Albuquerque or Phoenix?

Neither city has a beach, and both lie deep in the desert, far from any coast. What differs is the kind of swim on offer. Albuquerque has hotel and public pools and the occasional drive out to Cochiti Lake. Phoenix has the Salt River reservoirs, with small beaches below bare cliffs, summer tubing on the lower Salt, and resort pools with lazy rivers and slides that are built to fill a whole day.

Both cities eat best at long-running family tables rather than in smart dining rooms, but the cooking is distinct. Albuquerque's is New Mexican, built on locally grown chile, red or green, in carne adovada, posole and blue corn enchiladas. In late summer the smell of roasting chile fills the city, and taprooms in Nob Hill and downtown round out an evening.

Phoenix leans Sonoran, with carne asada, paper-thin flour tortillas and bacon-wrapped hot dogs from evening carts, and it is known for wood-fired pizza and bread. Scottsdale adds polished resort dining, though eating well across the sprawl usually means a drive.

The two offer about the same depth of sightseeing, in different forms. Albuquerque has a historic core you can walk, the adobe plaza of Old Town around its 18th-century church. Close by are the Pueblo-run cultural centre and the Hispanic cultural campus in Barelas, with Route 66 neon along Central Avenue and the carved rocks of Petroglyph National Monument on the city's western edge.

Phoenix has no old centre, so its strength is museums: the Heard for Native American art, the Musical Instrument Museum and Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West. Seeing them means separate drives across the valley.

Phoenix gives a noticeably fuller night out. Old Town Scottsdale is a compact grid of clubs and rooftop bars that fills at weekends, Tempe's Mill Avenue runs on students, and downtown's Roosevelt Row has cocktail and craft beer bars. Each is a separate ride from the others.

Albuquerque's evenings are smaller: a downtown bar strip that livens up on Fridays and Saturdays, calmer cocktail bars in Nob Hill, and a good deal of socialising on brewery patios. Midweek there is little going on.

Both have mountains rising straight out of the suburbs, but the landscapes feel very different. From Albuquerque the tramway lifts you to over 3,000m on the Sandia crest, among pine and fir forest. The bosque along the Rio Grande offers shade and wintering cranes, and volcanic cones lie west of the river.

Phoenix is saguaro desert, with scrambles up Camelback and Piestewa Peak, long trails on South Mountain and in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, and Sedona's red rock two hours away. Its hiking season is winter, while Albuquerque's is spring and autumn.

Albuquerque has the stronger days out, mainly because Santa Fe, with its plaza, Canyon Road galleries and art museums, is an hour away and can even be reached by train. Beyond it lie Acoma's mesa-top Sky City, the cliff dwellings of Bandelier and the mining villages of the Turquoise Trail.

Phoenix's choices are pleasant but slighter: hillside Jerome, Prescott's courthouse square, Montezuma Castle and Sedona to the north, and Tucson with San Xavier del Bac to the south. The Grand Canyon is too far for a day, and from either city nearly every outing needs a car.

Families are equally well looked after, with spacious hotels, child-friendly restaurants and long drives between attractions in both. Albuquerque's BioPark, Explora and the dinosaur halls sit near the river and Old Town, and its great moment is the October Balloon Fiesta, when balloons rise at dawn.

Phoenix has a zoo, a science centre and a children's museum, and adds water parks, resort pools with slides and spring training baseball in March. Its summer heat is the bigger risk for small children. In Albuquerque the worry is the strong sun at altitude.

Both are car cities, and most visitors rent at the airport and find roads and parking easy. Albuquerque is the more compact of the two, with a walkable Old Town, a bus line along Central Avenue and a commuter train to Santa Fe.

Phoenix spreads over a far larger grid, and its light rail is only useful between the airport, downtown and Tempe. Ride-hailing fills the gaps, but in summer the heat makes even short walks hard going.

Phoenix gives a shopper more to work with. A large luxury mall in Scottsdale and another near the Biltmore carry international brands, and Old Town Scottsdale adds galleries, Western wear and boutiques. Albuquerque has no fashion street, only a short run of independent and vintage shops in Nob Hill.

What the two share is Native craft: silver and turquoise jewellery, pottery and carvings. In Albuquerque, Old Town's plaza and the Pueblo cultural centre put buyers close to the makers, while in Phoenix the safest places to buy are museum shops and established galleries.

Costs come out much the same. In both cities a rental car is the biggest extra, and free hiking helps the budget. The difference is timing. Albuquerque is fairly priced for most of the year but expensive during Balloon Fiesta week in October, while Phoenix is dearest from January to April, and its resort rooms drop sharply in the summer heat.

Neither city is worth the journey for a performance alone, but each has its own strengths. Albuquerque's are flamenco, with a long-established institute and an annual festival, and the Native dances performed for visitors at weekends at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. The Santa Fe Opera is an evening's drive away in summer.

Phoenix has the fuller set of institutions: a symphony, Arizona Opera and Ballet Arizona, Broadway tours in Wright's round ASU Gammage, and concerts at the Musical Instrument Museum, mostly from autumn to spring.

Phoenix is far better for a rest. The resorts below Camelback Mountain and in north Scottsdale are built for it, with full spas, treatments using desert ingredients, several pools and golf, and the winter warmth makes a week by the water easy.

In Albuquerque, relaxing mostly means a hotel spa, some of them on Pueblo lands just outside town. Its real asset lies further off, in the mineral pools of Jemez Springs and the bathhouses around Santa Fe. A soak in natural hot water is the one thing here that New Mexico does and Phoenix cannot.