Alta, Utah or Park City?

Neither town has a beach, and neither is a swimming destination. The difference is in what each has for summer. In Alta you get into the water in a lodge pool or hot tub, and the Great Salt Lake below is too shallow and salty to tempt anyone.

Park City at least has Jordanelle Reservoir a short drive down the valley, with sandy swimming areas, paddleboards and picnic lawns, though the water is cool and the season brief.

Park City eats noticeably better. Historic Main Street and the resort bases have a cluster of polished restaurants cooking mountain dishes such as bison, trout and steak, and après-ski on the slopeside decks is a ritual of its own. Chains at Kimball Junction cover cheaper meals, even if the range stays narrow.

In Alta, meals mostly come with the room: half-board dinners at long communal tables and cafeteria lunches on the mountain. The food is hearty but there is no restaurant street, and for variety you drive down the canyon to Salt Lake City, if the road allows.

Both began as silver-mining camps, but only Park City has kept a town to show for it. The restored wooden storefronts of Main Street, the mine headframes on the slopes, the Park City Museum with jail cells in the basement of the old city hall, and the museums at the Utah Olympic Park fill an afternoon well.

Alta's past survives only as traces of old mines on the ski runs. There is nothing to tour, so anyone curious goes to Salt Lake City.

Park City has an actual night out, even if it is small. After the slopeside decks empty, Main Street's saloons, cocktail bars and a few rooms with bands or DJs fill up on winter weekends, and things can get rowdy before closing early.

Alta offers an après drink in a lodge bar, and then bed. The livelier après is at the neighbouring resort down the road, and people who stay in Alta usually value the quiet.

Both are first-rate mountain bases, and the difference is in character. Alta sits higher, at about 2,600m. It gets the deeper storms, the terrain is steep and only skiers are allowed on it, and backcountry touring into avalanche country is taken seriously. In summer, Albion Basin's wildflower meadows, the short walk to Cecret Lake and sightings of moose and mountain goats make it a beautiful but compact patch of high country.

Park City trades some of that intensity for scale and range. It has two large ski areas next to town, Deer Valley's groomed runs, and hundreds of kilometres of singletrack leaving from the streets. Fly fishing on the Provo and Weber and kayaking on the reservoirs add the water that Alta lacks.

The day-trip options are similar, and Salt Lake City, with Temple Square and the State Capitol, is the main one from both. From Alta, every outing depends on the canyon road, and Park City itself makes a good day out for its old Main Street.

Park City has more close at hand without a long drive: the heritage steam railway in the Heber Valley, Midway's Swiss-style chalets and the scenic road past Sundance to Provo. Ogden's railroad-era street is reachable from either.

Park City works well for families, and Alta only works for families who ski. Park City has well-run ski schools, free buses that spare you the car seats, and the Olympic Park's alpine coaster, ziplines and splash-pool freestyle shows. Summer adds slides, coasters and easy bike trails at the resort bases.

Alta has a children's ski school and gentle terrain near the base, and almost nothing else for children. Storm days can keep everyone indoors during avalanche control, and the higher altitude is harder on young children.

Park City is far easier to get around. Free buses link Old Town, both ski bases, the outlying lodging areas and Kimball Junction, Main Street is walkable if steep, and the airport is about 40 minutes away.

In Alta, getting about the village is easy, with ski-in, ski-out lodges and a winter shuttle. Getting there is the problem. The one road up Little Cottonwood Canyon jams on powder mornings, closes after storms and often requires chains. Out of season you need a car for anything beyond the village.

Park City has proper resort shopping. Main Street has galleries, Western-wear and cowboy-boot shops, jewellers and ski fashion for browsing between meals, and there is an outlet centre at Kimball Junction.

In Alta, the shops rent and tune skis and sell outdoor gear and branded souvenirs, and that is all. Alta visitors who want to shop go to Park City.

Both are expensive, and the costs fall in different places. Alta has few beds and almost all of them are in lodges that charge high rates with dinner included. Its lift tickets are moderate for a major American resort, though, and there is no luxury shopping to spend money on.

In Park City, lodging, lift tickets, ski school and Main Street dinners are all at the top end, especially over Christmas and New Year. Summer and autumn are much cheaper, and free buses save on a car. In both places, budget travellers stay down in the valley and come up for the day.

Park City has a modest but real stage. The 1920s Egyptian Theatre on Main Street puts on comedy, plays and small concerts all year, the Eccles Center hosts touring shows, and in summer the Utah Symphony plays on the lawns at Deer Valley.

Alta has no venue of any kind. Evenings are spent in the lodges, and a concert means a drive to Salt Lake City.

Park City is the better place to be pampered. The big lodges at Deer Valley and the Canyons base have large, polished spas. About 25 minutes away is the Homestead Crater, a geothermal spring inside a limestone dome where you can swim or snorkel in water at about 35°C.

Alta's spas are small: hot tubs in the snow, saunas and massage in the larger lodges. What it has instead is stillness. Without traffic or nightlife, and with storms muffling the village, a tired skier sleeps very well.