Bend or Page, Arizona?

Page comes out well ahead for swimming. In midsummer Lake Powell is warm enough to stay in for a long time, and you can drive straight onto the sand at Lone Rock or take a boat or kayak into sandstone coves and jump into deep water. There are no lifeguards, and the beaches move as the lake level rises and falls.

Bend's water is cold and the season is short. Floating the Deschutes through the Old Mill District on an inner tube is the classic summer afternoon, and Elk Lake and Sparks Lake give you a bracing swim in August, but it adds to a stay rather than shaping one.

Bend gives you much more to eat and drink. Its many breweries, often brewpubs with large patios, give a day its route, food-cart pods are where people go in the evening, and downtown and the Old Mill District have a respectable run of modern American restaurants using Pacific Northwest produce. International food and fine dining are thin.

Page cooks for tour groups and road-trippers: barbecue, Mexican, pizza and chains along the main strip. The one dish worth seeking out is the Navajo taco on frybread, best found at reservation roadside stands.

Neither town is a place for sights, and an afternoon covers either. What differs is the subject. Bend's best stop is the High Desert Museum, with regional natural history, Indigenous heritage and live animals, and it can fill half a day. The brick downtown, the Tower Theatre and the old mill smokestacks tell the logging-town story.

Page's story is engineering and exploration. The Carl Hayden Visitor Center at the Glen Canyon Dam looks down to the river and the arch bridge, and a small museum covers John Wesley Powell. Its deeper cultural interest lies in the Navajo Nation around it rather than in the town.

Bend has evenings to speak of, even if they end early. Taprooms and food-cart courtyards fill up with people still in their hiking gear, and downtown adds cocktail bars, dive bars and pubs that stay lively on summer weekends, though there is almost nowhere to dance.

Page has a handful of bars and a brewpub and goes quiet well before midnight. Its best night out is under the very dark desert sky, looking at the stars.

Both towns are mainly about the land around them, and the difference lies in the kind of land. Around Bend it is alpine and volcanic: the Three Sisters and Broken Top on the skyline, skiing on Mount Bachelor, mountain-bike trails from the edge of town, world-class sport climbing at Smith Rock and lava caves at Newberry. Shoulder seasons allow skiing and biking on the same day.

Around Page it is red sandstone and water. You have the glowing slot walls of Antelope Canyon with Navajo guides, the drop to the Colorado at Horseshoe Bend, Rainbow Bridge by boat across Lake Powell, rafting from Lees Ferry and the Wave in the Vermilion Cliffs. The views are more striking, but the summer heat confines hiking to spring and autumn.

From either base, the outings are mostly to landscapes rather than towns. Bend's choices are gentle: the western main street of Sisters, the nature centre and observatory at Sunriver, and the tribal museum at Warm Springs. Crater Lake and the Painted Hills make long days out.

Page offers a little more history, spread further apart. There are the pioneer buildings at Lees Ferry, the Puebloan cliff dwellings of Betatakin at Navajo National Monument, the film-set past of Kanab and the fortified ranch at Pipe Spring. Monument Valley is the big landscape drive.

Bend is the easier place with children. Afternoons tubing on the river, the Lava River Cave by lantern, otters and raptors at the High Desert Museum, the lawns of Drake Park and a beginner area on Mount Bachelor give you a full week of easy days. There is no zoo or theme park, though.

Page has two big draws for children, a lake day at Lone Rock and the short Antelope Canyon tours. Beyond those it is harder going, with punishing summer sun, sheer unfenced edges at Horseshoe Bend, ladders on some canyon tours and long hours in the car.

Both need a car for the outdoors, but Bend is easier day to day. Downtown and the Old Mill District are joined by a riverside path, cycling on trails and quiet streets is comfortable, a seasonal shuttle runs to Mount Bachelor, and flights land at Redmond nearby.

In Page you can walk only the motel strip. The lake, the viewpoints and the parks all lie outside town, and the nearest major airports are hours away, so most people arrive and get around by road.

Bend has more to browse, especially for outdoor gear: ski, bike, climbing and fishing shops, plus consignment stores for used kit. Add chain stores in the converted mill buildings, independent boutiques downtown and no sales tax.

Page has far less, but one thing Bend lacks: Navajo silver and turquoise jewellery, rugs and pottery, sold at trading posts and roadside stalls where you can often buy straight from the maker.

Both are costly in much the same way, but the costs come from different places. In Bend it is lodging, which peaks in summer and on ski weekends, plus a hire car. Free trails and rivers, cheap food carts and midweek stays in spring or autumn help.

In Page, rooms are scarce in the busy months, and the main sights cost money: Antelope Canyon can only be seen on paid tours, and boats and houseboats are expensive. Camping at Lone Rock or Wahweap, or visiting in winter, keeps the total down.

Bend has a real calendar, mostly in summer. Touring rock, folk and country acts play the riverside amphitheatre in the Old Mill District, and there are free concerts in the parks. The rest of the year the Tower Theatre, a community symphony and brewpub bands fill the gap. Page has little beyond Navajo dance presentations and dinner shows staged for visitors.

Bend gives you more ways to unwind after an active day. There are day spas in town, larger resort spas around Sunriver, soaking pools at some lodgings, and primitive hot springs at Paulina Lake that you reach on foot.

Page has only hotel offerings and motel pools. Its calm comes from the desert, with wide evening views and dark skies, though early starts for the canyons leave little time for it.