Deer Valley or Phoenix?

Neither city has a coast, and in both, swimming means a reservoir or a pool. At Deer Valley it is a mountain lake: the sandy state-park shore at Jordanelle, just below the resort, is pleasant only on hot July and August afternoons.

Phoenix gives you more ways to get wet. Saguaro and Canyon Lakes are set among bare desert cliffs, and tubing the lower Salt River is a local summer ritual. The resort pools, with their slides and lazy rivers, are designed for spending whole days in the water.

Phoenix eats better, mainly because it has a regional cuisine of its own. There is Sonoran carne asada, flour tortillas thin enough to see through, bacon-wrapped hot dogs from evening carts, and family Mexican kitchens across the south and west of the city, along with serious wood-fired pizza.

Deer Valley's food is polished but narrow. You get lodge dining and the traditional base-area turkey chili, then Main Street steakhouses, sushi and après-ski grills, with no street food or markets below the upscale tier. In return, Park City's restaurants are all close together, while eating well in Phoenix usually means driving.

Phoenix has much more to see, though almost all of it is indoors. The Heard Museum's Native American collections and the Musical Instrument Museum can each fill a morning, and Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West is a real architectural pilgrimage. These sights are scattered, though, and there is no old centre to walk.

Deer Valley offers the reverse in miniature. Park City's restored silver-mining Main Street, with mine headframes on the slopes above, is pleasant to stroll. The Park City Museum and the Olympic Park's small skiing museum cover the rest in an afternoon.

Phoenix gives you real choice: the clubs and rooftop bars of Old Town Scottsdale, student bars on Tempe's Mill Avenue, and craft beer and cocktail bars around Roosevelt Row. In summer it also has resort pool parties and patio drinking under misters.

At Deer Valley the evening starts by the lodge fire and moves a few minutes down to Park City's Main Street. There, saloons and après-ski bars fill up on winter weekends. It is good fun after a day's skiing, but there are hardly any clubs, and most people go to bed early so they can catch first chair.

Deer Valley is the stronger outdoor base. Its skiing ranges from immaculate home runs to Park City Mountain next door and the Cottonwood Canyon resorts over the ridge. In summer the ski runs become hundreds of kilometres of aspen-lined biking and hiking trails, and there is fly-fishing on the Provo River.

Phoenix's landscape is still its best asset. Camelback, Piestewa Peak and South Mountain rise straight out of the suburbs, saguaro forest fills the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, and Sedona's red rock is two hours north. It is a very different kind of scenery, though, and largely off-limits in midsummer.

Phoenix has the more rewarding outings. Within two hours you can reach Jerome clinging to its hillside, Prescott's Western saloon street, the Montezuma Castle cliff dwelling, Sedona, and Tucson with the white Mission San Xavier del Bac.

From Deer Valley the main outing is Salt Lake City, about forty minutes away, for Temple Square and the State Capitol. Closer by are the Swiss-styled village of Midway, the Heber Valley steam railway and Sundance in its canyon. From either base, every trip needs a car.

Both work for families, but for different families. Deer Valley is ideal for children who ski: there are good ski schools, wide beginner runs with no snowboarders, ski-to-the-door lodging, and tubing and an alpine coaster at the Olympic Park. There is little else for children nearby, though, and the cost of lessons adds up.

Phoenix offers a zoo, an aquarium, a science centre, water parks and relaxed spring-training baseball, and its hotels are roomy. The trade-offs are long drives between attractions and summer heat that keeps young children indoors.

Deer Valley is much easier without a car. Free buses link the base areas with Main Street, Park City Mountain and Kimball Junction, and much of the lodging is on the slopes, so the car can stay parked until you head for Salt Lake City or the canyons.

Phoenix is built around driving. The flat grid of arterial roads runs for dozens of kilometres, and the one light rail line only helps between the airport, downtown and Tempe. Most visitors rent a car, and luckily the roads and parking are easy.

Phoenix is the better place to shop. Scottsdale's luxury mall and the open-air centre near the Biltmore carry the major brands, and the city's distinctive buy is Navajo and Zuni turquoise silver, Hopi katsina carvings and rugs from museum shops and reputable galleries.

Park City's Main Street has galleries, western boots and upmarket boutiques. Its one real strength is mountain gear, and the outlet centre at Kimball Junction catches bargain hunters.

Phoenix is far cheaper. It costs about what an ordinary American city does. Rooms drop sharply in summer, chain hotels along the freeways are good value all year, and hiking costs nothing. The main extra is a rental car.

Deer Valley is at the very top of the ski market, with mostly luxury slopeside lodging, expensive lift access and mountain dining, and the cost of ski school on top. Summer softens the bill a little, and staying down in the Heber Valley and driving in is the usual way to save.

Phoenix keeps a full city programme: the Phoenix Symphony, Arizona Opera and Ballet Arizona, touring Broadway shows in Wright's round Gammage auditorium, and concerts in the Musical Instrument Museum's intimate hall. Most of it runs from autumn to spring.

Deer Valley's best moment comes in summer, when Phoenix is quiet. The Utah Symphony's outdoor festival at the Snow Park amphitheatre means picnics on the grass with classical music and visiting headliners. The 1920s Egyptian Theatre on Main Street covers the rest of the year on a small scale.

Both cities do relaxation through luxury resorts rather than public baths, and Phoenix has a slight edge. The big spa resorts at the foot of Camelback, with treatments built on sage, clay and agave, make a winter week by the pool in dry warmth a classic American rest.

Deer Valley's version is snowier and more intimate: hot tubs on snowy terraces, fireside lodges and massages for tired ski legs. It also has the one thing Phoenix lacks, a natural warm spring, inside the limestone dome of the Homestead Crater in Midway.