Los Angeles - or Orange County? (San Diego, Riverside: to live, shop, beaches)

[Mattias]

Where is it better to live (Los Angeles County or Orange County)?
Where is it nicer? Who has more palm trees?

[bhcompy]

Just depends on what you want and what you can afford. OC has better beaches imho and is much more suburban and decidely more open. LA is older and tighter together in most parts, and where its not its fairly expensive.

[LAMelanie]

I find LA to have more culture, history, and diversity than OC. If I could choose, I would live somewhere in west L.A. OC also tends to be more conservative overall. L.A. has better shopping.

[MisterDuke]

Los Angeles County has far more palm trees.

[JakeInSoCal]

OC is very suburban. So if you want that then Orange County is a good choice. And at least you're closer to San Diego if you ever want great beaches.

[Mattias]

I like San Diego but summers are mild (only 70s) and extremely dry!
At least LA has more rain and better temperatures.

[sav858]

Originally Posted by Mattias

I like San Diego but summers are mild (only 70s) and extremely dry!
At least LA has more rain and better temperatures.

LA's temps aren't any different than San Diego's, as with both places it depends how close to the coast you are. It's in the 70's all along LA's coastline as well just like San Diego. It's in the 80's in inland parts of LA just like it is in San Diego. But yes they do get a little more rain.

[BRinSM]

it doesn't rain very often anywhere in coastal socal, lets not give anyone the impression that rain is an issue here. if there is an issue with rain though, it is that we don't get enough of it to water all the lawns in the region.

[happ]

Orange Co is really nice w/ great beaches & nice communities. LA Co is larger & more urban but also has nice beaches & mountains. Orange Co is basically a suburb of LA.

Wow, can't tell which county has the most palms trees since both areas have a lot. Probably the most common trees are palms & they are planted widely. Actually anywhere in SoCal one sees lots of palm trees except in the high mountains, of-course. But comparing yard to yard I would guess that San Diego Co has the most palm trees, followed by Orange & LA counties [but people in San Bernardino\Riverside\Imperial counties might argue that they have the most palm trees [also Ventura & Santa Barbara counties

If you take a look at climate zones you will see that SoCal is basically frost-free & warm year-round with coastal areas the mildest [basically mid 60's-low 80's] & inland [upper 60's-90's] with minimums 40's-60's in both areas. Of-course the deserts are much hotter & the mountain much cooler. Rainfall is fairly low compared to the rest of the nation w/ highest amounts in the mountains & next to nothing in the deserts. It basically only rains during winter to mid Spring & is dry & sunny forever. Many consider the climate of California as the most comfortable for human beings but I would like more rainfall since it seems we are always dealing with droughts