more than parents of toddlers. The car-free base makes children easy to keep track of, and summer brings a mountain coaster and alpine slide, but the altitude tires small children and the zoo and children's museums are down in the city.

Snowbird is the simpler place once you have arrived. Lodges, tram and lifts sit a short walk apart on a car-free base, many rooms are on the slopes, and ski buses come up from the valley in winter. The weak point is the single canyon road, which jams on powder mornings and can close for avalanche control.

Newport, by contrast, needs a car for almost everything. The town sprawls along the coast and up the hills and the buses are poor. Only the flat Balboa Peninsula, with its boardwalk, and little Balboa Island work well on foot or by bike.

Newport is a real shopping destination, with designer names at the open-air centre above the harbour, one of the country's largest luxury malls ten minutes away in Costa Mesa, and boutiques and surf shops along the coast. What it lacks is markets and independent design.

Snowbird's few base-area shops sell ski gear, outerwear and resort-branded clothing, useful for forgotten goggles and little else. Any real shopping means Salt Lake City or Park City's main street.

Both are expensive, in different ways. In Newport the cost comes from resort hotels, restaurants charging for the view and the car you cannot do without. Staying in Costa Mesa or Irvine and eating tacos saves a little.

At Snowbird, lift tickets, slopeside rooms, rentals and captive-audience meals add up, especially in peak winter. Multi-resort passes, a Salt Lake City hotel or a summer visit bring the bill down noticeably.

Newport has serious performance close by, even if not in town. The Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa, ten minutes away, hosts touring Broadway shows, ballet and the Pacific Symphony, and South Coast Repertory stages new American plays next door.

Snowbird has summer concerts on the plaza, oompah bands at Oktoberfest and the odd après-ski band. Symphony, opera and theatre all mean driving down the canyon to Salt Lake City.

The two are about even for relaxing, but the feel is quite different. Newport relaxes you by its pace: bluff-top walks, harbour coffee, sunsets over the sea, resort spas in the hills and yoga studios around Corona del Mar.

Snowbird puts its relaxation in one place, the rooftop spa with a pool and hot tubs facing the canyon walls, best after a hard day on the slopes. Its nights are darker and stiller, and the warm mineral crater at Homestead in Midway is about an hour away.