Anchorage or Rovaniemi?

Neither city is a swimming destination, and they fall short in different ways. In Anchorage the salt water is the problem: Cook Inlet is silty, frigid and edged with dangerous mudflats, so summer swimming happens at small city lakes like Goose Lake and Jewel Lake.

Rovaniemi has fresh water rather than sea, with sandy river shores on the Kemijoki and Ounasjoki and forest lakes that warm enough for a dip in July. Its more memorable way into the water is the winter ice-hole plunge between rounds in the sauna.

Anchorage eats better and more widely. Wild salmon, halibut, king crab and spot prawns run through its summer menus from fish counters to downtown dining rooms, reindeer sausage carts cover quick lunches, and the brewery taprooms of midtown and Spenard give it a real drinking culture.

Rovaniemi's cooking is a small Lappish repertoire of sautéed reindeer, Arctic char, cloudberries and squeaky baked cheese, done well in a handful of central places and in tour meals served in log cabins. Past that you are left with hotel restaurants and pizza, so plan to enjoy a few good dinners rather than explore.

Neither town has an old quarter to wander. Anchorage was largely rebuilt after the 1964 earthquake, and Rovaniemi was almost entirely burned in 1944. Anchorage still gives the more substantial cultural visit. The Anchorage Museum and the Alaska Native Heritage Center together explain the state and its Indigenous peoples in real depth, and the aviation museum beside the Lake Hood floatplane base makes a good third stop.

Rovaniemi's sights fill about a day. Arktikum is the highlight, and Aalto's reindeer-shaped civic centre will interest anyone who cares about architecture. The art collection at Korundi rounds off the visit.

Anchorage has more going on after dark, though it is still a beer town rather than a party town. Taprooms, pubs and dive bars spread across downtown and Spenard Road, and in summer the midnight sun and seasonal workers keep the evenings going.

Rovaniemi has a few pubs, hotel bars and a nightclub or two, busy mainly on student weekends. In winter most visitors spend the evening outside watching the sky rather than in a bar.

Both are wilderness towns, but Anchorage's scenery is on a grander scale. Flattop and the Chugach peaks rise directly above the suburbs, moose wander through the neighbourhoods, and the Seward Highway along Turnagain Arm brings Dall sheep, belugas, a tidal bore and glaciers within an hour's drive.

Rovaniemi's taiga is flatter and quieter, and its strength is organised winter activity: husky and reindeer sledding, snowmobiling, skiing on Ounasvaara and aurora watching over frozen lakes. In summer it turns to canoeing, hiking and berry picking in endless light.

Anchorage gives you somewhere to drive to. The ski village of Girdwood, tunnel-reached Whittier, the painted spirit houses at Eklutna, Palmer's New Deal colony barns and the Independence Mine gold camp all make proper days out, even if the towns themselves are small and the distances long.

From Rovaniemi there is almost nowhere to go as a separate outing. The nearest towns, Kemi, Tornio and Haparanda across the Swedish border, are ordinary places an hour and a half away, so days are better spent on activities in the forest close by.

Rovaniemi is the easier and more magical family destination, especially around Christmas. Santa Claus Village, the Christmas cave park, sleigh rides and the polar bears at Ranua are designed around children, and the small, safe town keeps logistics simple, provided everyone has proper cold-weather gear.

Anchorage suits families who already enjoy the outdoors. The Alaska Zoo, moose and bison at the conservation centre near Portage, and floatplanes at Lake Hood all appeal, but the distances, constant driving and bright summer nights make it harder work with young children.

Rovaniemi is simpler to manage without a car. Its small centre is walkable, the airport is close, a local bus runs to Santa Claus Village, and most excursions include hotel pick-up.

Anchorage has a walkable downtown grid, but beyond that the city is a low-density sprawl with a thin bus network. Trailheads and glaciers really need a rental car, with the summer Alaska Railroad as the scenic alternative. Both towns need care on winter ice.

Anchorage has more worth buying. Alaska Native carving, ulu knives and qiviut knitwear from downtown galleries and the Heritage Center are distinctive, the summer weekend market adds crafts and food, and the outdoor-gear shops are good.

In Rovaniemi the best finds are puukko knives, birch cups and Sámi silver and leatherwork, set among the Christmas trinkets of Santa Claus Village and a short pedestrian street.

Both are expensive, but Rovaniemi is clearly the costlier of the two. Anchorage is pricey because so much of its food arrives by ship or plane, and glacier cruises and flightseeing add up quickly. Its free trails and parks, though, can fill plenty of days without spending anything.

In Rovaniemi, eating and drinking out cost what they do elsewhere in the Nordic countries. Nearly everything people come for, from husky safaris to snowmobile and aurora trips, is guided and priced to match. The two have their cheaper seasons at opposite times of year. Anchorage is easier on the wallet in winter, and Rovaniemi in summer and early autumn, away from the Christmas peak, when self-catering cabins also help.

Anchorage offers more for an evening out. The Alaska Center for the Performing Arts houses a symphony and an opera company and hosts touring Broadway shows, and taprooms add folk and bluegrass, though the main season falls in winter.

Rovaniemi's highlight is the Lapland Chamber Orchestra, playing in its hall in Korundi. Theatre in Lappia Hall is almost all in Finnish, so for most visitors a concert there is a lucky find rather than a plan.

This is where Rovaniemi pulls clearly ahead. Sauna comes with nearly every cottage and many hotel rooms, and an evening in a wood-fired or smoke sauna by a lake, cooling off in the snow between rounds, is deeply restful and very Finnish.

Anchorage has no bathing tradition of its own. Its best option is the Nordic-style spa in Girdwood, about forty minutes south, while the rest of the calm comes from empty trails and long summer light.