Big Sky or Napa?

Neither place is a swimming destination, and in both the realistic option is a hotel pool. The difference is the water nearby. Big Sky has the cold, rocky Gallatin River and a few small ponds for a quick paddle. Napa has Lake Berryessa in the eastern hills for a proper summer swim or a day on a boat, and a Pacific coast more than an hour away that is for looking at rather than swimming in.

Food is where Napa pulls furthest ahead. Its wine runs from Cabernet up the valley to Pinot Noir and sparkling wine in Carneros, and it comes with a run of serious restaurants in Yountville and St Helena and the market hall in town. Eating well is the point of the trip.

Big Sky feeds skiers and hikers: bison, elk, trout, wood-fired pizza, big breakfasts and local beer. It is solid but narrow, some kitchens close between seasons, and for more variety you have to drive to Bozeman.

Neither is a sightseeing destination, but Napa has a little more to look at. There is the 1880 Opera House and the Victorian buildings along First Street, the stone winery buildings and old main streets up the valley, and contemporary art at di Rosa in Carneros. Big Sky was built from the 1970s on, and apart from the log cabins of the Crail Ranch homestead, its history is a drive away, starting with the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman.

Both go quiet early, and neither has clubs, but the evenings run on different clocks. In Big Sky the social hour is late afternoon, when skiers in boots fill the decks at the foot of the lifts. A few canyon saloons keep pool tables and a ranch crowd, and outside the ski season the resort is almost silent.

In Napa the evening is a long dinner followed by a wine bar or cocktail bar near the river. For a real night out you drive about an hour to San Francisco.

Big Sky is mountain country on a far grander scale. It has Lone Peak and its huge ski area, the Spanish Peaks and the Lee Metcalf Wilderness, and fly fishing and rafting on the Gallatin. With Yellowstone an hour south, it has a range Napa cannot match.

Napa's outdoors is gentler and more cultivated: balloon flights over the vineyards at dawn, flat cycling on the valley trail, redwoods at Bothe-Napa Valley and the climb up Mount St Helena. It is pleasant rather than wild, and the summer heat pushes walks into the early morning.

Napa has far more within reach. Yountville, St Helena, Calistoga and Sonoma are short drives, and Healdsburg and the Russian River offer a second wine country. San Francisco, Sausalito and Sacramento make full days in a city.

From Big Sky, most outings go into the landscape. Bozeman and the dinosaur fossils of the Museum of the Rockies are an hour away, and the gold-rush boardwalks of Virginia City and Nevada City are about two hours away. There is no large city or wine region nearby.

Big Sky is the easier choice with children, as long as they like being outside. Ski school, summer zip lines, climbing walls and ropes courses, horse riding and Yellowstone's bison make real days out. The altitude at Mountain Village tires young children at first, though, and there is little to do on a rainy day.

Napa is built around tasting and long dinners, which children put up with rather than enjoy. The animal park in Vallejo, the geyser near Calistoga and hotel pools help, but summer heat and the drives between wineries make it hard going.

Both need a car beyond the centre, for different reasons. Big Sky strings its villages along about 15km of road, linked by a free bus, and with ski-in lodgings many winter visitors hardly need a car until they head for Yellowstone, on canyon roads that call for winter tyres.

Napa's downtown is the more walkable core, but the wineries are spread over 50km and the buses run too rarely to rely on. Because tasting and driving do not mix, many visitors book a driver or join a tour.

Napa offers more, though mostly around wine. Visitors have cases shipped home from the cellars, buy food gifts at the market hall, browse the cookware and design shops in St Helena, and find familiar brands at the outlet mall. Big Sky's shops cover ski and fishing gear, Western clothing and wildlife art, and anything beyond that means a drive to Bozeman.

Both are very expensive, and neither suits a tight budget. In Big Sky the costs pile up in winter with slopeside lodging, lift passes and ski school, and summer is the cheaper season.

In Napa the money goes on luxury hotels, estate tastings and a driver for the day, and costs are highest at weekends and at harvest. In both places, saving money means staying further out: in the canyon or in Bozeman for Big Sky, or in a chain hotel south of Napa and eating at the taquerias.

Napa has a somewhat fuller calendar. The 1880 Opera House puts on concerts and comedy, an Art Deco theatre books touring bands, a summer classical festival uses winery venues and a large rock and pop festival comes each late spring.

Big Sky has chamber music and theatre at its small Meadow Village arts centre in winter and free concerts on the lawn in summer. Between seasons, both send you to a bigger city: Bozeman from Big Sky, San Francisco from Napa.

Napa is the more restful place by design. Calistoga's mud baths and mineral pools have drawn bathers since the nineteenth century, and the resorts in Carneros and the hills have large spas. A day of tastings and lunch on a terrace is slow anyway.

In Big Sky, relaxing comes after exercise: a hot tub on the deck, a massage for sore ski legs and quiet, starry nights. The nearest hot springs are about an hour away, towards Bozeman.