Alta, Utah or Los Angeles?

Alta has no beach. It is a mountain village high up a canyon, the Great Salt Lake below is not somewhere people swim, and in summer swimming means a lodge pool or hot tub.

Los Angeles has more than 100km of shore, from the coves of Malibu through Santa Monica and Venice to the South Bay. There are surf breaks, volleyball and a bike path along the sand. The limit is the water: the Pacific stays cool, so most people wade or put on a wetsuit rather than swim.

In Alta you eat where you sleep. Most guests take half board in the lodge dining rooms and lunch at the slopeside cafeterias. It is filling food for skiers, and anyone wanting a choice has to drive down the canyon to Salt Lake City.

Los Angeles is one of the reasons to cross the country for dinner. Koreatown, Thai Town, the San Gabriel Valley and the taco stands of South LA each cook their own food at full strength, with a serious chef-led scene on top. The best of it is scattered, so plan on driving between meals.

Alta's past as a silver-mining camp survives only as traces of old workings on the slopes, and there is nothing to tour. For museums, a visitor here goes down to Salt Lake City.

Los Angeles has a deep modern art circuit in the Getty Center, LACMA and the Broad, plus the Huntington's library and gardens and Griffith Observatory above the basin. Hollywood's movie palaces and the Disney Concert Hall add architecture. What it lacks is an old quarter, and seeing it all takes long drives.

An evening in Alta is a drink in a lodge bar and bed before the lifts open. The livelier après-ski is at the neighbouring resort, and a real night out means the drive to Salt Lake City.

Los Angeles offers whole districts of it: velvet-rope clubs in Hollywood, the gay strip on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, rooftop bars downtown and dive bars in Echo Park. Bars close at 2am and getting between areas takes a ride, so most nights stay in one neighbourhood.

Alta is the stronger choice for mountain country. It sits at around 2,600m at the head of a canyon in the Wasatch, where winter storms leave some of the deepest powder on the continent. The skiing from the lifts is steep, and the backcountry touring is serious. In summer Albion Basin fills with wildflowers, with trails to Cecret Lake and Sugarloaf and moose on the paths.

Los Angeles offers more range, but less depth. Griffith Park and the Santa Monica Mountains put hiking at the edge of the city, and behind it the San Gabriels rise higher than Alta's village, with pine forest and waterfalls. The coast adds surfing, kayaking and boats to the Channel Islands. The drawbacks are traffic and the summer fire season.

From Alta the choices are few: Salt Lake City with Temple Square, Park City's old mining Main Street, and Ogden further north. Utah's national parks are too far for a day, and in winter everything depends on a canyon road that closes after storms.

Los Angeles has a longer list. Santa Barbara's mission and vineyards are up the coast, Catalina is a ferry ride away, and Ojai, Laguna Beach and San Juan Capistrano are within reach. Traffic can turn a two-hour drive into three.

Alta works for families where everyone skis. There is a ski school, gentle terrain near the base, and rooms close to the lifts. Beyond that there is nothing aimed at children, and storm days can keep everyone indoors.

Los Angeles is one of the easiest big cities to fill with children's days: Disneyland, Universal Studios and Knott's Berry Farm, then dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum and the Aquarium of the Pacific. The effort is in the driving, so pick one area a day.

Once you are up the canyon, Alta is simple. The lodges sit at the lifts, many are ski-in, ski-out, and a winter shuttle links the village. The difficult part is reaching it on the single road from Salt Lake City, about 50km away, which jams on powder mornings and closes for avalanche control.

Los Angeles is harder day to day. Its sights are spread across dozens of separate cities linked by crowded freeways, and the Metro covers only a few routes. Santa Monica, Venice and Old Pasadena are good on foot, but most visitors need a hire car or ride-hailing.

Shopping in Alta stops at ski rental, tuning and some outdoor gear. Anything more means Park City or Salt Lake City.

Los Angeles is a destination for it. Rodeo Drive has the luxury houses, Melrose and Abbot Kinney have boutiques and streetwear, and the Rose Bowl flea market is serious vintage hunting. Silver Lake suits records and design. You need a car to cover more than one area a day.

Neither is cheap, but Alta is harder on a budget. Its few beds are almost all in ski lodges that charge high rates in season, usually with dinner included because there is nowhere else to eat. Saving money means staying in the Salt Lake valley and riding up each day.

Los Angeles has costly hotels, tipping, parking and theme park tickets. It also has ways to save that Alta lacks: taco trucks and Koreatown meals that feed you well for little, and free beaches, Griffith Observatory and the Getty.

Alta has no theatre or music venue at all, and evenings are spent in the lodges.

Los Angeles is a major music city. The LA Philharmonic plays at the Disney Concert Hall and in summer at the Hollywood Bowl, LA Opera is at the Music Center, and touring Broadway shows play the Pantages. Below that are rock rooms on the Sunset Strip, comedy clubs in Hollywood and jazz in Leimert Park.

Alta offers the restfulness of a tiny, silent village. You get hot tubs in the snow, saunas and massage in small lodge spas, and nothing keeping you up at night. As facilities go, though, it is modest.

Los Angeles has much more to book. The Korean bathhouses of Koreatown, with their hot and cold pools and body scrubs, stay open late, and there are luxury spas in Beverly Hills and yoga studios everywhere. The city itself is not calm, so for true quiet locals head to Ojai or the desert springs near Palm Springs.