Big Sky or Park City?

Neither town is a place for swimming, but the water they do have is different. At Big Sky the Gallatin River is fast and cold, and swimming mostly means a hotel pool or a dip in a small pond. Park City has Jordanelle Reservoir a short drive away, with sandy swimming areas, paddleboarding and picnic lawns on hot summer days.

Park City eats better. Polished restaurants are grouped along historic Main Street and at the resort bases, so you can walk out to dinner and compare menus, and Salt Lake City's wider choice is about 40 minutes down the canyon.

At Big Sky the food is hearty bison, elk and trout, but the places are split between Mountain Village, Town Center, Meadow Village and the roadhouses in the canyon. Some cut their hours between seasons, and if you want variety you have to drive an hour to Bozeman.

Neither place is a sightseeing destination, but Park City has clearly more heritage to see. Big Sky is a purpose-built resort that only took shape in the last half century, so there is no old town to wander. Its one link to an earlier Montana is the pair of homesteaders' log cabins at Crail Ranch in Meadow Village, which you can see in well under an hour.

Park City, by contrast, has a real past. The town grew rich on silver, and you can still see it on the steep climb up Main Street past restored wooden shopfronts, with mine headframes and tramway towers still standing on the slopes above. The Park City Museum in the old city hall tells the mining story, down to the jail cells in its basement, and the Utah Olympic Park adds museums about the 2002 Winter Games. Together that fills an afternoon, which is more than Big Sky can offer.

Both towns go to bed early, but Park City has more to do before that. On winter weekends Main Street has a short strip of saloons, cocktail bars and places with DJs or bands, close enough to wander between them.

At Big Sky the evening is mostly après-ski on the decks in Mountain Village, then a few taverns or a canyon saloon with a pool table. There are no clubs, and outside the ski and summer seasons the resort is nearly silent.

Both are first-rate mountain bases, and the difference lies in the kind of country around them. Big Sky feels wilder. Lone Peak rises to 3,403m with steep, high terrain, trails run into the Spanish Peaks and the Lee Metcalf Wilderness, the Gallatin River offers rafting and fly fishing, and Yellowstone is about an hour away.

Park City is more convenient. Two big ski areas rise straight from town, Utah's dry powder falls all winter, and Alta, Snowbird, Brighton and Solitude are an hour over the ridge. In summer hundreds of kilometres of singletrack start from the streets.

Park City has more within easy reach. Salt Lake City, with Temple Square, the State Capitol and proper museums, is about 40 minutes away, and the Heber Valley steam railway, Swiss-style Midway and railroad-era Ogden are all close.

From Big Sky the outings are mostly into the landscape. Bozeman and the dinosaur fossils at the Museum of the Rockies are an hour away, and the gold-rush boardwalks of Virginia City take about two hours each way.

Big Sky suits families who want to spend the day outdoors. Children can go horse riding, raft the calmer stretches of the Gallatin and ride the gondola. Winter is harder work, though, with deep cold, and almost every outing beyond the resort means a long drive.

Park City makes things simpler. In summer the resort bases have alpine slides, mountain coasters, climbing walls and easy bike trails a short ride from your lodging, and teenagers can try the bobsled at the Olympic Park. The town is clean and compact. Costs add up quickly for a family in ski season, as they do at Big Sky.

This is where the two differ most in daily life. In Park City free buses connect Old Town, both ski bases and Kimball Junction, Main Street is walkable if steep, and the airport is about 40 minutes away, so you can manage without a car.

Big Sky stretches over about 15km of road from the canyon up to Mountain Village. A free bus links the villages, but walking between them isn't practical. Bozeman airport is an hour away, and you need a car for Yellowstone and on winter canyon roads.

Park City's Main Street makes for proper browsing, with galleries, cowboy-boot and Western-wear shops, jewellers and ski fashion, and there are outlets at Kimball Junction. Big Sky has gear shops and a few galleries selling wildlife art. It is fine for new gloves or a fly rod, but for anything more you drive to Bozeman.

Both are among the most expensive mountain resorts in the American West, and ski season costs a lot in either. The ways to save differ. At Big Sky you can stay down the canyon or in Bozeman, which means more driving. In Park City the free buses help, and budget visitors stay in Salt Lake City or the Heber Valley. In both, summer and autumn are noticeably cheaper.

Park City has more going on. The 1920s Egyptian Theatre on Main Street puts on plays, comedy and cabaret all year, and in summer the Utah Symphony plays outdoors at Deer Valley.

Big Sky's small arts centre in Meadow Village books touring musicians and theatre in winter, and summer brings free lawn concerts and a short classical festival. Between the seasons there is very little on.

Park City has the better options for unwinding. Deer Valley and the Canyons base have large spas, and in Midway, about 25 minutes away, you can swim in the Homestead Crater, a geothermal pool at about 35°C inside a limestone dome.

Big Sky offers hot tubs on the deck, lodge spas and quiet, starry nights. The nearest natural hot springs are about an hour away towards Bozeman.