Alta, Utah or Sedona?

Neither is a swimming destination, but Sedona at least has water to get into. Oak Creek has the sandstone chute at Slide Rock and deeper pools at Grasshopper Point and Red Rock Crossing. They are cold and crowded on hot weekends, but a real pleasure after a hike.

Alta has nothing comparable. The Great Salt Lake is not for swimming, and in summer a swim means a lodge pool or hot tub.

Alta's meals happen almost entirely inside the lodges. You usually eat on half board at long communal tables and have cafeteria lunches on the mountain, and for anything different you drive down the canyon to Salt Lake City, weather and road permitting.

Sedona has more choice, though it is still limited. Resort terraces look out on the red rocks, kitchens cook Southwestern food with chilli and corn, and vegetarians are well catered for. The Verde Valley tasting rooms add a few good afternoons, and breakfast and lunch around a hike are what the town does best.

Sedona has a handful of real sights, while Alta has almost none. The Chapel of the Holy Cross built into a butte, the Sinagua cliff dwellings at Palatki and Honanki, the V Bar V petroglyphs and the many galleries are enough for a day or two of looking.

Alta's past as a silver-mining camp survives only in old mine workings on the slopes. There is no museum or historic building to visit, so for culture you go to Salt Lake City.

Both go to bed early, and neither is a place for a night out. The difference is in the kind of evening. In Alta it is a drink in a lodge bar after skiing, with the livelier après scene at the neighbouring resort. Sedona has brewpubs, wine bars and resort lounges in Uptown, and a night sky dark enough for serious stargazing.

Both are among the great outdoor settings of the American West, and the difference lies in what you do there. Alta is about snow, often more than 12m in a winter, with steep skiing and serious backcountry touring in avalanche terrain. In summer there are Albion Basin's wildflower meadows and the walk to Cecret Lake.

Sedona is red rock country, and it is at its best in spring and autumn. Trails lead to Cathedral Rock and Devil's Bridge and up West Fork, mountain bikers ride the slickrock singletrack, jeep roads run into the backcountry, and the Grand Canyon's South Rim is about two hours away. Go to Alta to ski, and to Sedona to hike and bike in its mild seasons.

Sedona has more within easy reach, and more variety. Jerome's hillside mining streets, the Verde Canyon Railroad, Montezuma Castle and Tuzigoot, Flagstaff and the wineries around Cottonwood fill several days, though all of them are small places.

From Alta the choices are Salt Lake City, Park City's old Main Street and Ogden. In winter every one of them depends on a canyon road that can close after storms.

Sedona suits more kinds of family. Slide Rock, short trails around Bell Rock and jeep tours over the slickrock keep children busy, and the town is easy to combine with the Grand Canyon, though summer heat and exposed trails need care.

Alta works for families who all ski, with a ski school and gentle slopes near the base. For children who don't ski there is very little, and the altitude of around 2,600m, the cold and storm days spent indoors make it harder still.

Alta is easier once you are there. The lodges sit at the lifts, many with ski-in, ski-out access, a winter shuttle links the village, and Salt Lake City airport is only about 50km away by shuttle or ski bus. The catch is the single canyon road, which backs up on powder mornings and closes after storms.

Sedona stretches along two highways from the junction called the Y. Apart from a walk around Uptown, almost everything needs a car. Parking at popular trailheads fills early, and the drive from Phoenix takes about two hours.

Sedona is a real place to browse, and Alta is not. Tlaquepaque's courtyards and the galleries along the main road sell Western painting, sculpture and Native American jewellery, pottery and rugs, and the crystal and metaphysical shops are part of the town's character.

Alta's shops deal in ski rental, tuning and outdoor gear. For anything else you go to Park City or Salt Lake City.

Both are costly, for different reasons. In Alta the problem is the small number of lodge beds, often sold with dinner included because there is nowhere else to eat, though lift tickets are moderate for a major American resort. The budget option is to stay in the Salt Lake valley and ride the bus up.

In Sedona the cost comes from resort hotels and restaurants, plus extras such as jeep tours, balloon flights and spa treatments. The trails cost almost nothing, which helps, and Cottonwood and Flagstaff are the cheaper places to stay.

For a play or a concert, Alta sends you down the canyon to Salt Lake City, because the village has no venue of any kind. Sedona's calendar is small, but it does exist. The long-running Sedona International Film Festival, chamber concerts, local theatre and Native American flute players at the resorts are enough for an evening or two.

This is where the two differ most. Sedona is a retreat town, with destination spas facing the canyons, yoga, meditation and breathwork, alternative therapies, and walks to the vortexes at sunrise.

In Alta, wellness means a steaming outdoor hot tub, a sauna and perhaps a massage in a lodge spa after a day on the slopes. The quiet of the snowbound village is restful, but it is recovery from skiing rather than a spa vacation.