Alta, Utah or Mammoth Lakes?

Neither is a swimming destination, but Mammoth Lakes at least has water you can get into. In Alta, swimming means a lodge pool or hot tub, and the Great Salt Lake far below is too shallow and salty for bathing.

At Mammoth, a July or August dip in Horseshoe Lake, or in the slightly warmer Crowley Lake, is possible, though the water stays cold and most people paddle, fish or sit on the shore instead. Hot Creek may look tempting, but bathing there is banned.

In Alta, dinner usually means the set meal in your lodge's dining room, often on half board at a long communal table, and lunch is in the slopeside cafeterias. For any variety you drive down the canyon to Salt Lake City, if the road and the weather allow.

Mammoth Lakes gives you real choice in the evening. There are hearty breakfast places, steakhouses, pizza and tacos, a few more ambitious kitchens around the Village and beer brewed in town. It has no cuisine of its own, but you can eat somewhere different each night.

Neither town is a place for sightseeing. Alta's past as a silver camp survives only as old mine workings on the slopes, while Mammoth Lakes has a small history museum in a log cabin and little else. In both cases the real heritage is a drive away: city institutions below Alta, and frontier and wartime sites scattered along the highway from Mammoth.

Alta has almost no nightlife. You have an après drink in a lodge bar, then sleep, and regulars like it that way. The livelier bars are at the neighbouring resort down the road.

Mammoth Lakes has a proper après scene. The Village and the bars near the lifts fill in the late afternoon, brewery taprooms keep going into the evening, and long ski weekends can run late. Neither has clubs, and outside the ski season Mammoth quietens down early too.

Both towns exist for the mountains, and the difference is in what kind. Alta is about snow above all: some of the deepest, driest powder in North America, steep terrain kept for skiers, and serious backcountry touring in avalanche country. In summer the Albion Basin wildflower meadows and the walk to Cecret Lake are its highlights.

Mammoth Lakes has more variety. A huge ski mountain with a long season turns into a bike park in summer, and the granite lakes of the Lakes Basin are good for kayaking and fishing. Nearby are Devils Postpile, Mono Lake's tufa towers and, once Tioga Pass opens, the Yosemite high country. Alta has no lakes for boating like these.

Alta's advantage is a real city close by. Salt Lake City, with Temple Square, the State Capitol and its museums, is under an hour down the canyon, and Park City's old mining Main Street is about the same distance. Every trip depends on the canyon road staying open.

From Mammoth Lakes the outings are fewer and further apart along the highway. The best are the ghost town of Bodie, the Manzanar internment camp and small Bishop. In winter the Sierra passes close, so most days out are into the mountains rather than to other towns.

Mammoth Lakes is the much better family choice. Children who don't ski still have the snow tubing hill, the gondola to the summit, and in summer rowing boats, trout fishing and easy lakeside walks. Condominiums with kitchens make daily life simpler.

Alta works only if everyone skis. There is a ski school and gentle terrain near the base, but storms can keep guests indoors during avalanche control. Neither town has museums or other indoor attractions for a bad-weather day.

Inside Alta everything is close together, with lodges at the lifts and many ski-in, ski-out, and Salt Lake City airport is about 50km away. The problem is the single canyon road, which jams on powder mornings and closes after storms.

Mammoth Lakes is spread out but better served. In winter free shuttles and a gondola from the Village mean you can ski without driving, and in summer a trolley and the Reds Meadow shuttle run. For the wider Eastern Sierra, though, you need a car.

In both towns the shops sell gear rather than fashion. Alta has little beyond ski rental and tuning shops and some branded souvenirs, so anyone who wants to shop goes down to Salt Lake City or Park City.

Mammoth Lakes is more worth browsing. Alongside the ski outlets it has good climbing and fly-fishing shops and a few galleries selling landscape photography.

Both are expensive in winter, but they cost you in different ways. In Alta the few lodge beds are priced high, usually with dinner included, though lift tickets are moderate by American standards. The way to save is to stay in the Salt Lake valley and come up by bus each day.

At Mammoth Lakes the lift tickets are the big cost. Here the savings come from season and self-catering: summer hiking and the lakes cost little, rooms get cheaper in spring and autumn, and a condominium lets you cook for yourself.

Alta has no stage of any kind, and evenings are spent in the lodges. Mammoth Lakes offers modest but genuine evenings out. A resident community theatre performs on the college campus through the year, and in summer there are a jazz festival, chamber music and outdoor concerts in meadows with the mountains behind.

Mammoth Lakes has something Alta lacks: natural hot springs. Simple pools in the sagebrush, reached by dirt road and looking across to the Sierra, are a local ritual, and the larger hotels add spas and massage.

Alta's wellness is hot tubs in the snow, saunas and small lodge spas, with no thermal water. What it offers instead is deep quiet, especially on storm days, which a tired skier will appreciate.