Alta, Utah or Moab?

Neither place is for a beach vacation, so the difference is only in how you cool off. In Alta that means a lodge pool or hot tub, because the Great Salt Lake below is too shallow and salty for swimming. Moab has more ways to get wet: the shallow pools of Mill Creek, Ken's Lake and the sandbars of the Colorado. The river is fast and cold, though, so most visitors still end the day in the motel pool.

In Alta you eat in the lodges. Dinners are mostly on half board at communal tables and lunch is in the slopeside cafeterias, so there is no restaurant to choose and no café to drift into. For any variety you drive down to Salt Lake City.

Moab has more choice. It is still casual food for refuelling, but Main Street has breweries, early-opening coffee shops for hikers and a few more ambitious Southwestern dinner restaurants. Choice drops in winter, and Utah's alcohol rules apply in both places.

Neither is a culture destination, but Moab gives you more to look at. The Museum of Moab covers geology, dinosaurs and settlement history. More striking are the Ancestral Puebloan and Fremont petroglyph panels along Potash Road and Kane Creek, which you can reach in a few minutes from town.

Alta's history as a silver-mining camp survives only as old workings on the slopes. There are no museums or historic buildings, so for sights you go down to Salt Lake City.

Both places go to bed early, and in neither is there a club. In Alta the evening is a drink in a lodge bar after skiing, and the livelier après scene is at the neighbouring resort. Moab's brewpubs fill with mountain bikers and rafters, and on busy weekends one or two stay open late. For many visitors, though, the night is for the exceptionally dark, starry desert sky.

Both are outstanding outdoor bases, and the difference is snow against stone. Alta sits at around 2,600m in the Wasatch, and its winter is about steep powder skiing and serious backcountry touring. In summer you get wildflower meadows in Albion Basin, the walk to Cecret Lake, and a chance of seeing moose and mountain goats.

Moab offers red desert all year round. There are the arches and balanced rocks of Arches, the canyon views from Island in the Sky and Dead Horse Point, the Slickrock Trail for mountain bikers, rafting on the Colorado and climbing at Wall Street. It has more kinds of sport, but it is a spring and autumn place, while Alta is at its best when it is buried in snow.

Alta has better places within reach for a day out. Salt Lake City is under an hour down the canyon, with Temple Square, the State Capitol and its museums, and Park City's old silver-mining Main Street is about an hour away. In winter, though, every outing depends on a road that closes after storms.

From Moab, the towns within reach are small, such as Green River, Monticello and the pioneer stone houses of Bluff. The most worthwhile long day is south to the Ancestral Puebloan sites at Edge of the Cedars and Hovenweep.

Moab suits more families. School-age children can scramble to the Windows, follow dinosaur tracks, float calm stretches of the Colorado and earn Junior Ranger badges. The town is small and informal. Midday heat in summer and unfenced drops at viewpoints still rule it out for toddlers.

Alta works only if the whole family skis. It has a ski school and gentle beginner slopes near the base, but nothing else is made for children. The altitude can tire them, and storms sometimes keep everyone indoors.

Alta is easier once you are there. The lodges sit at the lifts, many with ski-in, ski-out access, a village shuttle runs in winter, and ski buses come up from Salt Lake City, about 50km away. The catch is the single canyon road, which backs up on powder mornings and closes for avalanche control.

In Moab you can walk Main Street and cycle a paved path to the Arches entrance, but beyond that you need a car. Parks are spread over long desert roads, trailheads are often down dirt tracks, and without your own vehicle you rely on outfitters' shuttles.

Moab has a little more to browse. Its rock shops sell geodes and fossils, and a few galleries carry Southwestern art and Navajo jewellery and weavings, along with well-stocked bike and climbing shops. Alta has ski rental, tuning and outdoor gear, and that is all, so for any real shopping you go to Salt Lake City or Park City.

Moab is the easier place to keep costs down. Motels charge resort rates in spring and autumn, but public campgrounds and dispersed camping are cheap, one park entry covers a week, most of the best hikes are free, and winter is much cheaper.

Alta has few beds, almost all in a handful of lodges that charge high season rates and often include dinner. The usual way to save is to sleep in the Salt Lake valley and come up each day.

Moab has one real draw: the Moab Music Festival at the end of summer. Some of its chamber concerts are held in canyon grottoes you reach by boat. The rest of the year it is little more than a weekend band in a brewpub. Alta has no performance life at all, so for concerts or theatre you go down the canyon to Salt Lake City.

Alta is the more restful stay. After a ski day there are outdoor hot tubs steaming in the snow, saunas and massage in the larger lodges, and a bigger spa at the neighbouring resort. The village is completely quiet in the evening, especially when a storm muffles everything.

Moab's days are energetic, with early starts and long hours in the heat, and its few massage studios mostly treat sore cycling legs. Its calm is watching the cliffs turn red at sunset. For real rest, people head out to a ranch or a cabin in the La Sals.