Alta, Utah or San Diego?

Alta has no beach to speak of. The nearest open water is the Great Salt Lake, which is too shallow and salty for anyone to swim in, so a dip means a hot tub at a lodge.

San Diego is built around its coast. Coronado has a wide strand of sand, Mission Beach and Pacific Beach have their boardwalk, and La Jolla Shores has gentle surf. Further north, the cliff-backed beaches of Del Mar and Encinitas are quieter. The Pacific stays cool for most of the year, and early summer often starts under morning cloud.

In Alta you mostly eat where you sleep. Dinners are set meals at communal tables in the lodges, and lunch is in slopeside cafeterias. It is filling food for skiers, there is nowhere else to choose from, and Utah's liquor rules shape how drinks are served.

San Diego has far more choice, and it is at its best when it is casual. You can eat Baja fish tacos by the water, late-night carne asada from a neighbourhood taco shop, and pan-Asian food along Convoy Street. The craft breweries of North Park and Miramar add a drinking culture that Alta's lodge bars cannot match.

Alta's history is written on the slopes: it was a silver-mining camp before it became one of the oldest ski areas in the West. There are no museums or historic buildings to visit, though.

San Diego offers a full day or two of sightseeing. You can spend them on the Spanish Colonial Revival museums of Balboa Park, the USS Midway on the waterfront, the adobe buildings of Old Town and the first of California's missions. None of it is world class, but compared with Alta it is plenty.

An evening in Alta means one drink in a lodge bar and an early night, because the lifts open early. Regulars like it that way.

San Diego has real nights out, in several styles. The Gaslamp Quarter has rooftop bars and dance clubs, and Pacific Beach has a younger, rowdier bar strip. Taprooms and cocktail bars fill North Park and Hillcrest, which is also the centre of the city's gay nightlife. It is a sociable city rather than a party city, but the gap with Alta is huge.

Alta's whole reason to exist is its terrain. It sits at around 2,600m in the Wasatch Range, where winters often bring well over 12m of light powder, and the steep terrain and avalanche-prone backcountry draw serious skiers. In summer, Albion Basin turns into some of the best wildflower meadows in the Rockies, and you may see moose and mountain goats on the trails.

San Diego's outdoors are broader but less dramatic. You can surf, walk the sandstone bluffs at Torrey Pines, kayak into the La Jolla sea caves and watch grey whales offshore. Mountain forest and the Anza-Borrego desert are within a drive. It suits someone who wants a bit of everything rather than one mountain done properly.

From Alta, the obvious outings are Salt Lake City's Temple Square and museums, or Park City's old mining Main Street. After those the options run out. In winter, every plan depends on a canyon road that closes after heavy storms.

San Diego has a wider range. Tijuana is a trolley ride and a walk across the border, the Valle de Guadalupe vineyards are further south, Temecula's wine country is to the north, and the beach towns can be reached by coastal train. Los Angeles is close enough for a long day out.

Alta only works for families who come to ski. It has a ski school and easy beginner slopes near the base, but there is nothing aimed at children who don't ski. Cold, the high altitude and storm days spent indoors can be hard on young children.

San Diego is one of the easiest family destinations in the country. The zoo and its Safari Park, SeaWorld, Legoland and the Birch Aquarium give you a week of full days, and the mild weather and relaxed restaurants make the time in between easy. The only drawback is the distance between the big attractions.

Both places are awkward to get around, in different ways. In Alta, the lodges are ski-in, ski-out and a shuttle connects them. The problem is the road up Little Cottonwood Canyon, which jams on powder mornings, closes for avalanche control and often needs chains.

San Diego has the opposite problem. Downtown, Little Italy and the waterfront are easy to walk and the trolley reaches Old Town and the border, but the city sprawls. Getting to La Jolla, the beaches and the big parks usually means a hire car or ride-hailing, with slow buses as the alternative.

In Alta, shopping means ski rental, tuning and outdoor gear, and that is all. There are no boutiques and no market.

San Diego does better without being a shopping destination. Fashion Valley has the big brands, Little Italy and North Park have independent and vintage shops, Old Town sells Mexican crafts, and an outlet centre sits right by the border.

Neither place is cheap, but Alta costs more. Its few lodge beds are expensive in the ski season, and dinner is usually part of the deal because there is nowhere else to eat. Visitors on a budget stay down in the Salt Lake valley and commute up the canyon each day.

San Diego's hotels and big attractions are expensive too. Tax, tips and parking add up, but you can spend less on taco shops and taprooms, and the beaches and Balboa Park's gardens are free.

Alta has no theatre or music venue, so a concert or a play means driving down to Salt Lake City.

San Diego's strength is theatre. The Old Globe's outdoor Shakespeare stage in Balboa Park and the La Jolla Playhouse have both sent shows to Broadway. There are also the symphony's summer concerts on the bay, a short opera season and free concerts at the organ pavilion.

In Alta, you recover the simple way after a day on the slopes: an outdoor hot tub in the snow, a sauna or a massage in a small lodge spa. The silence of a snowbound village, with nothing going on at night, is restful in itself.

San Diego is the better place to slow down on purpose. It has full resort spas in La Jolla, Coronado and Carlsbad, a long-standing yoga and meditation scene in Encinitas, and mild sunset walks in any month.