Alta, Utah or Jackson Hole?

Neither place is for swimming, but in Jackson Hole you can at least get into natural water. In Alta, swimming means a lodge pool or hot tub, and the Great Salt Lake down in the valley is too shallow and salty for anyone to swim in.

Jackson Hole has the lakes beneath the Tetons. String Lake is shallow and sandy and warms up enough by late summer for a proper swim after a hike. Jenny Lake stays cold, and the Snake River is for floating trips, not bathing.

In Alta you mostly eat where you sleep. Dinner is often half board at long communal tables in the lodge, and lunch is in a slopeside cafeteria. For anything more varied you drive down the canyon to Salt Lake City, if the road allows.

Jackson eats far better than its size suggests. Around the Town Square there are chef-driven dining rooms serving elk, bison and Rocky Mountain trout, saloons with good burgers, bakeries, coffee roasters and a summer farmers' market. The choice of cuisines is narrow and nothing is cheap, but you can eat out properly every night.

Alta has almost nothing to tour. Its silver-mining past survives only as old workings on the ski slopes, and you have to go to Salt Lake City for museums.

Jackson's sights are modest, but they make a good day. The National Museum of Wildlife Art looks out over the elk refuge, and antler arches stand at the corners of the square. In the park, the barns of Mormon Row and the log Chapel of the Transfiguration are framed by the Tetons.

Both are early-to-bed mountain places, but Jackson at least has a night out to offer. In Alta the evening is one après-ski drink in a lodge bar before sleep, and regulars like it that way.

In Jackson the bars at the base of Teton Village get loud when the lifts close in winter. In town there is a historic saloon with saddles for bar stools and a country dance floor, plus brewpubs and cocktail bars. It is still quiet before midnight, and in spring and autumn the bars can be close to empty.

Both are outstanding mountain bases, and Jackson Hole has the edge thanks to its range. Alta is a specialist place. At 2,600m in the Wasatch it gets some of the deepest, driest powder in North America, its runs are reserved for skiers, and in summer there are the wildflowers of Albion Basin and the short walk to Cecret Lake.

Jackson Hole offers more. The Tetons rise straight off the valley floor, Grand Teton National Park begins minutes from town and Yellowstone is within a day's drive. Bison, grizzlies, bald eagles and thousands of wintering elk are part of a stay, and you can go rafting, fly fishing and climbing. In winter a tram climbs to 3,185m above very steep terrain.

Alta has the better days out, because a real city sits at the bottom of its canyon. Salt Lake City, with Temple Square, the State Capitol and its museums, is under an hour away. Park City's old silver-mining Main Street and Ogden's railway street are also within reach. The catch is the canyon road, which closes after heavy storms.

From Jackson, nearly every outing heads into wild country rather than to another town. The farm towns of Victor and Driggs over Teton Pass and the ranch towns to the south make pleasant drives, but none of them fills a day on its own.

Jackson Hole is much the better choice with children. They can spot moose and bison from the car, earn Junior Ranger badges, walk flat lakeside trails, ride a sleigh through the elk refuge and watch the summer rodeo or the staged shootout on the square. On wet days there is little to do, and the drives into the parks are long.

Alta works only for families who ski. It has a ski school and gentle beginner slopes near the lodges, but nothing else for children. The altitude, the cold and storm days spent indoors can wear young children down.

Getting around is about equally easy, or awkward, in both, for different reasons. Alta is simple once you arrive. Lodges sit at the lifts, many are ski-in, ski-out, and a winter shuttle links the village. Everything depends on the single road up Little Cottonwood Canyon, though, which jams on powder mornings and closes for avalanche control.

Jackson's centre is easy to walk around, the airport is a short drive away and a bus runs to Teton Village. Beyond that you need a car, because the parks, the trailheads and the dawn wildlife drives have no public transport.

Jackson is clearly the better place to shop. The boardwalks around the Town Square are lined with galleries of Western and wildlife art, and there are handmade cowboy hats and boots, turquoise jewellery and serious mountaineering gear.

Alta has ski rental and tuning shops and a few racks of branded souvenirs, and nothing you would browse for pleasure.

Both are expensive, and neither has a budget way to stay in the mountains themselves. In Alta the problem is scarcity. There are only a few lodges, often with dinner included, though lift tickets are moderate for a major American resort. The usual way to save is to sleep in the Salt Lake valley and take the bus up each day.

In Jackson Hole everything is at resort prices, from rooms to rafting trips. The parks, trails and roadside wildlife, though, cost little once you are there. Staying over the pass in Idaho, or coming in late spring or autumn, eases the bill.

Jackson Hole has a real summer season, and Alta has none. The Grand Teton Music Festival fills a timber concert hall in Teton Village with players from leading American orchestras for several weeks each summer. Alongside it there are touring acts at the town's arts centre, chuckwagon shows and country bands in the saloons.

In Alta, evenings are spent in the lodge. Any concert or play means a drive to Salt Lake City.

Jackson Hole has what Alta lacks, which is natural hot water. One spring-fed pool lies in a forested canyon and is reached by snowmobile or dog sled in winter. There are riverside soaking pools near town, and the resorts have spas.

Alta keeps it simple, with outdoor hot tubs in the snow, saunas and massage in the larger lodges. Its real asset is silence: a tiny village, no nightlife, and storm days when the snow muffles everything.