Albuquerque or Flagstaff?

Neither city is a place to swim. Both sit high in the desert, far from any coast. What differs is what counts as a dip on a hot day. Around Albuquerque it means a hotel pool or a drive to a reservoir such as Cochiti Lake. From Flagstaff it means the cold, rocky creek pools of Oak Creek Canyon, Slide Rock among them, which are more fun but crowded at weekends.

Albuquerque has a regional cuisine worth travelling for. New Mexican cooking is built on chile grown in the state, and you eat carne adovada, blue corn enchiladas and posole in long-running family places in the South and North Valleys. The smell of chile roasting in late summer is part of the city's character.

Flagstaff's strength is beer, with taprooms clustered downtown and on the Southside. Green chile and Navajo frybread are only occasional touches on an otherwise casual university-town menu. Both places have good breweries, but only Albuquerque gives you a reason to plan your meals.

Albuquerque has more to see and covers a wider span of history. There is the adobe plaza of Old Town with its 18th-century church, and the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, run by the state's nineteen Pueblos. Add the National Hispanic Cultural Center, the nuclear science museum and the carvings of Petroglyph National Monument on the city's edge.

Flagstaff's list is shorter but distinctive. The Lowell Observatory, where Pluto was discovered, and the Hopi, Navajo and Zuni collections at the Museum of Northern Arizona are each worth an afternoon. Beyond those there is little more than the Riordan Mansion and the railroad-era downtown.

What separates the two is how spread out the evening is. In Albuquerque going out is split between two stretches of Central Avenue some distance apart, and the downtown end can turn rowdy late on weekends. A lot of the social life happens on brewery patios through the warm, dry nights from spring to autumn, and midweek the city goes quiet.

Flagstaff packs its whole night out into a few downtown and Southside blocks, so you can walk from a taproom to an old Route 66 saloon in minutes. Students liven things up on weekends during term, but there is little dancing to be had, and most places have shut well before the small hours.

Both cities have mountains at the door, but Flagstaff is the better outdoor base. The San Francisco Peaks rise to 3,850m above a vast ponderosa forest, and the ski area is about half an hour away. Sunset Crater's lava flows lie just north of town, and the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and the red rock around Sedona are within easy reach.

Albuquerque's Sandia Mountains, reached by aerial tramway or the steep La Luz Trail, offer real hiking right on the city's doorstep. The cottonwood bosque along the Rio Grande is good for birdwatching. Summer heat in the valley, though, limits outings to spring and autumn, whereas Flagstaff's altitude keeps its summers comfortable.

The two are close here, and what differs is the kind of trip. From Albuquerque the standout is a single destination: Santa Fe, with its plaza, the Canyon Road galleries and its art museums, reachable even by commuter train. Behind it come Acoma's Sky City, the cliff dwellings of Bandelier and the mining villages of the Turquoise Trail.

Flagstaff offers a spread of smaller stops instead. There is Sedona, the hillside mining town of Jerome, the Sinagua ruins at Walnut Canyon and Wupatki, and the historic railway from Williams to the Grand Canyon. To the east, the Hopi mesas are among the oldest inhabited villages in North America and are Flagstaff's counterpart to Acoma.

Both are easy places to bring children, in different ways. Albuquerque has more that is built for kids: the BioPark's zoo, aquarium and botanic garden, the Explora science centre and the dawn launches of the October Balloon Fiesta. Its drawback is the strong summer sun.

Flagstaff's pleasures are outdoors and change with the season: telescope evenings at Lowell, rope courses in the pines in summer and sledding on the mountain in winter. The catch is that the thin air tires small children for the first day or two.

Neither works well without a car, but Flagstaff is the easier town to get around once you are there. Its historic downtown and Southside are compact enough to walk, a paved urban trail network makes cycling practical, and long-distance trains stop at the downtown station.

Albuquerque is low-rise and spread across a wide valley. Old Town is walkable and a bus runs along Central Avenue, but almost everything else, from the petroglyphs to the tramway, means driving. On the plus side, the airport is close to the centre and parking is easy, while Flagstaff's mountain roads can be hard going in winter snow.

Both are good places to buy Native American craft: silver and turquoise jewellery, Pueblo pottery, Navajo weaving and kachina carvings. In either city, buy from the artist or an established dealer to be sure the work is authentic. Albuquerque has the wider choice, around Old Town's plaza and at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. It also has chile ristras to take home and the independent and vintage shops of Nob Hill.

Flagstaff's selection is smaller: downtown galleries, the museum shop and trading posts on the roads out of town. Its outdoor gear stores suit the hikers who come through.

Costs are much the same in both, and neither is cheap for an international visitor once you add the hire car, fuel and tips. The difference is when prices peak. Albuquerque is fairly priced for most of the year, but rooms become scarce and expensive during Balloon Fiesta week in October. Flagstaff's rates climb on summer weekends and during school breaks, when it fills up as the main place to stay for the Grand Canyon, and visitors there should also budget for park and monument entry fees.

Albuquerque has the fuller stage. It offers touring Broadway shows and the philharmonic at Popejoy Hall, and film and concerts inside the Pueblo Deco KiMo Theatre. There is also a long-established flamenco tradition with its own festival, and weekend Pueblo dances at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. In summer, the open-air opera above Santa Fe is within an evening's drive.

Flagstaff's calendar is modest and mostly local. There are the symphony and university musicians in the campus hall, indie and folk acts at the Orpheum, community theatre, and summer concerts in the pines.

For anyone who wants a soak, the difference is that Albuquerque has hot springs within reach and Flagstaff has none. From Albuquerque, the mineral pools of Jemez Springs are about an hour and a quarter's drive, with Japanese-style bathhouses around Santa Fe beyond them. The resort spas on Pueblo lands just outside town come with mountain views.

Flagstaff has only a handful of day spas, so for real pampering people drive about an hour down to Sedona, which has far more resort spas and yoga studios. The town's own calm comes from cool, pine-scented evenings and bright stars, though the altitude can disturb sleep for the first night or two.