Palm Springs or Santa Monica?

This is the widest gap between the two. Santa Monica sits on a broad band of sand with the pier in the middle and lifeguards along its length, and the coves at Point Dume and Zuma are a short drive north. The catch is the cool Pacific, so many people paddle rather than swim.

Palm Springs is two hours inland from any ocean. You swim in the pool that every hotel and rental house is built around, which is a pleasure in itself during the long hot season, but there is no sand or sea.

Santa Monica eats better. Its kitchens are supplied by the Wednesday farmers market, so you get seasonal Californian cooking, good seafood and a decent range of Italian and Japanese restaurants. Venice, next door, adds more casual and creative places.

Palm Springs is more about long brunches on the patio and cocktails by the pool, with mid-range American restaurants on Palm Canyon Drive and little fine dining. Its own pleasures are the date shakes from the groves near Indio and the taquerias further east in the valley.

Palm Springs has the more distinctive sightseeing, and almost all of it is architecture. Albert Frey's houses, Neutra's Kaufmann House and the folded roofs of the Alexander homes make a fine day out by bike or car, and the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum tells the story of the Cahuilla people.

Santa Monica itself has the pier, the sign marking the end of Route 66 and the galleries at Bergamot Station. Its real cultural draws are just outside town, at the Getty Center and the Getty Villa, both a short drive away.

Neither is a place for a big night out, and both wind down early. The difference is in the crowd. Palm Springs centres on Arenas Road, a long-established LGBTQ strip of patio bars and drag nights, with retro cocktail lounges and pool parties in spring.

Santa Monica leans towards hotel rooftop bars, British-style pubs on Main Street and wine bars near the Promenade. Anyone who wants to go clubbing takes a long taxi ride to Hollywood.

Both towns have mountains right behind them, and Palm Springs has slightly more drama. The tramway lifts you from the desert floor to pine forest on Mount San Jacinto, the Indian Canyons hide palm oases, and Joshua Tree is about an hour away. In summer, though, the heat limits hiking to the hour after dawn.

Santa Monica pairs trails through the dry scrub of Topanga and Temescal Canyon with the sea. It has a 35km beach path for cycling, surf lessons and whale-watching in winter, and the weather lets you get outside almost every day.

Santa Monica has much more within reach. Santa Barbara and Laguna Beach are each about two hours by car, Catalina is a ferry ride away, and Pasadena's Huntington Library or a day in Hollywood fill other days, if the traffic allows.

From Palm Springs the outings are smaller and stranger: the pine village of Idyllwild, the old Western film set at Pioneertown, Salvation Mountain by the Salton Sea and the wineries of Temecula. Los Angeles is too far away for a comfortable day trip.

Santa Monica is by far the better choice with children. The beach is lifeguarded and good for digging, the pier has a Ferris wheel, a roller coaster and a small aquarium, and the mild weather never gets in the way. The theme parks, however, are a long drive away.

Palm Springs works as a pool stay with a few outings to the Living Desert, the tramway and the Air Museum. But many of the boutique hotels are adults-only, and from late spring it is too hot to be outdoors in the middle of the day.

Santa Monica is easier to manage without a car. The town centre, the pier and Main Street are walkable, the blue buses cover the rest of town, and the E Line light rail reaches downtown Los Angeles in about an hour. Trips to Malibu or the Getty mean freeway traffic or ride-hailing.

In Palm Springs only the downtown strip is walkable, the valley buses are slow and infrequent, and the canyons, the tramway and Joshua Tree all need a hire car. Its one advantage is the airport on the edge of town.

Santa Monica has the wider range, with chains on the Third Street Promenade, upmarket boutiques on Montana Avenue, surf shops on Main Street and design-led stores on Abbot Kinney in Venice. Palm Springs has less choice but a real speciality in mid-century furniture, lighting and vintage clothing in the Uptown Design District, and El Paseo and the Cabazon outlets nearby cover everything else.

Neither town is cheap, but Palm Springs costs less. Its high season, from winter into spring, is expensive, yet in summer room prices fall sharply for anyone who can take the heat, and simple motels help keep costs down all year.

Santa Monica is expensive even for California, with high costs for oceanfront hotels, restaurants and parking, especially in summer. The beach, the trails and the bike path are free, and staying further inland lowers the cost of a room.

The two offer a similar amount of live entertainment in different styles. Palm Springs has drag cabaret, piano bars, the McCallum Theatre and casino concerts, plus the Coachella and Stagecoach festivals half an hour away each April. Santa Monica has chamber music and dance at the Broad Stage, an intimate folk and acoustic scene and free summer concerts on the pier, while the Hollywood Bowl and Walt Disney Concert Hall are a long drive away.

Palm Springs was built on a hot spring, and soaking is still the main attraction. You can bathe in the mineral water of the Agua Caliente spring downtown or at the spa motels of Desert Hot Springs, which fill their pools straight from the ground. Slow days by the pool make it easy to switch off.

In Santa Monica, wellness is active rather than restful: yoga on the sand, juice bars, a morning run by the ocean and the sunset over the bay. It has good hotel spas but no thermal bathing.