Alta, Utah or Bend?

Neither place is for a beach vacation, but Bend at least has a summer on the water. Alta is a canyon-top village where swimming means a lodge pool or hot tub, and the Great Salt Lake below is not somewhere people swim.

In Bend you can float an inner tube down the Deschutes through the Old Mill District, paddle by the riverside lawns, or take a cold, clear swim at Elk Lake or Sparks Lake in August.

Alta's food is fuel for skiing. Most meals are half-board dinners at long communal tables in the lodges, plus lunches in the slopeside cafeterias. Utah's liquor rules also shape how drinks are served.

Bend gives you a proper food scene to explore. It has a remarkable number of brewpubs for a town its size, food-cart courtyards with fire pits and beer taps, and farm-to-table restaurants downtown that cook with Pacific Northwest produce. International food and fine dining are thin, but you won't need to drive an hour for variety, as you do from Alta.

Alta's past as a silver-mining camp survives only as old mine workings scattered across the ski slopes. There is no museum or historic building to visit, so for sights you have to go down to Salt Lake City.

Bend has enough to fill a spare afternoon, and it has one stop worth half a day. That is the High Desert Museum, with Indigenous heritage, pioneer life and live animals. The town also has a logging-history museum in an old stone schoolhouse, plus a few blocks of early brick buildings around the restored Tower Theatre.

In Alta, an evening means one après-ski drink in the lodge bar, then bed so you're ready for first lifts. Regulars come for exactly that.

Bend has a sociable evening scene, even if it isn't a late one. Taprooms and food-cart courtyards fill early with people still in their hiking gear, and downtown adds cocktail bars and dive bars that stay busy on summer weekends. There's no clubbing in either place.

Both are outstanding mountain destinations, but they differ in kind. Alta is about one thing, and it does it brilliantly. Storms off the Great Salt Lake bury the steep, skiers-only terrain in powder, and serious backcountry touring heads into avalanche country. In summer, the Albion Basin meadows burst into wildflowers.

Bend trades that depth of snow for range. Mount Bachelor is half an hour away, and the town also has mountain-bike singletrack, sport climbing at Smith Rock, the lava flows and obsidian fields of Newberry, and paddling on the Cascade Lakes. In spring and autumn you can ski and bike on the same day.

Alta has the better day out, because Salt Lake City lies just below the canyon. It has Temple Square, the State Capitol and museums, and Park City's old mining Main Street is about an hour away. Every winter outing, though, depends on the canyon road staying open.

From Bend, the outings mostly head into landscape. Sisters has a small western main street, Sunriver has a nature centre and observatory, and there's a tribal museum at Warm Springs. Beyond those, the nearby towns are working ranch towns, and Crater Lake is a long drive.

Bend suits families much better. Children can float the river, explore the Lava River Cave by lantern, see the otters and raptors at the High Desert Museum and play in the shallows at Drake Park, with a beginner area and ski school at Mount Bachelor for winter.

Alta has a ski school and gentle runs near the base, but nothing else built for children. The 2,600m altitude can tire young children, and on storm days avalanche control can keep everyone indoors.

The two are about equally awkward, in different ways. In Alta, once you've arrived you hardly need to move: lodges sit at the lifts, many are ski-in, ski-out, and a winter shuttle links the village. Getting there is the hard part. The one canyon road jams on powder mornings and closes after storms.

Bend's compact centre is pleasant on foot or by bike, with a riverside path linking downtown to the Old Mill District. But the lakes, trailheads and Smith Rock all need a car.

Alta's shops sell ski rentals, tuning and branded souvenirs, and that's all. Bend has much more to browse: chain stores in the converted mills of the Old Mill District, independent boutiques and galleries downtown, and very good ski, bike and climbing shops with consignment stores for used gear. Oregon's lack of sales tax is a small extra help.

Alta has only a handful of lodge beds. They're expensive in season and usually include dinner, because there's nowhere else to eat. The lift tickets are reasonable for a major American resort, but the thrifty option is to stay in the Salt Lake valley and ride up the canyon each day.

Bend is easier on the budget, though it isn't cheap. Rates climb in summer and on ski weekends, and you'll need a hire car. On the other hand, the trails and rivers cost little or nothing, food carts are a cheaper way to eat, and midweek stays in spring and autumn are noticeably cheaper.

Alta has no stage of any kind, and the nearest concert or play is in Salt Lake City. Bend has a real summer music season at the riverside amphitheatre in the Old Mill District, plus free concerts in the parks. Through the rest of the year, the restored Tower Theatre puts on comedy, touring acts and film, alongside a community symphony and local bands in the brewpubs.

The two are about level, and both offer the hot-tub-after-exercise kind of rest. Alta's hot tubs steam outdoors in the snow, and the larger lodges have small spas. What it really offers is stillness, in a tiny village that goes quiet early and falls silent when it snows.

Bend has more choice of treatments, with day spas in town and larger resort spas around Sunriver. You can also hike to the primitive hot springs at Paulina Lake in the Newberry caldera, though the town's daily rhythm leans towards activity.