Alta, Utah or Seattle?

Neither is a beach destination, but Seattle at least has somewhere to swim. In high summer Lake Washington warms enough for the lifeguarded beaches at Madison Park and Matthews Beach, and Alki and Golden Gardens give sandy evenings on the Sound with the Olympics behind, even if the cold water means paddling only.

Alta has nothing of the kind. The Great Salt Lake below is not for swimming, so a dip means the lodge pool or a hot tub.

Seattle is a place you can visit for the food. Oysters, Dungeness crab and wild salmon from the surrounding waters, the stalls of Pike Place Market, serious coffee in every neighbourhood and strong Asian cooking in the Chinatown-International District give you plenty of meals to plan around.

In Alta you mostly eat at the lodge: set dinners at communal tables on half board, and cafeteria lunches on the mountain. It fuels a ski day well enough, but anyone wanting variety has to drive down the canyon to Salt Lake City.

Alta's only real history is its past as a silver camp, visible in a few mine traces on the slopes. It has no museums or historic buildings to visit. Seattle is young and no heritage city either, but it fills two or three days: the Space Needle and the Chihuly glass at Seattle Center, the Seattle Art Museum, Northwest Coast Indigenous art at the Burke, the rebuilt brick blocks of Pioneer Square and the huge Museum of Flight.

Seattle has a proper night out. Capitol Hill's Pike and Pine strip has cocktail bars, dives, dance floors and the city's LGBTQ+ scene, Ballard has brewery taprooms and Belltown a younger club crowd, although the clubs are few and the night ends fairly early.

Alta offers a drink in the lodge bar after skiing and then bed. Regulars like it that way, and the nearest real alternative is the busier après-ski at the next resort down the road.

Both are superb for the outdoors, in very different ways. In Alta the outdoors starts at the door: deep Wasatch powder, steep terrain and backcountry bowls in winter, then the Albion Basin wildflowers, Cecret Lake and the climb to Sugarloaf in summer, with moose and mountain goats on the trails. It is all mountain, though, with no water to boat on.

Seattle has more variety but less on the doorstep. You can kayak on Lake Union, take a ferry past seals and sometimes orcas, walk Discovery Park's bluffs, hike Mount Si, and reach the glaciers of Rainier or the Olympic rainforest with a longer drive.

Seattle has more day trips, and many go by water: the ferry to Bainbridge Island, Whidbey's farm villages, Victorian Port Townsend, plus the tasting rooms of Woodinville and the glass museum in Tacoma.

From Alta the choice is mainly Salt Lake City's Temple Square and Capitol or Park City's old mining Main Street, and in winter both depend on the canyon road staying open after storms.

Seattle is the easier city with children. Woodland Park Zoo, the aquarium, the science centre and fountain at Seattle Center and the aircraft at the Museum of Flight fill the days, and the monorail and ferries count as outings in their own right. The steep hills and the wet months are the main drawbacks.

Alta suits a family only if everyone skis. There is a good ski school and gentle beginner slopes, but nothing else is aimed at children, and the altitude and storm days spent indoors can be hard on young ones.

Seattle is the more practical base without a car. The centre can be walked from Pike Place to Pioneer Square, and light rail runs from the airport through downtown, with one card covering buses, the monorail and ferries. Hills and water make outer neighbourhoods slower to reach.

Alta is simple once you are there, with ski-in, ski-out lodges and a winter shuttle. The difficulty is getting there: the single canyon road jams on powder mornings, closes for avalanche control and often needs chains.

In Alta, shopping means ski rental, tuning and some branded souvenirs, so it hardly counts. Seattle has more to offer: department stores around Pine Street, big outdoor-gear shops, makers' stalls at Pike Place, and vintage and record shops on Capitol Hill, Fremont's Sunday market and design shops in Ballard. Luxury shoppers will find more across the lake in Bellevue.

Both are expensive, but Seattle is a little easier on a budget. It has public transport, cheap meals at teriyaki shops and the Pike Place counters, and cheaper rooms in outer neighbourhoods along the light rail.

Alta has few beds, almost all in a handful of lodges with dinner included, and almost nothing cheap up the canyon. The lift tickets are fairly reasonable, but the usual way to save is to stay in the Salt Lake valley and come up each day.

This is where the two differ most. Seattle has Seattle Opera and Pacific Northwest Ballet at McCaw Hall, the Symphony at Benaroya Hall, musicals at the 5th Avenue and the Paramount, and the club stages of Belltown and Capitol Hill, where the city of Hendrix and grunge still plays most nights. Alta has no stage of any kind, and the nearest concert is in Salt Lake City.

Neither is a spa destination, and the kind of rest differs. Alta's is the tired calm after skiing: outdoor hot tubs in the snow, a sauna, perhaps a massage at one of the larger lodges, and a silent village after dark.

In Seattle you slow down in the city itself: a Korean-style bathhouse in the suburbs, a long morning in a coffee house, or a quiet hour in the Japanese Garden or the Arboretum.