Alta, Utah or Santa Fe?

Neither place has anything for a beach trip, since both sit high up and far inland. The difference is small. Alta's nearest water is the Great Salt Lake, which nobody swims in, while Santa Fe at least has summer outings to Abiquiu Lake or a float on the Rio Grande. In both, swimming mostly means a hotel or lodge pool.

Santa Fe is a destination for food in a way Alta is not. Its New Mexican cooking, with red or green chile, blue corn, posole and sopaipillas, is served in old adobe dining rooms around the Plaza, and there is a fine-dining tier and a long-established farmers' market in the Railyard.

In Alta you mostly eat in your lodge, often on half board at communal tables, and at lunch in the slopeside cafeterias. It is solid fuel for skiing, and anyone wanting a choice of restaurants has to drive down the canyon to Salt Lake City.

Here the gap is wide. Santa Fe was founded in 1610 and still looks like a low adobe town, with the Palace of the Governors, the Loretto Chapel and the cathedral close to the Plaza, plus Museum Hill's folk art and Native American collections and the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum.

Alta's history as a silver-mining camp turned early Western ski area is real, but all that survives is a few mine traces on the slopes. There are no museums or buildings to visit, so cultural sightseeing means a day in Salt Lake City.

Neither is a place for a big night, but Santa Fe offers an evening and Alta barely does. In Santa Fe a night out means a long dinner, then a margarita on a rooftop at sunset or a beer at a Railyard brewery, with the Plaza livelier on summer nights. In Alta it is one après-ski drink in a lodge bar and bed, which regulars treat as a virtue.

Both are mountain places, and both are strong. Alta is the more striking one: it sits at around 2,600m in the Wasatch, gets some of the deepest, driest snow in North America and has serious backcountry terrain, and in summer Albion Basin has some of the finest wildflower meadows in the Rockies.

Santa Fe gives you more variety rather than more intensity. Trails head into the Sangre de Cristo foothills from the edge of town, aspens turn gold on the road to the ski area, and the Pecos Wilderness, Valles Caldera, the Rio Grande Gorge and Abiquiu's red cliffs offer desert as well as forest.

Santa Fe has a much longer list of day trips. The High Road to Taos runs through Chimayo and Truchas to Taos Pueblo, and Bandelier's cliff dwellings, Pecos, Ghost Ranch and the Turquoise Trail villages are also within reach. Albuquerque's Old Town can be done by train.

From Alta the realistic options are Salt Lake City, Park City's old Main Street and perhaps Ogden. In winter even those depend on a canyon road that can close after storms.

Santa Fe works for more families, though neither place is built around children. It has a children's museum, the toys and miniatures in the folk art collection and the ladders at Bandelier, and it suits older children who like hiking and history.

Alta is good only for families who ski. The ski school and gentle base terrain are good, but beyond the slopes there is little for children, and storm days can keep everyone indoors.

Alta is easy once you are there. The lodges sit at the lifts, many of them ski-in, ski-out, and a winter shuttle links the different areas. The weak point is the single canyon road up from Salt Lake City, which jams on powder mornings and closes for avalanche control after storms.

Santa Fe has the opposite problem. The Plaza, Canyon Road and the Railyard are a short walk apart, but beyond the centre the city spreads out and buses are thin. Museum Hill, trailheads and the pueblos mostly mean a taxi or a hire car.

Santa Fe is a serious place to buy art and craft. Native American artists sell jewellery and pottery under the Palace portal, galleries line Canyon Road and the Railyard, and the summer Indian, Spanish and folk art markets draw collectors from far away. Fashion and department stores are scarce.

Alta has ski tuning and rental shops and a little outdoor gear, and that is all.

Neither is cheap, but Alta costs more. Its few beds are almost all in ski lodges that charge high rates in season, often with dinner included because there is nowhere else to eat, and the usual way to save is to stay in the Salt Lake valley and come up by bus.

Santa Fe's Plaza hotels and restaurants are also priced for well-off visitors. Still, rooms along Cerrillos Road cost less, and hiking, the Plaza and gallery browsing are free, so some cost control is possible.

Santa Fe has a real season, Alta has none. In summer the Santa Fe Opera performs in its open-sided theatre as the sun sets over the desert, and there is chamber music and a long flamenco tradition. Winter is quieter, but the Lensic theatre and church concerts continue. In Alta evenings are spent in the lodge, and a concert means the drive to Salt Lake City.

Santa Fe is better set up for a deliberately restful trip. It has outdoor soaking tubs among the pines in the foothills, many spas and yoga studios for its size, and the mineral springs at Ojo Caliente about an hour north.

Alta's version is a hot tub in the snow and a sauna or massage at a lodge after skiing. The silence of a storm day is its own kind of rest, but the spas are small.