Big Bear Lake or Moab?

Neither place is a beach destination, but Big Bear Lake at least offers a proper swim in summer. The lake reaches around 19°C, and Meadow Park has the one supervised swim beach, which is the place to go with children. Most of the shore is rock and granite, and the water is busier with paddleboards than with swimmers.

Moab has nothing comparable. Mill Creek's shallow pools, Ken's Lake and the cold, silty Colorado offer a dip in the heat, but most visitors end up in the motel pool.

Both towns eat the same way: big portions, burgers, pizza and a brewpub after a day outside, and neither has a local cuisine worth travelling for. What differs is the setting. Big Bear leans on log-cabin breakfasts, a few lakeside tables and cabin kitchens stocked from the supermarket. Moab's Main Street adds early coffee for hikers and a handful of more ambitious Southwestern dinners, under Utah's stricter alcohol rules.

Neither town is a place for museums, and the difference lies in the kind of history each offers. Big Bear's story is the 1860s gold rush in Holcomb Valley, with mining remains and old cabins along a dirt-road drive, plus a discovery centre about the forest.

Moab's history goes back much further. Ancestral Puebloan and Fremont petroglyphs line the cliffs along Potash Road and Kane Creek, and dinosaur trackways lie close to town. These give an outdoor trip a real sense of deep time, even though the town itself takes only a morning.

Nights are short in both places, with no clubs and little open late. Big Bear's evenings centre on après-ski in the Village pubs during ski season, then a hot tub back at the cabin. Moab's brewpubs fill with mountain bikers and rafters, and the main attraction after dark is the very dark, star-filled desert sky.

Big Bear Lake is a genuine mountain base. It has an alpine lake in pine and oak forest, two ski areas, bike trails on the summer slopes, and the Pacific Crest Trail and San Gorgonio Wilderness close by. It suits varied, moderate days and has lift-served skiing, which Moab does not.

Moab is on another level. Arches begins minutes from town, Canyonlands and Dead Horse Point are under an hour away, and the Slickrock Trail, Colorado River rafting, canyoneering and climbing at Wall Street make it one of the world's great outdoor bases. The La Sal Mountains add high country above the red rock.

Both towns sit at the end of long roads, but Big Bear has more within reach. Lake Arrowhead's lakeside village is about an hour away along the Rim of the World road. Oak Glen's orchards and Riverside's Mission Inn are not much further, and Los Angeles or Palm Springs make for a long day.

From Moab, nearly every outing is more landscape. The towns nearby are small. The best cultural day out, to Edge of the Cedars in Blanding or the stone towers of Hovenweep, takes up most of the day.

Big Bear Lake is built around families. It offers snow play and beginner lessons for children who rarely see snow, and the Alpine Zoo's rescued bears and bobcats. In summer there are go-karts, mini-golf and pedal boats. The main drawbacks are the altitude and the traffic on winter weekends.

Moab works for school-age children who like scrambling over rock, with easy walks to arches, dinosaur tracks, gentle raft floats and Junior Ranger programmes. Summer heat, unfenced drops and hours in the car make it much harder with toddlers.

You need a car in both places, but Big Bear offers more help once you arrive. The Village is walkable, and a local bus and a seasonal trolley reach the ski areas and parts of the lakeshore. Getting there means steep mountain highways that can slow to a crawl and may require snow chains.

Moab has a walkable Main Street and a paved bike path to the Arches entrance, and little beyond that. The parks and trailheads lie down long desert roads and dirt tracks, so visitors without a vehicle depend on outfitters' shuttles and tours.

Fudge, candy stores and bear-themed gifts set the tone in Big Bear's Village, along with a few antique and home-decor shops and outfitters that rent ski and lake gear. You can browse there for a pleasant hour, but for anything bigger you have to drive down to the valley.

Moab's Main Street is better for a keepsake that comes from the place itself. Rock shops sell geodes, fossils and minerals, and galleries carry Southwestern art, Navajo jewellery and weavings. Its bike, climbing and camping shops are also well stocked if something breaks mid-trip, though neither town has any fashion or department-store shopping.

Both cost more than their simple style suggests, and in both timing makes the difference. Big Bear is cheapest midweek for a group sharing a cabin and cooking for itself. Winter weekends, lift tickets and ski hire push costs up sharply.

In Moab the pressure comes in spring and autumn, when plain motels charge resort rates and guided trips add up. Campgrounds, free dispersed camping and a park pass that covers a week keep an outdoor trip affordable, and winter is far cheaper.

Neither town has much regular live performance. Big Bear has a small community arts centre, free lakeside concerts in summer and an autumn Oktoberfest with Bavarian bands. Moab has one standout, its end-of-summer chamber music festival, with some concerts in canyon grottoes reached by boat, and it's worth timing a visit around if you like classical music.

Big Bear Lake is the more restful of the two, largely because of its cabins. You get a wood stove, a deck among the pines and often a private hot tub, and the days pass slowly midweek. Neither town has thermal springs or a spa tradition, and busy winter weekends break the calm.

Moab's days are built around early starts and heat, and its few massage studios mostly serve cyclists with sore legs. Rest there comes from quiet desert evenings and red cliffs at sunset, or from a ranch or cabin up in the La Sals.