Alta, Utah or Steamboat Springs?

Neither has a beach, and the difference between them is small. In Alta, getting wet in summer means a lodge pool or a hot tub, because the Great Salt Lake below is not somewhere people swim. Steamboat has a little more: you can float down the Yampa River on a tube right through town, and in high summer you can take a brave, cold dip in the reservoirs nearby.

Steamboat gives you a real choice of where to eat. Lincoln Avenue and the ski base have steakhouses serving Colorado lamb and beef, Mexican places, pizza and local breweries, so you can eat somewhere different each night, even if the cooking stays hearty and western.

In Alta, dinner is usually the lodge's set meal at a long communal table, and lunch comes from a slopeside cafeteria. Utah's liquor rules shape how drinks are served. For any variety you have to drive down the canyon to Salt Lake City, and that depends on the road being open.

Neither place is a sightseeing destination, but Steamboat has a little to see. Its western storefronts and the Tread of Pioneers Museum tell the story of the homesteaders and the Norwegian ski jumper, and Howelsen Hill still sits in the middle of town. That fills a pleasant hour or two. Alta has only scattered traces of its silver-mining past on the slopes, so anyone who wants museums has to go down to Salt Lake City.

Steamboat has an actual evening out. Après-ski starts at the gondola base bars and then moves downtown to the saloons and brewpubs of Lincoln Avenue, and in peak ski weeks some of them stay lively into the late evening. There are no clubs, though.

Alta has a drink in the lodge bar and then bed, and its regulars like it that way. The nearest livelier après is at the resort next door, and a real night out means Salt Lake City.

Both are superb mountain country, and the difference is in character more than quality. Alta is the purer snow place. Storms off the Great Salt Lake often bring more than 12m of snowfall in a winter, the lifts are for skiers only, with snowboarders turned away, and a shared pass with the neighbouring area widens the terrain. The avalanche ground around the village calls for real caution off the marked runs.

Steamboat's mountains begin at the edge of a real town, so a day outdoors can start from a downtown door. At about 2,050m it is also easier on newcomers' lungs. In autumn the aspen hillsides turn gold and elk are often seen, and a river runs right through it. Alta's high basin has no lakes or rivers to give it that kind of water.

Alta has far better day trips, because Salt Lake City is under an hour down the canyon. There you can see Temple Square, the State Capitol and the city's museums. Park City's old mining Main Street and Ogden's railway street are other options. In winter, keep plans loose in case the road closes for avalanche control.

Steamboat is genuinely remote. The nearby ranching towns are worth a coffee stop at most, and Vail and Denver are two and three hours of mountain driving away. A day out from Steamboat usually means heading into the hills.

Steamboat is much the better choice for families. Beyond its well-regarded ski school, the town hot springs have warm pools, slides and a climbing wall for days off the slopes. Summer brings river tubing, gondola rides, waterfall walks and the rodeo, and the restaurants are used to children.

Alta works only if everyone skis. There are children's lessons and gentle terrain near the base, but nothing else is aimed at children. The higher altitude is harder on small children, and storm days can keep families indoors while avalanche control goes on.

Steamboat is somewhat easier to get around. A town bus links the flat, walkable downtown with the ski base, though you will want a car for the hot springs, the falls and the passes. Getting there is the hard part: a small regional airport at Hayden, or a long mountain drive from Denver.

Alta is easy to reach, about 50km from Salt Lake City's airport, and once you arrive the lodges sit at the lifts. Everything depends on the one canyon road, though. It jams on powder mornings, closes after storms and often requires chains.

Steamboat has a pleasant hour of browsing on Lincoln Avenue. There are western-wear stores selling boots, hats and saddle-blanket goods, including a family outfitter that has been there for more than a century, along with a few art galleries. Alta has ski rental and tuning shops and some branded souvenirs, so for anything more you go to Salt Lake City or Park City.

Both are expensive, and the ways to save differ. In Alta, the few beds are in ski lodges that charge high rates and often include dinner, so the budget option is to stay in the Salt Lake valley and come up by bus each day. Steamboat has self-catering condos, town buses and free trails, and it gets noticeably cheaper outside ski season, while Alta remains a lodge-based ski stay.

For a concert or a play, Alta sends you down the canyon. There is no theatre, concert hall or music venue in the village, so the symphony or a show means an evening in Salt Lake City.

Summer is when Steamboat comes into its own. The Strings Music Festival fills its pavilion on the edge of town with chamber music, jazz and bluegrass, and there are free outdoor concerts downtown and at the mountain base. Perry-Mansfield, the Strawberry Park camp founded in 1913, stages student theatre and dance. In winter the programme shrinks to bar bands and the odd touring show.

Steamboat is built on hot water, and that sets it well apart. The town's spring-fed pools are open all year, and about 11km up a mountain road the rock-lined pools of Strawberry Park sit in a wooded creek valley. Soaking there after skiing is a reason to come in itself.

Alta has no thermal water. You get lodge hot tubs steaming in the snow, saunas and massage in small spas. What it does offer is real silence, with tiny evenings and snow-muffled storm days, and for a tired skier that can be just as restorative.