Newport Beach or Taos?

These two are not close. Newport Beach has ten kilometres of sand along the Balboa Peninsula, surf by the piers, the calmer coves of Corona del Mar and strips inside the harbour where small children can paddle. The Pacific stays cool enough that wetsuits are common.

Taos, at around 2,100m in the high desert, has no beach at all. The Rio Grande in its gorge is for rafting rather than swimming, and the mountain lakes stay cold, so time in the water means a pool or a hot spring.

Newport Beach eats better and with more variety. There is seafood with harbour views around Lido, brunch in Corona del Mar and fish tacos on the peninsula, and Little Saigon's Vietnamese cooking is a short drive inland. It has no cuisine of its own, though, and you pay well for the setting.

Taos has the opposite strength: a narrow but distinctive regional kitchen of red and green chile, posole and blue corn. Old family places cook it with conviction, and there is horno bread from the Pueblo. Beyond that, the choice runs out within a week.

Taos is where the sights are. Taos Pueblo, a thousand years old and still lived in, is a World Heritage site of real weight. The buttressed church at Ranchos de Taos, the Harwood and Millicent Rogers museums and the old artists' houses fill two or three slow days.

Newport Beach offers an hour here and there instead: the 1905 Balboa Pavilion, Schindler's Lovell Beach House for fans of modernism, and the gardens in Corona del Mar. Its serious art museum is in neighbouring Costa Mesa, and the harbour itself is the main thing to look at.

Neither town is for clubbing, but Newport Beach has more going on. Beach bars and dive bars by the two piers fill with a young crowd on summer weekends, and harbour wine bars and hotel lounges suit a dressier, earlier evening. Los Angeles is within reach for a bigger night.

In Taos an evening means an adobe hotel bar off the plaza, a brewery taproom or a saloon with a band, plus après-ski in winter. Most nights are over soon after dinner.

Newport Beach has plenty to do outdoors for a coastal town. There is the Upper Newport Bay estuary, with its birdlife and cycling loop, the bluff and canyon trails of Crystal Cove, kayaking in the harbour and whale-watching boats all year.

Taos is on another scale. The Sangre de Cristo peaks, Wheeler Peak at 4,013m, the Rio Grande gorge with whitewater in the Taos Box, mountain biking on the West Rim and steep runs at the ski valley make the landscape the reason to come. Allow a day or two to get used to the altitude.

Newport Beach has a slightly wider choice within reach: the galleries and coves of Laguna Beach, Mission San Juan Capistrano, the ferry to Avalon on Catalina, and both Los Angeles and San Diego for a full day. Freeway traffic is the price you pay.

From Taos there are fewer outings, but each has strong character. The High Road runs through Truchas and Chimayó to Santa Fe, O'Keeffe country lies around Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch, and Bandelier's cliff dwellings make a long day. Distances are greater throughout.

Newport Beach is made for a family vacation. There is shallow water in the harbour and off Balboa Island, the ferris wheel and arcades of the Fun Zone, tide pools and whale-watching boats. Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm are about half an hour inland.

Taos works only for families who already love the outdoors. The winter ski school, gentle Rio Grande floats and summer horse riding are good, but there is no zoo, aquarium or theme park, and the altitude can tire young children for the first days.

You need a hire car in both, so the difference is in what you can do without one. In Newport Beach the flat Balboa Peninsula with its boardwalk, Balboa Island and the small ferry between them make an easy car-free stretch for walking and cycling, though beach parking is scarce on summer weekends.

In Taos the walkable part is the old centre around the plaza, Kit Carson Road and Bent Street. The Pueblo, the gorge and the ski valley are spread across a wide valley, and the drive from Albuquerque takes about two and a half hours.

For shopping, Newport Beach is the stronger of the two, in the mall sense. It has designer names at the open-air centre above the harbour, a huge luxury mall in Costa Mesa, boutiques on Coast Highway and surf shops on the peninsula. Independent design and crafts are thin.

Taos is the reverse. It has no fashion streets or department stores, but its galleries around the plaza sell turquoise and silver jewellery, micaceous pottery, Rio Grande weaving and carved santos, and you can buy some of it directly from makers at the Pueblo. Collectors can happily spend days here.

Taos is the easier of the two on the budget. Simple motels and New Mexican diners are fairly priced, and spring and late autumn, between the main seasons, cost less still, even though historic inns and ski lodging charge resort rates.

Newport Beach is expensive even for California. Waterside hotels charge resort prices, restaurants charge for the view, and car hire, fuel and parking come on top. Staying inland in Costa Mesa or Irvine saves only a little.

Newport Beach wins because of what is nearby rather than anything in town. The Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa, ten minutes away, stages touring musicals and ballet and is home to the Pacific Symphony, and South Coast Repertory puts on new American plays next door.

Taos has less to see, but it has something no theatre can copy: traditional dances at Taos Pueblo on feast days such as San Gerónimo, watched quietly and without cameras. A summer chamber music festival and a small community arts centre add to it.

Taos is the better place to unwind. The silence of the plateau sets the pace, the historic mineral pools at Ojo Caliente are under an hour away, and there are primitive hot springs beside the Rio Grande at the bottom of the gorge, as well as retreat centres in town.

Newport Beach offers a coastal kind of rest instead: walks on the bluffs, sunsets over the water and full spas at the hillside resorts. It has no hot springs, and the peninsula gets crowded on summer weekends.