Anaheim or Snowbird?

Anaheim is inland, but it still has a real beach option. Huntington's surf beach, Newport's harbour and peninsula, and the coves at Laguna are all about half an hour away by car. Most visitors treat the coast as a half-day break between park days, and outside late summer they swim in a wetsuit.

Snowbird has nothing comparable. Swimming there means the resort's heated pools, or in summer the cold reservoirs in the Heber Valley. The Great Salt Lake is somewhere to look at rather than swim in.

In both places the resort food is overpriced and forgettable. The difference is how far you have to go to eat better. From Anaheim it is a short drive to the Lebanese and Yemeni bakeries and grills on Brookhurst Street, to pho and banh mi in Little Saigon, and to good taquerias across the county.

At Snowbird you eat in the lodges, the dining room at the top of the tram and the après-ski bars. For any real choice you have to drive down the canyon to Salt Lake City, which most guests do only once or twice a week.

Neither place offers much for a culture trip, but Anaheim has a little more. Disneyland is a real piece of American cultural history, the old packing houses and Mother Colony House recall the town's past as a vineyard and citrus settlement, and a short drive reaches the Bowers Museum and the Nixon Library.

Snowbird has no sights at all beyond its 1971 concrete lodges, built to withstand avalanches. Museums and history mean driving down to Salt Lake City.

Neither place is somewhere to go out, but Anaheim gives you more to do once the day is done. After the fireworks, the bars along the promenade between the parks keep serving after the gates close, the town centre has brewpubs and cocktail bars, and on hockey or baseball nights the bars by the stadiums fill with fans. Fullerton's student bars are a short drive away, and Long Beach or Los Angeles is within reach if you want more.

At Snowbird the evening is mostly over before Anaheim's has started. The sociable hour is après-ski, a drink in a lodge bar or out on the deck in the last of the sun. After that the base empties as skiers have dinner and get some sleep before the morning tram. For anything livelier you have to drive the canyon road down to Salt Lake City or over to Park City, which is a long way to go after a day on the slopes.

This is where Snowbird is far ahead. The aerial tram climbs to about 3,350m on Hidden Peak, the canyon gets some of the deepest, driest snow in North America, and the terrain runs through Mineral Basin and on to Alta. In summer the same mountain leads into the Twin Peaks and Lone Peak wilderness areas and the wildflower meadows of Albion Basin.

Anaheim's outdoors is gentler and always needs a car. There are chaparral trails in the Santa Ana Mountains, tide pools at Crystal Cove and whale-watching boats from Newport and Dana Point. The mild climate means you can cycle or paddleboard in any month.

Anaheim is the better base for day trips. Hollywood, the Getty and Griffith Observatory are about an hour away, ferries run to Catalina Island, Mission San Juan Capistrano is to the south, and San Diego is within a long day's reach.

From Snowbird there are two obvious outings: Salt Lake City for Temple Square and the Capitol, and Park City for its Victorian Main Street. After those, Midway, Sundance and Ogden make pleasant drives rather than real destinations.

For families with young children there is little contest. Anaheim has two Disney parks next to each other and Knott's Berry Farm ten minutes away, with family hotels close by. The Discovery Cube and calm beaches add variety, and rain rarely spoils a day.

Snowbird suits a narrower kind of family: teenagers and confident young skiers who will enjoy the steep terrain. The car-free base is easy to manage with children, and summer brings a mountain coaster and an alpine slide. Toddlers, though, may tire in the thin air, and the zoo and children's museums are down in the city.

Both places are easy to get around on foot within the resort and hard once you leave it, but Snowbird keeps you on foot for more of the trip. The lodges, the tram and the lifts are a short walk apart on a car-free base, and many rooms are on the slopes. The one difficulty is the single canyon road, which clogs on powder mornings and is sometimes closed for avalanche control.

Anaheim's resort district is walkable and has shuttles, but almost everything beyond the parks needs a car on Orange County's freeways. The trains to Los Angeles and San Diego are the main exception.

Anaheim offers far more, although almost all of it is in malls. There is a lot of Disney merchandise around the parks, Costa Mesa has a huge luxury mall with most of the major fashion houses, and there are outlet centres in Orange. Independent shops are rare, and you drive from one car park to the next.

At Snowbird, shopping means ski gear, rentals and resort-branded clothing at the base. Park City's main street is the nearest place for boutiques.

Neither is cheap, but Anaheim gives you more ways to cut costs. The park tickets and the hotels next to the gates are expensive, but the chain motels a short drive away cost far less. The suburbs, with their Vietnamese and Middle Eastern districts and their supermarkets, charge ordinary Southern California prices.

Snowbird's costs are harder to avoid. Lift tickets, slopeside rooms, rentals and resort meals all add up, especially in peak winter weeks. Sleeping in Salt Lake City saves money but means giving up the slopeside stay, and summer visits are noticeably cheaper.

Anaheim has more to offer, mostly through the Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa. It is home to the Pacific Symphony and hosts touring Broadway shows and ballet. The arena books major tours, and Disney's night-time shows are polished, even if they are theme-park entertainment.

At Snowbird, live music means summer concerts on the plaza, the Oktoberfest oompah bands and the occasional après-ski band. For symphony, opera or theatre you drive down the canyon.

Snowbird is the more restful place. The large spa on top of the main lodge has a rooftop pool and hot tubs facing the canyon walls, and it is best after a ski day as the light fades on the peaks. The nights are dark and still, and the geothermal crater in Midway, about an hour away, offers a warm mineral soak inside a limestone dome.

Anaheim's early park starts and crowds work against relaxing. Rest there usually means the hotel pool, a Korean-style day spa in the suburbs, or a drive to the clifftop resorts at Laguna Beach and Dana Point.