Big Bear Lake or Phoenix?

Neither is a beach destination, but Big Bear Lake at least lets you swim in natural water from your base. The lake stays cool even in high summer, the shore is mostly rock with a few sandy patches, and the supervised beach at Meadow Park is the obvious spot with children.

In Phoenix, the reservoirs on the Salt River such as Saguaro Lake mean a drive out for the day, and swimming for most visitors means a resort pool with slides and a lazy river.

Phoenix is clearly the better place to eat. Its Sonoran borderland cooking, from carne asada and paper-thin flour tortillas to bacon-wrapped hot dogs from evening carts, gives it a regional identity, and central Phoenix and Scottsdale add independent kitchens and polished resort dining.

Big Bear Lake feeds hungry skiers and hikers with diner breakfasts, burgers, pizza and brewpub pints, and many visitors simply cook in their cabins. You would not choose it for the food.

This is one of the widest gaps between the two. Phoenix has the Heard Museum's outstanding Native American collections, the Musical Instrument Museum and Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West, though they are scattered and there is no old centre to stroll.

Big Bear Lake offers the Discovery Center on forest life and a small museum on the Holcomb Valley gold rush, with a dirt-road drive past old mining remains. For anyone who wants museums, it is Phoenix.

Phoenix has an actual night out, split between the clubs and rooftop bars of Old Town Scottsdale, the student bars of Tempe's Mill Avenue and the cocktail and craft beer places around Roosevelt Row. It ends at 2am, and you usually pick one district and take a ride home.

Big Bear Lake has a little après-ski in winter and a brewpub after dinner, and then the evening moves to the cabin and its hot tub.

Both are strong outdoor bases, but Big Bear Lake comes out ahead because it works in every season. Winter brings two ski areas and sledding, and summer turns the runs into bike trails, fills the lake with kayaks and sailing boats and opens the Pacific Crest Trail and the San Gorgonio Wilderness.

Phoenix's desert is striking, with saguaro forest in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve and scrambles up Camelback Mountain, but the heat rules out hiking after mid-morning through the summer months.

Phoenix gives you a better choice of outings, even if every one needs a car. Sedona's red rocks, hillside Jerome, the cliff dwelling at Montezuma Castle and Tucson's adobe barrios and Mission San Xavier del Bac are all manageable in a day.

From Big Bear Lake, the winding mountain roads slow everything down. Lake Arrowhead and the Oak Glen orchards are the easy ones, and most visitors end up staying on the mountain.

Both work well for families, but in different ways. Big Bear Lake is about snow play, beginner ski lessons, the small Alpine Zoo for rescued bears and eagles, and in summer an alpine slide and pedal boats, with roomy cabins to come home to.

Phoenix offers a zoo, an aquarium, a science centre, water parks and resort pools, but means long drives between them and dangerous heat for small children in summer, against Big Bear's thin air and cold nights.

You need a car in both, but Big Bear Lake is the easier of the two once you have arrived. The Village is walkable and a local bus and seasonal trolley reach the ski areas, though the drive up can mean snow chains and slow traffic.

Phoenix is a vast grid where Scottsdale, Tempe, downtown and the trailheads lie far apart. The light rail only serves the airport-downtown-Tempe corridor, and summer heat makes even short walks hard.

Phoenix wins easily. Scottsdale's luxury mall and the open-air centre near the Biltmore cover the big brands, and the real reason to shop is Navajo and Zuni silver and turquoise, Hopi katsina carvings and rugs from museum shops and reputable galleries.

Big Bear Lake has a few blocks of fudge shops, bear souvenirs and outfitters renting ski and lake gear, enough for an hour's browsing.

Phoenix is a little easier on the budget. Summer room rates fall steeply, chain hotels along the freeways are good value all year, and Sonoran food is cheap and good, though a rental car adds to the bill.

Big Bear Lake can be economical for a group sharing a cabin midweek, but winter weekends push rates up and lift tickets and equipment hire add up quickly.

Phoenix has the full set of a big American city: the Phoenix Symphony, Arizona Opera, Ballet Arizona and touring Broadway shows in Wright's round ASU Gammage, mostly from autumn to spring. The concert hall at the Musical Instrument Museum and the band venues in Tempe add variety.

Big Bear Lake's stage life amounts to community theatre, free summer concerts by the lake and the Bavarian bands of its autumn Oktoberfest.

For a proper rest, Phoenix is the stronger choice. The desert resorts below Camelback Mountain and in north Scottsdale combine full spas with sage and clay treatments, several pools and dry winter sun, though the best of it comes at resort prices.

Big Bear Lake relaxes in a simpler way, with a wood stove, a deck in the pines and a private hot tub, and a few day spas in town. Neither has hot springs, and Big Bear's crowded winter weekends are anything but calm.