Alta, Utah or Santa Monica?

These two are about as far apart as it gets. Alta is a mountain village at the head of a canyon, so swimming means a lodge pool or hot tub, and the Great Salt Lake below is no place for bathing.

Santa Monica is built around its beach, a very wide stretch of pale sand with lifeguard towers and the pier in the middle, plus the quieter coves at Zuma, El Matador and Point Dume to the north. The Pacific is cool for much of the year, so plan on wading more than swimming outside late summer.

In Alta you mostly eat in your lodge. That usually means half board, set dinners at shared tables and cafeteria lunches on the mountain. It is filling food for skiers, and for any variety you have to drive down the canyon to Salt Lake City.

Santa Monica gives you real choice. There is the Wednesday farmers market, seasonal Californian cooking, good seafood and brunch, neighbourhood places on Main Street and Montana Avenue, and more casual food over in Venice. Its weak point is cheap immigrant food, most of which is a long drive east into Los Angeles.

Alta's history as a silver-mining camp turned early Western ski area is interesting, but all that is left to see is a few mine traces on the slopes. There are no museums or historic buildings.

Santa Monica isn't a sightseeing town either, but it has more to offer. There is the early twentieth-century pier with the end of Route 66, the galleries at Bergamot Station and some fine Spanish Colonial Revival and Art Deco buildings. Both Getty museums, the hilltop Center and the Roman-style Villa, are a short drive away.

Neither place is for clubbing, but there is a real gap between them. In Alta a night out means a drink in the lodge bar after skiing and an early night before the lifts open. That quiet is part of the appeal.

Santa Monica has a proper evening scene, though it is built around drinks rather than dancing. There are rooftop bars with ocean views around the Third Street Promenade, pubs along Main Street and a more local crowd in Venice. For a big night out you still have to take a taxi to Hollywood.

This is the one area where Alta comes out ahead. It gets some of the deepest, driest powder in North America, has steep and famous ski terrain and serious backcountry bowls. In summer there are the Albion Basin wildflowers, the walk to Cecret Lake and a good chance of seeing moose and mountain goats. It is all mountain, though, with no water or coast.

Santa Monica covers a wider range on a smaller scale. There are chaparral trails in Topanga and Temescal Canyon, bluff walks at Point Dume, a 35km beach path for cycling, surf lessons and winter whale watching. The mild climate means you can get outside almost every day of the year.

From Alta, the main day out is Salt Lake City and Temple Square. Park City's old Main Street and Ogden are the other options. After that the list runs out, and in winter every trip depends on a canyon road that closes after heavy storms.

Santa Monica has far more within reach, though traffic decides how far you get. Santa Barbara and its mission, Ojai, Laguna Beach and a ferry to Catalina are all possible by car or boat. Within Los Angeles there are the Huntington gardens in Pasadena and Hollywood, each worth a full day.

Alta works for families who ski, with children's lessons and gentle slopes by the lodges, and for very little else. The high altitude, the cold and days kept indoors during avalanche control can make it hard going with young children.

Santa Monica is much easier. It has lifeguarded sand, the pier's Ferris wheel, carousel and small aquarium, playgrounds along the beach and flat bike rides. The big theme parks take most of a day to reach, and the visible homelessness downtown bothers some parents.

Alta is simple only once you are in it. The lodges stand at the foot of the lifts and a winter shuttle links them. Everything else depends on the single road up Little Cottonwood Canyon, which jams on powder mornings and closes for avalanche work after storms. Outside the ski season public transport all but disappears, so you need a car to go anywhere beyond the village.

Santa Monica is the easier place to get around. You can walk between downtown, the pier and Main Street, the blue buses cover the rest of town, and the E Line light rail runs to downtown Los Angeles and Exposition Park. Freeways and patchy transit still mean a car or ride-hailing for the Getty, Hollywood or Malibu.

Alta only has ski rental and tuning shops and a few racks of outdoor gear and souvenirs.

Santa Monica covers most tastes. There are chain stores and flagships on the Third Street Promenade, upmarket boutiques on Montana Avenue, surf shops on Main Street and design-led stores on Abbot Kinney in Venice. Rodeo Drive is a short drive away if you want luxury labels.

Both are expensive, for different reasons. In Alta there are only a few ski lodges, and their high rates usually include dinner. Lift tickets are moderate for a major American resort, but on a budget you would stay in the Salt Lake valley and ride up each day.

In Santa Monica the cost comes from oceanfront hotels, restaurant bills once tax and tip are added, and parking. On the other hand, the beach, the trails and the bike path are free, transit is cheap, and staying a little inland brings room prices down.

Alta has no theatre, concert hall or music venue, so an evening out for culture means driving to Salt Lake City.

Santa Monica has a modest stage of its own: chamber music and dance at the Broad Stage, small playhouses, a long-running folk and acoustic scene, and free summer concerts on the pier. Across the city are the Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall and summer nights at the Hollywood Bowl, though each is a long drive in traffic.

Relaxing in Alta means outdoor hot tubs in the snow, a sauna and a massage after a hard day on the slopes, then a deep quiet that nothing disturbs. It is restful, but the spas are small.

Santa Monica offers more, built around yoga and exercise: classes on the sand, morning runs by the ocean, polished hotel spas and plenty of day spas, with the sunset over the bay to end the day. Neither place has thermal water or a bathing tradition.