Palm Desert or South Lake Tahoe?

Only South Lake Tahoe gives you somewhere natural to swim. Palm Desert has no shoreline at all. Water there means the resort pool, often heated in winter, and the nearest Pacific beach is a two-hour drive over the mountains.

South Lake Tahoe has sandy beaches at the edge of town, from Pope and Baldwin to Nevada Beach and Zephyr Cove, with remarkably clear water. The catch is the cold. At this altitude, swimming is really a July and August affair, and for the rest of the year the shore is for walking.

Neither is a food destination, but Palm Desert eats a little better. Its steakhouses and Californian bistros along El Paseo are polished and suit a long outdoor dinner on a warm winter evening. The taquerias and date groves of Indio and Coachella add a genuine local flavour, date shakes included.

In South Lake Tahoe, meals are mostly fuel: casino buffets, brewpubs, pizza and skiers' breakfasts along Highway 50. Quality is uneven and weekends bring long waits. Craft beer from local breweries is the high point, and many visitors end up cooking in the cabin.

Culture is thin in both, but Palm Desert has a little more to fill a morning. It has the Palm Springs Art Museum branch with its sculpture garden and the galleries on El Paseo. The mid-century modern houses and main museum of Palm Springs are twenty minutes away.

South Lake Tahoe's sights come from its past as a summer retreat for wealthy San Franciscans: the lakeside estates of the Tallac Historic Site, and Vikingsholm at Emerald Bay, reached on foot. They are pleasant stops on a day outdoors rather than a programme in themselves.

Palm Desert's patios empty early, while the casino bars at Stateline, a short walk from South Lake Tahoe, stay open all night, so Tahoe is the one for a late finish. Around El Paseo, evenings mean wine bars, cocktail lounges and patio happy hours among golfers and retirees. Staying out later means driving to a tribal casino or to Palm Springs, which has the valley's liveliest bars and a well-known gay scene.

Tahoe's California side keeps to brewpubs and ski bars, and in winter the evening often starts with après-ski at the gondola base. Over the line in Nevada, lounges and a club or two fill on long weekends and in peak weeks. There is little choice, though, and no bar district to wander.

Palm Desert's outdoors means desert canyons and palm oases. South Lake Tahoe has an alpine lake ringed by granite peaks, and for anyone who wants to spend the trip outside, the lake country wins clearly. From Palm Desert, steep trails climb into the Santa Rosa Mountains, the Indian Canyons hide fan-palm oases, the tramway rises to cool pine forest, and Joshua Tree's boulders and night skies are about an hour away. All of it works from October to May, but in summer you can only be active around dawn.

South Lake Tahoe has Emerald Bay, the granite basins of the Desolation Wilderness a few minutes from town, and the Tahoe Rim Trail along the ridges. Winter brings skiing at Heavenly, Kirkwood and Sierra-at-Tahoe, and summer brings paddling, mountain biking and fishing, so the outdoors runs all year.

Both have a similar range of outings, but of a different kind. From Palm Desert the trips are about style and desert oddities: mid-century Palm Springs, the old film set at Pioneertown, the painted Salvation Mountain, Temecula's tasting rooms and cool Idyllwild in summer.

From South Lake Tahoe they lead into Gold Rush and silver-boom country: the boardwalks of Virginia City, Genoa, Coloma where gold was found in 1848, and the Amador wine country. For something easier, there is Reno or a loop round the lake.

South Lake Tahoe has the edge for families who like being outside. Summer brings shallow sandy beaches, paddleboards and bike paths, and winter brings ski schools, sledding hills and the gondola ride. There is nothing indoors for children, though, so a stormy day is hard work.

Palm Desert has one big attraction in The Living Desert, a zoo and botanical garden with giraffes and cheetahs. Add the resort pools and the tramway and that is most of it, since the valley is built for adults who golf. Midday summer heat also keeps small children indoors.

Palm Desert is sprawl built for the car. South Lake Tahoe at least has a walkable core and winter shuttles, which makes it the easier of the two without a car. In Palm Desert only a few blocks of El Paseo invite walking, and the buses are rarely worth the wait. In return, the wide boulevards are uncongested and parking is easy.

In South Lake Tahoe you can get around on foot near Stateline and the gondola base, and in winter free shuttles run along the highway and up to the slopes. Beaches, trailheads and the other ski areas still need a car. Weekend traffic crawls on Highway 50 and around Emerald Bay, and winter storms bring chain controls and pass closures.

Palm Desert is by far the better place to shop. El Paseo is a palm-lined boulevard of fashion boutiques, jewellers and galleries, where a wealthy winter crowd browses as a social outing. A large designer outlet centre and the vintage and mid-century furniture shops of Palm Springs are within half an hour.

South Lake Tahoe's shops serve the trip itself: ski and outdoor gear, rental stores, the supermarket for the cabin, and souvenirs near the gondola. A few galleries sell lake photography.

Both are expensive in their peak season, and the savings come in different forms. Palm Desert's winter and spring resort rates are high, but from June to September the heat empties the town and rooms drop to a fraction of the winter rate. Golf and spa treatments are what stretch a budget fastest.

In South Lake Tahoe, ski weeks, high summer and long weekends push prices up, and lift tickets are steep. Midweek and shoulder-season discounts at the Nevada casino hotels help, cooking in a cabin cuts food costs, and the beaches and trails are free.

Palm Desert has the stronger stage. Through the winter, the McCallum Theatre brings touring Broadway shows, ballet, orchestras and comedy, and casinos and an arena add big-name concerts. In spring, Indio hosts Coachella and the Stagecoach country music festival.

South Lake Tahoe relies on casino showrooms for rock, country and tribute acts. What sets it apart is summer outdoors: Shakespeare on the beach at Sand Harbor, concerts at the Tallac estates and bands on lakeside lawns.

Palm Desert was made for unwinding. It has resort spas, afternoons by the pool under the palms and an unhurried rhythm of golf and early nights. The spa hotels of Desert Hot Springs, which fill their pools from natural mineral springs, are half an hour away.

In South Lake Tahoe, spas are mostly an add-on at casino hotels and ski lodges, there to ease tired legs. The calm comes instead from quiet mornings by the lake and cabins in the pines. A soak at Grover Hot Springs, a mineral pool in an alpine meadow, makes a good afternoon out.