Alta, Utah or Taos?

Neither place has anything for swimmers. Alta's nearest open water is the Great Salt Lake, which nobody swims in, so summer swimming means a lodge pool or hot tub.

Taos has a little more water in the landscape, with the Rio Grande in its gorge, but that river is for rafting and the mountain lakes stay cold. A hotel pool, the town's public recreation pool or a hot spring is as close as you get.

Alta's eating is functional: half-board dinners at communal tables in the lodges and cafeteria lunches on the mountain, with Salt Lake City the only escape when the canyon road allows it.

Taos gives you a cuisine worth travelling for. Family kitchens around the plaza and towards Ranchos serve posole, carne adovada and sopaipillas with red or green chile, and horno bread from the Pueblo adds to it. The range is narrow beyond the regional cooking, but you get far more character at the table than in Alta.

Alta's past as a silver-mining camp shows only in old mine traces on the slopes. There are no museums or historic buildings, and sightseeing means driving down to Salt Lake City.

Taos has one of the great sights of the American Southwest in Taos Pueblo, a UNESCO-listed adobe village still home to its Tiwa-speaking community, plus the buttressed San Francisco de Asís church painted by O'Keeffe. Small museums from the art-colony era, the Fechin House and the Martínez hacienda round out two or three unhurried days.

Both are early-to-bed mountain towns, but Taos has a few more places to go after dinner. In Alta the evening is one après-ski drink in a lodge bar, and anything livelier means the next resort down the road or Salt Lake City.

In Taos you can at least move between a margarita in an old adobe hotel bar, a brewery taproom and a saloon with a band. There are still no clubs and little stays open late.

Both are first-rate mountain bases, but they suit different trips. Alta is all about snow: at around 2,600m at the head of Little Cottonwood Canyon it gets some of the deepest, driest powder on the continent, with serious backcountry touring. In summer Albion Basin's wildflower meadows and the trail to Cecret Lake take over.

Taos has more variety. You get steep skiing at the ski valley, Wheeler Peak and Williams Lake in summer, rafting through the Taos Box, rim walks along the Rio Grande gorge and the Enchanted Circle drive through gold autumn aspens. For skiers Alta has the edge. For a mix of desert, river and peaks, Taos does.

From Alta there are really two outings: Salt Lake City, with Temple Square and the Capitol, and Park City's old mining Main Street. Every trip in winter depends on a canyon road that closes after storms.

Taos has a richer set of outings. The High Road to Santa Fe passes Truchas, the old adobe church at Las Trampas and the sanctuary at Chimayó. Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch lead into O'Keeffe country, and Bandelier's cliff dwellings make a long but rewarding day.

Alta works for families only if everyone skis. There is a ski school and gentle beginner terrain near the base, but nothing else for children, and storm days can keep everyone indoors.

Taos keeps children busier across the seasons, with ski lessons in winter, gentle Rio Grande floats, horse riding and a public pool in summer. It has no zoo or theme park either, and both towns sit high enough to tire small children at first.

Once you are up the canyon, Alta is easier. Lodges sit at the lifts, many ski-in, ski-out, a winter shuttle links the village, and Salt Lake City airport is only about 50km away by ski bus or shuttle. The catch is the single canyon road, which jams on powder mornings and closes for avalanche control.

Taos depends on a car. Only the plaza area is walkable, the Pueblo, gorge bridge and ski valley are spread across a wide valley, and the drive from Albuquerque takes about two and a half hours.

In Alta you can buy ski rentals, tuning and branded souvenirs, and that is all.

Taos is one of the better small towns in the West for buying art and craft. Galleries line the plaza and Kit Carson Road, and the local specialities are turquoise and silver jewellery, micaceous pottery, Rio Grande weaving and carved santos, some bought straight from makers at the Pueblo. It is still a narrow niche with no fashion shopping, but collectors can spend days here.

Alta is the dearer stay. A handful of ski lodges hold nearly all the beds, there is almost nothing cheap up the canyon, and budget skiers end up sleeping in the Salt Lake valley and commuting up.

Taos has the usual mix of a mountain town, with simple motels and casual New Mexican diners next to pricier historic inns and ski-valley lodging. You will almost certainly need a hire car, but spring and late autumn make it a far easier place to keep costs down.

Alta has no stage of any kind, and evenings are spent in the lodges.

Taos offers more, though it comes in occasional moments. The traditional dances at Taos Pueblo on feast days such as San Gerónimo in September may be watched quietly and without cameras. A summer chamber music festival and a small community arts centre add concerts, films and theatre.

Alta's version of wellness is a hot tub steaming in the snow and a massage in a small lodge spa after a hard day on the slopes, with deep quiet doing the rest.

Taos is the better place to unwind on purpose. Ojo Caliente's mineral pools under the cliffs and the primitive hot springs at the bottom of the Rio Grande gorge give real bathing, and day spas, yoga studios and retreat centres draw on the valley's long reputation as a place to slow down.