Big Bear Lake or Deer Valley?

Neither is a beach place, but at Big Bear Lake you can at least swim from the town's own shore. Meadow Park has the one supervised swim beach, the water in July and August is cool but swimmable, and the rocky shoreline and granite outcrops are fine for a quick dip.

At Deer Valley, swimming means driving down to the state park beach at Jordanelle Reservoir or settling for the hotel pool, and the season is shorter still. In both places, boats and paddleboards matter more than swimming.

Big Bear Lake feeds people well but plainly: diner breakfasts, burgers, barbecue and brewpub pints, and many visitors cook in their cabins. Deer Valley has more choice. The mountain lodges serve polished resort food, and Park City's Main Street has more steakhouses, sushi bars and modern American bistros than a small town usually supports.

Neither has a cuisine of its own or food markets, and Deer Valley's strength is firmly at the upscale end. Under Utah's licensing, drinking there centres on restaurants and a few distilleries, while in Big Bear the evening drink is more likely a pint after skiing.

Sightseeing is thin in both, but Park City next door gives Deer Valley more to fill an afternoon: a restored silver-mining Main Street, old mine headframes on the slopes, the Park City Museum in the old city hall and the Olympic Park from the 2002 Winter Games. Big Bear Lake offers the Discovery Center, a small history museum and a dirt-road drive past gold-rush remains in Holcomb Valley, and its Village is mostly modern chalet-style buildings.

After dark, Big Bear Lake mostly goes to bed: a brewpub, a sports bar and some après-ski in winter, then the hot tub. Deer Valley's lodges are just as quiet, but Park City's Main Street is a few minutes away, with saloons, cocktail bars and après-ski spots that fill up on ski-season weekends.

Neither place has many clubs or late hours, and Utah's liquor rules shape the Park City scene. Even so, Park City offers a real night out by mountain standards, and Big Bear does not.

Both are genuine mountain bases at about 2,000m, but Deer Valley is on a larger scale. Its groomed, skiers-only slopes sit next to Park City Mountain, one of North America's biggest ski areas, and the powder resorts of the Cottonwood Canyons are about an hour away. In summer, hundreds of kilometres of linked bike and hiking trails run through aspen and fir.

Big Bear Lake's two ski areas are modest and rely on snowmaking, but it has something Deer Valley lacks: a lake right in town for boats, kayaks, fishing and paddleboards. Bald eagles winter around the shore, the Pacific Crest Trail runs along the north side and the San Gorgonio Wilderness is close by.

Big Bear Lake sits at the end of slow, winding roads, so day trips are limited. Lake Arrowhead and the Oak Glen orchards are within reach, Redlands and Riverside's Mission Inn take about an hour and a half, and Los Angeles or Palm Springs makes a long day.

Deer Valley is better placed. Salt Lake City, with Temple Square and the State Capitol, is about forty minutes away, and the Heber Valley steam railway, Midway and Sundance are closer still. Even so, the list is modest, and the best of what surrounds it is landscape rather than towns.

Both work well for families, but in different ways. At Big Bear Lake, the draw is snow for children who rarely see it: sledding hills, beginner lessons and the Alpine Zoo with its rescued bears and bobcats. Summer adds an alpine slide, go-karts and pedal boats, and a roomy cabin with a kitchen makes a good base.

Deer Valley suits families who come to ski properly. It has polished children's ski schools, wide beginner runs with no snowboarders, ski-to-the-door lodging, and tubing and ziplines at the Olympic Park. There, the cost of lessons and lift access is the burden, while Big Bear's main drawback is crowded roads on winter weekends.

Deer Valley is easier to manage without using the car. Fare-free Park City buses link the base areas with Main Street, Park City Mountain and Kimball Junction, slopeside lodging lets you leave the car parked, and Salt Lake City airport is about forty minutes away.

Big Bear Lake is reached only by car, on steep mountain highways where snow chains may be needed and traffic crawls on long weekends. The Village is walkable, and a bus and a seasonal trolley reach the ski areas, but the cabins are scattered through the forest, so most errands mean driving.

Shopping is a sideline in both. Park City's Main Street at least has art galleries, western boots and hats and upmarket boutiques alongside the ski shops, and the outlet centre at Kimball Junction adds bargains. Big Bear's Village is a few blocks of fudge shops, bear souvenirs, antiques and gear hire, good for an hour's browsing.

Big Bear Lake is far easier on the budget. A shared cabin midweek or in the shoulder seasons can be fairly economical for a group that cooks its own meals, though winter weekends and school vacations push rates up sharply.

Deer Valley sits at the very top of the ski market, with luxury slopeside lodging, and lift access, meals and ski school are all priced to match. Summer and the free buses help a little, and the usual way to cut costs is to stay in the Heber Valley or Salt Lake City and drive in.

Deer Valley has a proper summer programme, while Big Bear has little. People picnic on the lawn at the Snow Park amphitheatre for the Utah Symphony's long-running outdoor festival, and the restored 1920s Egyptian Theatre on Main Street stages plays and concerts all year.

Big Bear Lake offers community theatre, free summer concerts by the lake and the Bavarian bands of its autumn Oktoberfest. The rest of the time, live music means a guitarist in a bar.

Deer Valley takes comfort more seriously, with quiet slopeside lodges and refined hotel spas where a massage after skiing is routine. The Homestead Crater in Midway, a warm spring pool inside a limestone dome, is about half an hour away.

At Big Bear Lake, relaxing mostly means the cabin: a wood stove, a deck among the pines and a private hot tub, with a few day spas but no destination spa. Big Bear is calmest midweek, when its winter-weekend crowds are gone, while Deer Valley is quietest in summer, when the trails are empty.