Albuquerque or Alta, Utah?

You can't go to either place for the beach. Both are high and far inland. Albuquerque's Rio Grande is too silty and fast for swimming, though locals drive out to Cochiti Lake on summer afternoons, while Alta's nearest water is the briny, shallow Great Salt Lake. In practice swimming means a pool in the city or a hot tub at an Alta lodge.

Albuquerque gives you a reason to eat out, which Alta does not. New Mexican cooking is a cuisine in its own right: carne adovada, blue corn enchiladas, posole and sopaipillas, ordered red, green or Christmas in family places in the South and North Valleys and along Route 66. Craft breweries fill the evenings in Nob Hill and downtown.

In Alta you mostly eat in the lodge, usually on half board at long shared tables, with lunch in slopeside cafeterias. It is filling skiers' food with no restaurant street or market. For variety you have to drive down the canyon, if the road allows.

Albuquerque fills a rewarding couple of days. There is the 1793 church on the Old Town plaza, the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Barelas, the nuclear science museum, and thousands of carvings at Petroglyph National Monument.

Alta has almost nothing to visit. Its silver-mining past survives only as traces on the ski slopes, and the nearest museums are in Salt Lake City.

Albuquerque at least has a night out. Downtown bars and a few clubs fill at weekends, Nob Hill is quieter with cocktail bars, and brewery patios are busy on warm evenings. It is still a modest scene that goes quiet midweek. Alta stops at an après drink in the lodge bar and an early night, which is exactly how its regulars like it.

Alta wins for anyone whose trip is about the mountains themselves. Over 12m of snow in a big winter, steep skiing reserved for skiers, avalanche-aware backcountry touring and the summer meadows of Albion Basin put it in a different league.

Albuquerque's outdoors are broader but less dramatic: the tramway to the Sandia crest, the La Luz Trail, cranes wintering along the bosque, volcanic cones to the west and the Jemez Mountains a drive away. Summer heat at low elevations pushes the best walking into spring and autumn.

Albuquerque has the better list of days out. Santa Fe alone fills a day, and Acoma's Sky City, the Bandelier cliff dwellings, Chimayo and the Turquoise Trail villages are all within reach by car.

From Alta the choices are Salt Lake City's Temple Square and museums, Park City's mining-era Main Street and Ogden, after which the list runs out. In winter every outing depends on a canyon road that closes after storms.

Albuquerque suits a mixed family far better. There is the BioPark, the Explora science centre and dinosaur halls, rockets outside the nuclear museum and a ride up the tramway, and the October Balloon Fiesta is a dawn spectacle children remember. Restaurants are relaxed about children, though you will spend a lot of time in the car.

Alta works only if everyone skis. The ski school and gentle beginner slopes are good, but altitude, cold and storm days spent indoors make it hard going for non-skiers and very young children.

Alta is the easier of the two once you have arrived. Lodges sit at the lifts, many with ski-in, ski-out access, and a shuttle links the base areas. The weak point is the single canyon road from Salt Lake City, which jams on powder mornings and closes for avalanche control.

Albuquerque is spread out and built around the car. The Central Avenue bus links Old Town, downtown and Nob Hill, and the train runs to Santa Fe, but the mountains, petroglyphs and most excursions need a rental car.

Albuquerque has something worth buying: silver and turquoise jewellery, Pueblo pottery, Navajo weaving and kachina carvings, bought around the Old Town plaza or from Native artists directly, plus chile ristras and a short run of Nob Hill boutiques. Alta has ski rental shops and branded souvenirs, and serious shoppers head to Park City or Salt Lake City.

Albuquerque is the more affordable stay. It has plenty of fairly priced hotels and generous New Mexican plates, and Old Town and the trails cost little. Car hire is the main expense, and Balloon Fiesta week is a costly exception.

Alta's beds are few and almost all in lodges charging high-season rates, often with dinner included because there is nowhere else to eat. Lift tickets are moderate, but budget travellers sleep in the Salt Lake valley and come up each day.

Albuquerque has a real stage life for a city its size. Touring musicals and the philharmonic play at Popejoy Hall, the Pueblo Deco KiMo Theatre hosts film and theatre, and flamenco has a long-established institute and annual festival. There are also Pueblo dances on weekends and summer opera near Santa Fe. Alta has no venue of any kind, and evenings are spent in the lodge.

Neither is a spa destination, and the rest you get in each is different. In Alta it comes from tiredness after skiing: steaming outdoor hot tubs, saunas and lodge massages in a village where the snow muffles everything.

Albuquerque offers resort spas on Pueblo lands with mountain views. Its real asset is the mineral pools of Jemez Springs and the bathhouses around Santa Fe, which are worth the drive.