Newport Beach or South Lake Tahoe?

Newport Beach has the better beaches. There are ten kilometres of open sand on the Balboa Peninsula with surf breaks and volleyball, calmer coves at Corona del Mar, and sheltered harbour strips for toddlers, and the beach season lasts well beyond high summer. The Pacific stays cool, though, so wetsuits and boogie boards are more common than long swims.

South Lake Tahoe's beaches are lovely to look at, with turquoise water over white sand under the pines at Pope, Baldwin and Sand Harbor. But a lake at 1,900m is only warm enough for swimming in July and August, and for the rest of the year the shore is for walking.

Newport Beach eats better, with harbour seafood rooms, brunch in Corona del Mar and fish tacos by the sand. More range is close by in Costa Mesa and in Little Saigon's Vietnamese kitchens. It is pricey, but there is real choice.

South Lake Tahoe offers casino steakhouses, buffets, brewpubs and ski breakfasts, of uneven quality and with long weekend waits. Local craft beer is its one distinctive thing, and many visitors end up cooking in the cabin.

Neither town is a sightseeing destination, and both have mostly early 20th-century leisure history. Newport has the 1905 Balboa Pavilion, Schindler's modernist Lovell Beach House and a serious art museum next door in Costa Mesa.

Tahoe's sights belong to the old summer estates, such as the Tallac Historic Site and Vikingsholm at Emerald Bay, along with a small museum on the Washoe people and logging. Both are best treated as a pleasant hour between days on the shore.

Neither town offers much of a night out, but the evenings feel quite different. Newport has loud pier bars full of young locals on summer weekends and dressier harbour wine bars, and everything stops at 2am.

At Tahoe, California-side brewpubs and après-ski close early, but a short walk over the Nevada line, the Stateline casinos keep their bars and a club or two open all night. So Tahoe lets you stay out late, while Newport has more variety before midnight.

South Lake Tahoe is in a different league. Emerald Bay, the granite lake basins of the Desolation Wilderness and the Tahoe Rim Trail are all close to town, and in winter a gondola rises from Stateline to deep-snow skiing. Each season brings its own activities, from summer paddling to autumn aspens.

Newport's outdoors is gentler and coastal: birdwatching on Upper Newport Bay, bluff and canyon trails at Crystal Cove, kayaking in the harbour and boats out to see grey and blue whales. For real mountains it is an hour's drive inland.

Newport Beach has far more within reach. Laguna Beach and Mission San Juan Capistrano are under half an hour away, the ferry crosses to Catalina, and both Los Angeles and San Diego can be done in a day, though freeway traffic can double the times.

From Tahoe the choices are smaller Gold Rush and silver-boom places, such as Virginia City, Coloma and the Amador wine country, plus Reno and a loop round the lake. They are good for a bad-weather day rather than a reason to stay longer.

Newport Beach is the easier place to bring children. Shallow harbour water, the Fun Zone's ferris wheel, the car ferry and tide pools fill the days, and Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm are within a short drive.

Tahoe works well for active families, with ski schools, sledding hills, lake shallows and the short Taylor Creek trails. But there is no aquarium, zoo or theme park for a snowbound day, and the casino strip is not a place to linger with children.

Both towns really need a car, but Tahoe makes it slightly easier without one. Its compact core around Stateline and the gondola base can be walked, and free shuttles run along the highway and up to the ski areas in winter. The trade-off is winter chain controls and occasional pass closures on the roads in.

Newport spreads along the coast and up the hills, and its buses are slow. Only the flat Balboa Peninsula, Balboa Island and the little ferry between them work well on foot or by bike.

Newport Beach is a real shopping destination. There are designer names in the open-air centre above the harbour, a huge luxury mall ten minutes away in Costa Mesa, and boutiques along Coast Highway in Corona del Mar.

South Lake Tahoe's shops are practical: ski and outdoor gear, rental stores and souvenirs around the gondola, plus a few galleries of lake photography. Pack what you need and don't plan a day around shopping.

Both are expensive, but Tahoe is the one where you can save money. Midweek and shoulder-season casino hotel rates drop sharply, cabins with kitchens cut food costs, and the trails and beaches are free, although peak ski weeks and lift tickets are steep.

Newport stays costly all year: resort hotels, restaurants that charge for the view, plus car hire and parking. Staying inland in Costa Mesa or Irvine helps only a little.

Newport Beach is better placed for a cultural evening, thanks to its neighbour. The Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa brings touring musicals, ballet and the Pacific Symphony, and South Coast Repertory stages new American plays.

Tahoe depends on casino showrooms with rock, country, comedy and tribute acts. In summer it adds outdoor theatre at Tallac and the Shakespeare festival on the beach at Sand Harbor, which is a lovely setting but a short season.

The two are about equal, and neither has a bathing tradition. Newport's version of rest is a slow coastal routine, with bluff-top walks, harbour coffee and sunsets, plus the spas at the hillside resorts and plenty of yoga studios.

Tahoe has something Newport lacks: natural hot springs within easy reach, at Grover Hot Springs' alpine meadow pool and the Carson Valley resorts. Its own spas are mainly for sore legs after a day of skiing.