Palm Springs or Sonoma?

Neither town is a place for a beach vacation, and the difference is mostly in how you swim. In Palm Springs it means the pool, and with the long hot season, lounging beside it is a central part of the stay. Sonoma adds summer afternoons on the gravel beaches of the Russian River, plus a dramatic but cold coast around Bodega Bay that people go to look at rather than to swim.

Sonoma is the better place to eat and drink, and for most visitors it is the main point of the trip. Tasting rooms around the plaza, old-vine Zinfandel, Pinot Noir from Carneros, and seasonal cooking with local cheese, olive oil and coast oysters give its meals a real sense of place.

Palm Springs has easy brunches on shaded patios, poolside cocktails and mid-range American restaurants on Palm Canyon Drive. The local touches are date shakes and the Mexican taquerias further down the valley. It is good for relaxed grazing, but there is no regional cuisine and little fine dining.

Palm Springs has the more distinctive sightseeing, and almost all of it is mid-century modern architecture. You can see Albert Frey's houses, Neutra's Kaufmann House and the folded roofs of Twin Palms on a self-guided day by bike or car. The art museum and the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum, which covers Cahuilla history, fill in the rest.

Sonoma offers older history in a smaller dose. The plaza of the Bear Flag Revolt, the last Franciscan mission, the adobe barracks and Vallejo's house make a pleasant half day, with the ruins of Jack London's Wolf House nearby.

Palm Springs has much more going on after dark, though it is a social scene rather than a clubbing one. The LGBTQ bars of Arenas Road, drag nights, retro cocktail lounges and spring pool parties give its evenings a clear character.

In Sonoma the evening is dinner, then perhaps a glass at a wine bar or saloon on the plaza, and by late evening the town is quiet. Anyone who wants more has to drive to Santa Rosa.

Both towns are good for the outdoors, but Palm Springs has the more dramatic setting. The tramway carries you from the desert floor to pine forest on Mount San Jacinto, the Indian Canyons hide palm oases and a waterfall, and the boulders and night skies of Joshua Tree are about an hour away.

Sonoma's landscape is gentler: vineyards and oak-covered slopes, trails up to the Sonoma Overlook, redwoods at Sugarloaf Ridge and quiet back roads for cycling. What it adds is the sea, with the Sonoma Coast headlands and Point Reyes within about an hour.

Sonoma is far better placed for outings. San Francisco is about an hour away, close enough for a full day in the city, and Napa, Healdsburg, Petaluma and Sausalito are all near, even if many trips turn out to be another wine town.

From Palm Springs the outings are smaller and stranger: the pines of Idyllwild, the lived-in Western film set at Pioneertown, and the abandoned resorts and Salvation Mountain on the shore of the Salton Sea. Los Angeles and San Diego are too far for a comfortable day trip.

Palm Springs works better with children, mainly as a pool vacation broken up by outings. The best are the Living Desert zoo, the tramway with snow at the top in winter, and the old warplanes at the Air Museum. Many boutique hotels are adults-only, so families are better off in the large resorts further down the valley.

Sonoma has a playground on the plaza, a miniature railway park and an African wildlife park near Santa Rosa. Beyond those, days built around tasting rooms leave children with little to do.

In both towns you need a car, with a small centre you can walk, so the differences are in the details. In Palm Springs the flat downtown strip and bike rides through the mid-century neighbourhoods work in the cooler months, and the airport on the edge of town makes arriving easy. In Sonoma a fair number of tasting rooms are within a few blocks of the plaza, and booking a driver or tour for winery days also settles who drives after the wine.

Palm Springs has a real speciality in mid-century furniture, lighting and vintage clothing, found in the Uptown Design District. The luxury shops of El Paseo and the big Cabazon outlets are also within easy reach.

Sonoma's shopping is a stroll through the plaza's arcades for galleries, kitchenware, cheese, olive oil and wine bought direct from the wineries. It is good for gifts and food to take home, but not a reason to go.

Neither is a cheap destination, but Palm Springs gives you more ways to save. Winter and spring bring resort prices, yet rooms drop sharply in the hottest months, and simple motels and supermarket picnics keep costs down all year.

Sonoma stays expensive. Rooms are few and priced for wine-country weekends, restaurants are aimed at well-off visitors, and tasting fees mount up over a few days. Staying in Santa Rosa or Petaluma is the usual way to save.

Palm Springs has more live entertainment across its season. Each April the Coachella and Stagecoach festivals fill the polo grounds in Indio, the McCallum Theatre and the valley's casinos book touring acts, and drag cabaret and piano bars give the town its own flavour.

Sonoma's programme is smaller and mostly in summer: Broadway-style concerts among the ruins at Jack London State Historic Park, outdoor winery concerts, and the 1930s theatre on the plaza. Its strong point is the Green Music Center, about half an hour away, which brings touring orchestras that the desert has no match for.

Palm Springs grew up around a hot spring, and bathing is at the heart of a stay. You can soak at the Agua Caliente bathhouse downtown or in the spa motels of Desert Hot Springs, which fill their pools with hot mineral water straight from the ground.

Sonoma has one historic spring at Boyes Hot Springs, which feeds a single resort spa. Otherwise there are inn spas at resort prices, and Calistoga's mud baths are an hour away. Both towns are restful, but in Sonoma the calm comes from quiet mornings and early evenings on the plaza rather than whole days by a pool.