Santa Monica or Telluride?

There is no real contest here. Santa Monica has a wide band of pale sand with lifeguard towers and the pier at its centre, and the Malibu shore to the north adds quieter, more scenic coves at Point Dume and El Matador. The one drawback is the cool Pacific, which keeps many visitors to wading.

Telluride is a mountain town far from any coast. The nearest place to swim is a reservoir near Ridgway about an hour away, and summer water time there means rafting, paddling or fishing.

Santa Monica eats better and more widely. Its Wednesday farmers market feeds a strong tier of seasonal Californian, seafood, Italian and Japanese kitchens, with neighbourhood places along Main Street and Montana Avenue and more casual cooking in Venice next door, even if the city's best cheap immigrant food lies far to the east.

Telluride does well for a small town, with a few ambitious kitchens cooking elk, Colorado lamb and trout, and good craft beer. Over a week, though, the choice runs thin, and peak weeks make tables hard to find.

Neither is a sightseeing destination, but Santa Monica has more within reach. Its own offer is modest, the historic pier and the galleries at Bergamot Station, yet the Getty Center and the Getty Villa are a short drive away and give it access to serious collections.

Telluride's culture is the town itself: an intact mining-boom grid that is a National Historic Landmark, a small history museum in the old miners' hospital and mill ruins on the cliffs. It fills an hour or two rather than a day.

Both are towns for an early night, but Santa Monica gives more to choose from. Rooftop bars with ocean views, wine bars around the Third Street Promenade, pubs on Main Street and a looser crowd in Venice make for a good evening, with Hollywood a long taxi ride away for clubs.

In Telluride the evening is après-ski and a drink in an old saloon on Colorado Avenue. It gets lively in peak ski weeks and on festival weekends and goes very quiet the rest of the year.

Santa Monica is a good outdoor base, with chaparral canyon trails in Topanga and Temescal, a 35km beach path for cycling, surf lessons and winter whale-watching.

Telluride is in another league. Peaks above 4,000m, Bridal Veil Falls and trails to Blue Lake begin within minutes of the main street, summer adds wildflower basins, a via ferrata and jeep roads over the old mining passes, and winter brings steep, scenic skiing. The trade-off is altitude, which takes a day or two to get used to.

Santa Monica has far more on its doorstep. Malibu is close, Santa Barbara's mission and wine country and Laguna Beach's coves are each a couple of hours by car, Catalina is a ferry ride away, and Pasadena and Hollywood make full days within Los Angeles, traffic allowing.

From Telluride the options are a handful of mountain towns, Ridgway, Ouray and Silverton, along winding passes, with Mesa Verde's cliff dwellings a long drive at the very edge of a day out. Winter weather can close the roads.

Santa Monica is the easier family destination. The pier's Ferris wheel, carousel and small aquarium, playgrounds along the beach and safe sand for digging fill days without planning, and mild weather means little is lost to the season.

Telluride suits active families who ski or hike, with a good ski school and a free gondola children love. Beyond that there are no attractions to fall back on, wet days are hard, and the altitude can trouble small children at first.

Telluride is simpler once you arrive. The historic grid can be crossed on foot in a quarter of an hour, and a free gondola and buses link it to Mountain Village, so many visitors leave the car parked, although reaching the town itself is slow and weather-dependent.

Santa Monica is walkable at its centre and has buses and a light rail line into downtown Los Angeles. Most places beyond, including the Getty, Hollywood and the Malibu canyons, mean a car or ride-hailing on congested freeways.

Santa Monica offers far more variety. The Promenade covers the chains, Montana Avenue has upmarket boutiques, Main Street has surf shops, and Venice's Abbot Kinney Boulevard brings design-led independents, with Rodeo Drive a short drive further.

Telluride's shopping runs to a few blocks of galleries, Western-style boutiques, bookshops and ski gear. It is pleasant for an hour's browsing, but hardly a reason to visit.

Both are expensive, but Santa Monica is a little more forgiving. Free beaches, trails and the bike path, cheap buses and light rail, and cheaper rooms a short way inland give a careful traveller some room to save.

Telluride costs more at almost every turn. Lodging is scarce and priced for second-home owners, lift tickets and guided activities are costly, and the cheaper beds in Ridgway mean a daily drive.

The two are evenly matched but work in different ways. Santa Monica offers a steady year-round programme at the Broad Stage, small playhouses and an intimate folk scene, with free summer concerts on the pier and the Hollywood Bowl and Disney Hall across the city.

Telluride's music comes in bursts. The Bluegrass Festival in Town Park, plus jazz, chamber music and the film festival, make summer weekends memorable, while the Sheridan Opera House keeps a smaller programme going through the year.

The two are evenly matched, but the rest they offer is different in kind. Santa Monica's is active and built on routine: yoga classes on the beach, an early walk or run by the water, and a good choice of day spas and massage studios around town. There is no tradition of bathing here, though, so nothing to build a slow day around.

Telluride turns that around. The town has no baths of its own, but the San Juan hot springs at Ouray and near Ridgway are an hour's drive away, so a soak in naturally warm water with peaks all around makes an easy half-day out. The resort spas in Mountain Village fill in the rest, and the quiet weeks between seasons suit slowing down, although the thin air can disturb sleep at first.