What's your idea of the ultimate urban US break - the City of Angels or the one that never sleeps? Our experts can help you decide.
LOS ANGELES
By Amy Cooper
I'm spreadin' the news, I'm leaving today ... and I'm going to LA. While there's nothing wrong with a New York state of mind, it's prime time to head west.
Four LA landmarks celebrate their centenaries in 2023: the Hollywood Sign, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Warner Bros Studios and the Biltmore hotel. What happens when nine superstar letters, a mega venue, a dream factory and a grand dame turn 100? An ongoing party so epic, it'll make Babylon look like a corporate training video. Expect celeb-studded events, exhibitions, shows and heavy showers of glitter.
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures unveils its Hollywoodland exhibit chronicling celluloid magic, and Warner Bros Studio Tour (in my view, always the best value of LA's "big four" studio tours) has multiple new attractions for Potter tragics, DC devotees, Friends fans and lovers of classics such as Casablanca and Gone with the Wind.
While we're contemplating culture, here's a fun fact: LA has more museums per capita than any other city in the world. Yep, even the Big Apple. So don't dismiss this starry city as just a pretty face. She's home to The Broad, where admission to more than 2000 pieces of contemporary art is free; the Walt Disney Concert Hall; Hammer Museum; Getty Villa; MOCA and many more - 841 in all. LA delivers the happiest dilemma: go undercover for culture, or bask in the balmy, all-year sunshine of its endless summer, 40 kilometres of Pacific shoreline, and 20-plus legendary beaches.
What happens when nine superstar letters, a mega venue, a dream factory and a grand dame turn 100?
Surf with the stars at Malibu, goggle at four kilometres of colourful human life - from the pec-tacular Muscle Beach Gym to snake charmers and drum circles at Venice Beach, or soak up storied Santa Monica, with its historic pier and bike paths across the golden sand.
LA's closer to Australia than the east coast, geographically and in spirit, too, with an open-air attitude that Aussies appreciate. Ride the 45-kilometre coastal Strand Bike Path through Marina del Rey, Hermosa and Manhattan (LA's Manhattan has sand and surf), hike the hills and canyons, or fling the top down and crank up Good Vibrations to cruise the Pacific Coast Highway.
Eternally youthful LA embraces all generations. Mickey lives here, but so do Six Flags Magic Mountain, Pacific Park and Universal Studios, with its about-to-open Super Nintendo World. And Rodeo Drive - where my kid spotted a Rolls-Royce precisely the shade of Homer Simpson - is free entertainment for all the family, no shopping required.
Everything you do in Tinseltown feels like a movie scene, whether it's a reishi latte next to Owen Wilson in Erewhon, or a martini in Musso & Frank as seen in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. No city entertains quite like escapist La-La Land, and it's just what the world needs right now: a little California dreaming.
NEW YORK
By Mal Chenu
The Big Apple. The city that never sleeps. The city so nice they named it twice. Metropolis. Gotham. You don't get that many nicknames without being totally awesome and New York City is the world's must-visit melting pot.
The spectacular skyline is just the start. Home to the United Nations, NYC is the virtual capital of the world and you feel the energy from the moment you step onto the vibrant streets. So, let's start spreadin' the news.
The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, One World Trade Center, the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, the Flatiron Building, the Lincoln Center, Top of the Rock, the High Line on the West Side, Greenwich Village, Times Square, Wall Street, the South Street Seaport, Battery Park, and countless museums and galleries, including the Guggenheim and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (or The Met to its mates).
How about shopping on Fifth Avenue, a horse-drawn carriage through Central Park, or a harbour or river cruise? And for something really cool, take a walking tour (or shuffle) through Harlem and get down with the area's hip-hop, jazz, gospel, architecture and civil rights history. And all this is just Manhattan. The boroughs of The Bronx, Queens, Staten Island and Brooklyn each have their own lures and personalities.
LA's only advantage over New York is the weather in winter, although a snow-smattered Central Park is achingly pretty.
Los Angeles may not have walking tours as it's impossible to walk more than three blocks without bumping into someone power-walking in a Juicy Couture tracksuit. Or getting asthma - Angelenos famously don't trust the air they can't see. But if you like traffic and carbon monoxide, LA is your kind of town. LA has a lot of nice freeways to visit and you'll spend a lot of time admiring them as you drive around looking for something interesting.
LA's only advantage over New York is the weather in winter, although a snow-smattered Central Park is achingly pretty. LA is also good if you want to see the names of famous people on a sidewalk. Or if you want a kale detox juice, which, let's face it, you don't. You would rather have a cosmopolitan, bloody mary, martini or manhattan, all of which were invented in NYC.
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New York is home to every nationality and culture - and therefore cuisine - on the planet. A bagel from Zucker's, a pastrami sandwich from Katz's Delicatessen (or a Reuben from Reuben's) and a Waldorf salad from the actual Waldorf hotel. And then there's pizza from a traditional coal oven at Grimaldi's under the Brooklyn Bridge or a hotdog from Nathan's Famous at Coney Island. In LA, the "authentic" cuisine is a burrito. LA is really good at Mexican food. New York is really good at everything else.
For food, culture, class, sights, history and an overall wow factor, it's the Big Apple over La-La Land all the way. Go see the Big Apple and give my regards to Broadway.
