Big Sky or Deer Valley?

You won't swim much in either place. In Big Sky the Gallatin River is too fast and cold even in midsummer, so a quick paddle in a pond or a picnic on the riverbank is about as far as it goes. Deer Valley is a little better placed: the state park at Jordanelle Reservoir has a sandy shore and water that is pleasant on hot July and August afternoons, and it makes a reasonable lake day out.

Deer Valley eats better, mainly because Park City is next door. Main Street and the old town streets have steakhouses, sushi, modern American bistros and après-ski grills, more than a town that size would normally support. Up on the mountain, the lodge food is polished and there is a long-standing turkey chili ritual. It is still upscale resort eating, with no markets or street food.

Big Sky's choice is narrower: bison, elk, trout, Montana beef and big breakfasts, served across three villages and the canyon roadhouses. Some kitchens cut their hours between seasons, and for real variety you have to drive an hour to Bozeman.

Neither resort is a place for sightseeing, but Deer Valley has more to see nearby. Park City's restored silver-mining Main Street, with old mine headframes on the slopes and a museum in the old city hall, fills an afternoon, and the Utah Olympic Park adds a museum of Winter Games and skiing history. In Big Sky, the past comes down to the log cabins of the Crail Ranch homestead in Meadow Village. The rest is timber condos built since the 1970s.

Deer Valley's lodges go quiet after the lifts close, but Park City's Main Street is only a few minutes away. Its saloons, cocktail bars and après-ski spots fill up on ski-season weekends, though Utah's liquor rules and early closing keep it a small-town scene.

Big Sky's evenings centre on the decks at the foot of the lifts in Mountain Village, a few Town Center taverns and the old canyon saloons with pool tables and a ranch-country crowd. In spring and autumn it is almost silent after dark.

Both are top-tier mountain bases, and the difference is in character. Big Sky feels bigger and rougher. Lone Peak rises to 3,403m above steep, high runs, summer trails lead into true wilderness, and the Gallatin offers rafting as well as fly fishing. On top of that, Yellowstone's wildlife is about an hour away.

Deer Valley is more about polish and choice. Its own runs are immaculately groomed, Park City Mountain is next door, and the deep powder of Alta and Snowbird is about an hour over the ridge. In summer the ski runs give way to a huge linked network of biking and hiking trails, with the Uinta lakes further out.

From Big Sky, the best outing is Bozeman, an hour down the canyon, a college town with a Western main street and the dinosaur fossils of the Museum of the Rockies. Further afield, the 1860s gold-rush boardwalks of Virginia City and Nevada City and the old railway centre of Livingston make good days out, but they are all small places.

Deer Valley gives you more choice. Salt Lake City is about forty minutes away, with Temple Square, the State Capitol and proper museums. Closer in, the Heber Valley has Swiss-styled Midway, a historic steam railway and the arts village at Sundance, and Ogden's railway-era 25th Street is a little over an hour north.

Both work well for active families, in slightly different ways. Deer Valley is the smoother ski week: well-run children's schools, wide groomed beginner runs and no snowboarders, plus tubing and an alpine coaster at the Olympic Park. Salt Lake City's zoo and children's museums are within reach on a bad-weather day.

Big Sky comes into its own in summer, with zip lines, a ropes course, horse riding and bison-spotting in Yellowstone. It has nothing indoors for rainy days, though, and its base sits higher, so small children may feel the altitude more.

Deer Valley is clearly easier. Fare-free buses link its base areas with Main Street, Park City Mountain and Kimball Junction, the old town is compact enough to walk, and Salt Lake City airport is about forty minutes away.

Big Sky is strung out along about 15km of road from the canyon up to Mountain Village. A free bus connects the villages, but Bozeman airport is an hour's drive, and for Yellowstone you really need a car and some care on the winter canyon road.

Deer Valley has more to browse, because Park City's Main Street has art galleries, western boots and hats and upmarket boutiques behind its mining-town façades. The outlet centre at Kimball Junction suits bargain hunters. Big Sky offers little beyond outdoor gear, a few Western-style boutiques and wildlife art galleries. It is fine for gloves or a fly rod, but for anything more you go to Bozeman.

There is little to choose between them: both rank among the most expensive mountain stays in North America. At Deer Valley the luxury is the whole point, with high-end slopeside lodging and lift access among the dearest anywhere, although the free buses save on a car within town. Big Sky's costs are spread across lodging, lift passes, ski school and guided fishing. In both, summer is easier on the budget, and the usual way to save is to stay further out (the canyon or Bozeman for Big Sky, the Heber Valley or Salt Lake City for Deer Valley) and drive in.

Deer Valley has the fuller programme. In summer, the Utah Symphony's long-running outdoor festival brings picnics on the grass at the Snow Park amphitheatre, and the restored 1920s Egyptian Theatre on Main Street stages plays and small concerts all year.

Big Sky does more than its size suggests: a small arts centre in Meadow Village hosts touring acts in winter, and there are free lawn concerts and a short classical festival in summer. Between those seasons there is very little on.

Deer Valley is the better place to unwind. It is built around comfort, with fireside lodges and some of the most polished hotel spas in the mountain West. It also has a genuine curiosity half an hour away: the warm spring pool inside the limestone dome of the Homestead Crater.

In Big Sky, relaxing means hot tubs on lodge decks, spa massages after a ski day and quiet, starry nights. The nearest natural hot springs are about an hour away towards Bozeman.