Deer Valley or San Jose?

Neither city is a place for a beach vacation, but San Jose at least has a real coastline within reach. Deer Valley's swimming is limited to the sandy shores of Jordanelle and Deer Creek reservoirs on hot midsummer afternoons, or more often a hotel pool.

From San Jose, Santa Cruz, Capitola and the Monterey Bay coves are about 45 minutes over the mountains, with sunshine and a proper surf-town feel. The cold Pacific means wetsuits and paddling rather than long swims.

San Jose eats better and more variedly, though you have to drive for it. The pho, banh mi and broken-rice plates in Little Saigon, the taquerias and the Indian and Korean corridors towards Santa Clara are the real draws. Japantown and the wineries above Los Gatos add more.

Deer Valley's food is upscale and predictable: polished lodge dining, the famous turkey chili at the base, and steakhouses, sushi and après-ski grills on Park City's Main Street. It is comfortable after a day on the slopes but has no street food or markets, and little below the top price tier.

San Jose has more worth seeing, even if it is a set of curiosities rather than a historic city. The Winchester Mystery House, the Egyptian antiquities at the Rosicrucian museum, Mission Santa Clara and the Computer History Museum fill a couple of days.

Deer Valley's history belongs to neighbouring Park City. It has a restored silver-mining Main Street, old headframes on the slopes and the Park City Museum, plus the ski jumps of the 2002 Olympic Park. It is a pleasant afternoon, not a reason to come.

Both are low-key places to go out, but San Jose offers a bit more range. It has beer halls and the covered market at San Pedro Square, cocktail and dive bars along South First Street, and a few dance clubs that fill up at weekends. For a really big night, people take the train to San Francisco.

Deer Valley's evenings are fireside lounges in the lodges, then saloons and après-ski bars on Park City's Main Street. That scene is lively in ski season but small, with few clubs and early closing under Utah's liquor rules.

Deer Valley is the stronger outdoor destination. In winter it combines its own carefully groomed runs, the huge Park City Mountain next door and the deep powder of the Cottonwood Canyons. In summer the ski runs become a network of biking and hiking trails through aspen and fir, with fly-fishing on the Provo River. The altitude takes a day to get used to.

San Jose's outdoors are gentler and more spread out. There are redwood groves at Big Basin and Henry Cowell, foothill walks at Alum Rock, sea otters and whales in Monterey Bay, and Pinnacles further south. Almost all of it means a drive.

This is where San Jose has its biggest advantage. San Francisco is about an hour away by Caltrain. Monterey, Carmel and Santa Cruz's boardwalk are close, and Stanford, Berkeley and the wine country of Napa and Sonoma all make full days out.

From Deer Valley the outings are smaller. Salt Lake City has Temple Square and the State Capitol, and nearer by are the Swiss-styled village of Midway, the steam railway in the Heber Valley and the arts village at Sundance. Most of the grand sights within two hours are landscape rather than towns.

The two are broadly level for families, but they suit different ones. Deer Valley is easiest for families who ski, with well-run children's ski schools, wide beginner runs free of snowboarders, plus tubing, an alpine coaster and ziplines at the Olympic Park. The cost of lessons and lifts adds up fast, though.

San Jose offers more ordinary family attractions. Great America theme park is next door, Happy Hollow suits small children, and the Santa Cruz Boardwalk and the Monterey Bay Aquarium are within a drive. The trade-off is many hours in the car.

Deer Valley is the easier place to leave the car parked. Fare-free buses link the base areas, Main Street and Park City Mountain, and much of the lodging is on the slopes. Driving is only needed for Salt Lake City or the Cottonwood Canyons.

San Jose is built around freeways. Downtown is walkable and Caltrain and light rail cover a few useful routes, but the mansion, the parks, the malls and the coast are spread across the valley. Most visitors end up hiring a car and planning around rush hour.

San Jose is the better place to shop, mainly because of its large west-side mall and the open-air boutique street beside it, which cover the international and luxury brands. The Asian supermarkets and the main streets of Los Gatos and Willow Glen make good browsing.

Deer Valley's shopping is Park City's Main Street. It has art galleries, western boots and hats, mountain gear and an outlet centre at Kimball Junction, which is fine for ski kit but not much else.

Both are expensive, but Deer Valley is in a class of its own. Its lift access is among the highest-priced in North America, most of its lodging is luxury and meals cost to match. Summer is easier on the wallet, and staying in the Heber Valley or Salt Lake City cuts the bill.

San Jose is costly too, with hotels priced for business travel, but they often drop at weekends. The Vietnamese and Mexican eateries in suburban plazas and the free parks and trails keep a modest budget workable.

San Jose has the slightly fuller arts calendar. It has opera in the restored California Theatre, the symphony and touring Broadway shows, big concerts at the arena and a long-running summer jazz festival in the downtown streets. On a quiet weeknight, though, San Francisco is still where the depth is.

Deer Valley's best moment is summer, when the Utah Symphony's outdoor festival brings picnics on the lawn at Snow Park. All year, Park City's 1920s Egyptian Theatre stages plays, comedy and small concerts.

Deer Valley is the place to slow down. Its quiet slopeside lodges, hot tubs on snowy terraces and some of the best hotel spas in the mountain West make rest part of the stay. The warm spring inside the limestone dome of the Homestead Crater at Midway is an unusual extra.

San Jose has hotel spas and Korean-style bathhouses in the valley towns. For calm there are the Japanese gardens at Hakone and Kelley Park and the leafy streets of Los Gatos and Saratoga, but the city itself runs on the working week.