Newport Beach or Telluride?

This is no contest. Newport Beach has around ten kilometres of sand on the Balboa Peninsula, surf by the piers, the notorious Wedge, calmer coves at Corona del Mar and sheltered harbour strips where toddlers can paddle. The water stays cool for much of the year, so wetsuits and boogie boards are more usual than floating about.

Telluride, deep in a box canyon at altitude, has nothing of the kind. The nearest place to swim is a cold reservoir near Ridgway, and summer water time there means rafting or fishing, not lying on a beach.

Newport Beach eats a little better, mostly because it has more around it. Waterfront seafood around the harbour and Lido, brunch in Corona del Mar and fish tacos on the peninsula are joined by Costa Mesa's wider range and Little Saigon's excellent Vietnamese cooking a short drive inland.

Telluride's few serious kitchens on Colorado Avenue and in Mountain Village do good things with Colorado lamb, elk and trout, and the beer and wine are strong. Still, after a few nights you will be going back to the same places, and there is no Little Saigon within reach to break the routine.

Neither town is a sightseeing destination, but what there is differs in character. Newport offers old resort charm with the 1905 Balboa Pavilion and Schindler's modernist Lovell Beach House, though its main sight is the harbour and the yachts. Telluride's whole mining-era grid is a National Historic Landmark, with a museum in the old miners' hospital and mill ruins on the canyon walls, so a walk round town tells a fuller story.

Newport Beach has a bit more to offer after dark. Pier-side dive bars fill with a young crowd on summer weekends, and harbour wine bars and hotel lounges suit a quieter drink, with Costa Mesa or Los Angeles a drive away for anything bigger.

Telluride's evenings are après-ski and a handful of Victorian saloons on Colorado Avenue. These are lively in peak ski weeks and on festival weekends, but in the shoulder seasons the town goes to bed early.

Newport has good outdoor options: the estuary at Upper Newport Bay with its winter birdlife, Crystal Cove's bluff trails, kayaking in the harbour and whale-watching all year. Real mountains, though, are an hour inland.

In Telluride the mountains start at the end of the street. Bridal Veil Falls, Blue Lake, peaks above 4,000m, wildflower basins, a via ferrata and jeep roads over Imogene Pass fill the summer, and the ski area and golden aspens take over in other seasons. For anyone who travels for landscape, this is the stronger choice by a long way.

Newport Beach sits in the middle of a crowded region. Laguna Beach, Mission San Juan Capistrano and the Catalina ferry to Avalon are all close, with Los Angeles and San Diego further along the freeway, if the traffic allows.

From Telluride the choices are fewer and further apart, on mountain roads. Ridgway, Ouray and Silverton are attractive old towns, and Mesa Verde is a real prize, but it is a long drive each way, and winter passes can close the routes.

Newport Beach is the stronger family base, mainly because there is so much within reach. You can mix beach mornings, a whale-watching boat and the bike paths with a day at the big theme parks in Anaheim. The cost is time in the car: freeway traffic, slow queues into the park car parks and circling for a space near the sand on summer weekends.

Telluride works the other way round. Once you have arrived, children can walk the whole town, and summer days are spent outdoors in the town parks, on the river path and fishing, with a gondola ride up to Mountain Village as a treat. There is almost nothing built for children to visit indoors, though, so a run of bad weather tests everyone's patience. It suits families who already ski or hike together.

In Newport the car rules. The town sprawls along the coast and up the hills, buses are thin, and beach parking is hard on summer weekends. Only the flat peninsula boardwalk and Balboa Island are pleasant without one.

Telluride turns this around once you have arrived. The historic grid takes a quarter of an hour to cross on foot, and the free gondola and buses reach Mountain Village and the lifts. The hard part is getting there, with a small airport often hit by weather.

Newport Beach is a proper shopping destination if you want luxury brands. There are designer names in the open-air centre above the harbour, a vast luxury mall ten minutes away in Costa Mesa, and boutiques along Coast Highway.

Telluride offers a few pleasant blocks of galleries, Western clothing, bookshops and ski gear on Colorado Avenue. It is good for browsing between activities, but nobody plans a trip around it.

Both are among the costliest places to stay in the country, and Telluride is harder on the wallet. Newport at least offers a way out: you can stay in Costa Mesa or Irvine and eat at taco stands, although car hire and parking still add up.

In Telluride, scarce rooms are priced for second-home owners, and lift tickets, guides and meals are all top of the market. The free gondola helps, but saving money properly means sleeping in Ridgway and driving in every day.

Newport Beach has the more reliable year-round programme, 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, all about ten minutes away.

Telluride depends on its summer festivals: the long-running Bluegrass Festival in Town Park, jazz and chamber music, and the Labor Day film festival. Outside those weeks there is little beyond the Sheridan Opera House.

The two are about even for relaxing, but in different ways. Newport offers bluff walks, sunsets over the harbour, resort spas and plenty of yoga studios, but no hot springs. Telluride adds what Newport cannot: soaks in the natural pools at Ouray and near Ridgway with mountain views, though the altitude can make the first nights restless.