Alta, Utah or Santa Barbara?

Alta has no beach and no swimming beyond a lodge pool or hot tub. The Great Salt Lake in the valley below is not somewhere people bathe.

Santa Barbara has a real coastline, sheltered by the Channel Islands. East Beach and West Beach are in town, Butterfly Beach lies below Montecito, and shallow Carpinteria suits small children. The water stays cool even at its warmest, so expect short swims or a wetsuit. Still, if you want sand on your trip, only one of these two has it.

In Alta you eat where you sleep: set dinners at long tables in the lodges, cafeteria lunches on the mountain, and a drive down the canyon if you want any choice.

Santa Barbara is a proper place to eat by comparison. There are spot prawns and sea urchin from the harbour, well-stocked farmers' markets, Mexican bakeries on Milpas Street and local pinot noir poured in the Funk Zone. The range is narrower than in a bigger city, but you can plan a trip around its meals.

Alta's past as a silver-mining camp that became an early Western ski area survives only as old mine workings on the slopes, and there are no museums or buildings to visit. In Santa Barbara the town itself is the sight. Its centre was rebuilt in Spanish Colonial Revival style after the 1925 earthquake, and the County Courthouse clock tower, the Old Mission, the Presidio and two respectable museums fill two or three unhurried days.

Neither is a place for clubbing, but the gap is still wide. Alta's evening is a drink in a lodge bar and bed well before the lifts open, which is just what its regulars want.

Santa Barbara gives you more to do. There are tasting rooms and brewery taprooms in the Funk Zone in the early evening, then bars and a few small dance floors on lower State Street, crowded with students at weekends. Most places close early, so it suits a long dinner and a nightcap.

Both put serious outdoors on the doorstep, but Alta's is the more remarkable. It sits at around 2,600m, takes over 12m of snow in a big winter and has backcountry bowls for touring, so its powder skiing is among the best in North America. Summer brings the wildflowers of Albion Basin, the walk to Cecret Lake and moose on the trails.

Santa Barbara offers variety rather than one great setting. Trails climb from suburban streets into the Santa Ynez Mountains, and there is whale watching, kayaking, surfing at Rincon and boats to the Channel Islands. It has nothing like Alta's high-mountain drama, but Alta has nothing on the water.

From Alta, a day out mostly means Salt Lake City, with Temple Square and the State Capitol, or Park City's old mining Main Street. All of these depend on a canyon road that closes after storms. Santa Barbara has the better list: the wineries of the Santa Ynez Valley, Danish-founded Solvang and the restored missions, with Ojai and Ventura as further options, and none of it depends on avalanche closures.

Alta suits families only if everyone skis. There is a ski school with gentle beginner slopes, but nothing else for children, the altitude can tire them, and storms may keep everyone indoors.

Santa Barbara is far easier with children. It has the zoo above the beach, touch tanks at the Sea Center, the MOXI science museum, calm water at Carpinteria and a waterfront bike path. Everything is small in scale, though, so big rides mean a trip to Los Angeles.

Within Alta, the lodges are ski-in, ski-out and a winter shuttle links them. Getting there is the hard part. Everything depends on the one road up Little Cottonwood Canyon, which jams on powder mornings and closes after storms, and outside the ski season public transport largely disappears.

Santa Barbara is easier. The downtown is flat and compact, with a shoreline path, local buses and a train stop near the beach. You will still want a car for the wine country and the trailheads.

Alta's shops sell ski rentals, outdoor gear and souvenirs, and nothing more. Shopping in Santa Barbara is modest too, but it has boutiques and galleries in the paseos off State Street, upmarket shops in Montecito and design shops in the Funk Zone. Local wine and farmers' market produce are the best things to take home.

Both are expensive, for different reasons. In Alta there are only a handful of lodges, and in season they charge high rates, often with dinner included because there is nowhere else to eat. Lift tickets are moderate for a major American resort.

In Santa Barbara the cost is spread across beachfront and Montecito rooms, restaurants and wine tastings, but there are more ways to spend less: taquerias, free hikes and beaches, and cheaper beds in Goleta or Ventura. Alta's only real saving is to sleep in the Salt Lake valley and drive up each day.

Alta has no stage of any kind, and a concert means a drive to Salt Lake City. Santa Barbara does well for its size, with symphony, opera and ballet at the restored Granada, chamber music and jazz at the historic Lobero, touring bands at the Santa Barbara Bowl and the Music Academy of the West's concerts each summer.

In Alta, rest is the tired calm after a ski day: an outdoor hot tub in the snow, a sauna, a massage in a small lodge spa and very quiet nights.

Santa Barbara offers more. There are polished resort spas in Montecito, yoga studios and day spas, a hike to natural hot pools above town, and the long spa tradition of the Ojai Valley about an hour away. Its mild sun and slow mornings make it easy to rest at any time of year.