Alta, Utah or Anaheim?

Alta has nothing to offer here. It is a canyon-top village at about 2,600m, the Great Salt Lake below is no place for a swim, and the only water is a lodge pool or hot tub. Anaheim is inland too, but Huntington's wide surf beach, Newport's Balboa Peninsula and the coves of Laguna are all about half an hour away by car.

Even so, from Anaheim the coast is a half-day outing rather than the reason for the trip, and it is awkward to reach without a car.

Food in Alta is fuel for skiing: half-board dinners at long communal tables in the lodges, and lunch at slopeside cafeterias. There is no restaurant street or market, and anything more varied means driving down the canyon to Salt Lake City.

Anaheim gives far more choice once you leave the chains and park counters of the resort district. Little Arabia on Brookhurst Street, pho and banh mi in Little Saigon, the food hall in the old citrus packing district and the county's taquerias make eating out a real part of the trip.

Neither is a culture destination, but Anaheim has more to show. In Alta, the past as a silver-mining camp that became an early Western ski area survives only as traces of old mines on the slopes. Anaheim has Disneyland, the first Disney park and a genuine piece of American cultural history, plus the Mother Colony House, and the Bowers Museum and Nixon Presidential Library are a drive away.

Evenings in Alta mean a drink in a lodge bar and then bed, which is just how the regulars like it. The livelier après-ski is at the next resort down the road.

Anaheim is hardly a party town either, but there is more going on: bars along the promenade after the fireworks, brewpubs and cocktail bars in the centre, crowds near the stadiums on game nights and Fullerton's student bars. For a real night out, Alta sends you to Salt Lake City and Anaheim to Long Beach or Los Angeles.

This is where Alta stands apart. It sits at the head of Little Cottonwood Canyon in the Wasatch and gets some of the deepest, driest powder in North America. Winter brings steep skiing and serious backcountry touring, and summer brings the wildflower meadows of Albion Basin and hikes to Cecret Lake and Sugarloaf.

Anaheim's outdoors are gentler and you need a car for all of them: chaparral trails in the Santa Ana Mountains, tide pools at Crystal Cove and whale-watching boats from Newport and Dana Point. There is more variety, with the sea as well as hills, but nothing as high, wild or snowbound as the peaks above Alta.

Anaheim sits in the middle of Southern California, so Los Angeles, Long Beach, Catalina Island, Mission San Juan Capistrano, the Temecula wine country and San Diego are all possible in a day. From Alta the choices are Salt Lake City, Park City's mining-era Main Street and Ogden, and after that the list runs out.

Winter adds a catch in Alta: every outing depends on the one canyon road, which closes for avalanche control after heavy snow. In Anaheim the limit is freeway traffic, which slows trips down but rarely stops them.

Anaheim is built for families. Two Disney parks stand side by side, Knott's Berry Farm is ten minutes away, family hotels are within walking distance and few days are lost to rain. The Discovery Cube and the Aquarium of the Pacific add something beyond the rides.

Alta only works when the whole family skis, with a ski school and gentle beginner slopes near the base. Children who don't ski will find nothing made for them, and the altitude, the cold and storm days spent indoors can be hard on younger ones.

Both are easy within a small area and hard beyond it. In Alta that area is the village, where the lodges sit at the lifts and a winter shuttle links the base areas. In Anaheim it is the resort district, where hotels are within walking distance of the Disney gates or on a shuttle route.

Where they differ is the weak point. Alta depends on a single canyon road that jams on powder mornings and closes after storms. Anaheim spreads out across freeways with slow buses, though Metrolink and Amtrak trains reach Los Angeles and San Diego.

Alta's shops are for renting and tuning skis and buying outdoor gear, and nothing more. Anaheim has real shopping, though you need a car for it: Disney merchandise along the promenade, a huge luxury mall in Costa Mesa with the major fashion houses, and outlet centres in Orange and Newport Beach. Neither has much in the way of independent boutiques or local crafts.

Neither is cheap, but Anaheim leaves more room to save. Alta has few beds, nearly all in ski lodges with high in-season rates and dinner included, so skiers on a budget stay down in the Salt Lake valley and travel up the canyon each day.

In Anaheim the big costs are park tickets and the hotels next to the gates. Chain motels a short drive away, supermarkets and the Vietnamese and Middle Eastern districts let you spend at normal Southern California levels, though car hire and parking take back some of the savings.

Alta has no stage of any kind: evenings are spent in the lodges, and a concert means going to Salt Lake City. Anaheim has the parks' night-time water shows, parades and musicals, an arena for big pop and rock tours, and, twenty minutes away, the Segerstrom Center for the Arts with the Pacific Symphony, ballet and touring Broadway shows.

Alta is the more restful of the two, though neither is a spa destination. Wellness there means outdoor hot tubs in the snow, saunas and massage in the lodge spas, and above all the quiet of a tiny village with nothing to keep you up at night.

In Anaheim, long park days, early starts and crowds work against rest. Hotel pools, resort spas and Korean-style day spas in the suburbs offer a break, but for real calm people drive to the clifftop resorts at Laguna Beach and Dana Point.