Deer Valley or Seattle?

Neither city is a reason to pack swimwear, but Seattle's waterfront gives you more to do on a summer afternoon. At Deer Valley the choice is the reservoirs below the resort, Jordanelle and Deer Creek. These are boating lakes with a sandy strip, and beyond them there is only the hotel pool.

Seattle has real sand at Alki Beach and Golden Gardens, with volleyball, bonfires and sunsets over the Olympics, even if the Sound is too cold for more than a paddle. In July and August the lifeguarded beaches on Lake Washington and at Green Lake are warm enough for a proper swim.

Seattle is the stronger place to eat by some distance. Deer Valley has polished lodge food on the mountain and a cluster of steakhouses, sushi bars and bistros on Park City's Main Street. That works well for an après-ski dinner, but there is no local cuisine, no market and no cheap street food.

Seattle has a table of its own, built on oysters, Dungeness crab and salmon from the surrounding waters. Add the stalls of Pike Place Market, serious coffee roasters and the Vietnamese, Chinese and Korean cooking of the International District, and the range runs from teriyaki counters to raw bars in a way the ski town cannot match.

The gap here is wide. Deer Valley's heritage is borrowed from Park City: a restored silver-mining Main Street, the Park City Museum in the old city hall and the ski jumps at the Olympic Park, which together fill one afternoon.

Seattle is not a heritage city either, but it has a real list of museums. There is the Museum of Flight, the Seattle Art Museum, the Burke's Northwest Coast collections, and the Space Needle grounds with the Museum of Pop Culture. Add the brick blocks of Pioneer Square, rebuilt after the fire of 1889, and you have two or three full days of sightseeing.

Seattle offers a proper night out, while Deer Valley mostly offers a drink after skiing. In the resort, evenings mean fireside lounges in the lodges. The action is a few minutes away in Main Street's saloons and après-ski bars, which are busy on winter weekends but small in scale, close early and operate under Utah's liquor rules.

In Seattle, Pike and Pine streets on Capitol Hill are lined with cocktail bars, dives, dance floors and the city's LGBTQ+ scene. Ballard has brewery taprooms and Belltown draws a younger crowd. Even so, last call is 2am and clubs are few.

Both are outstanding bases for the outdoors, but in different ways. Deer Valley puts you on the mountain itself, with groomed runs at the door, Park City Mountain next door and Cottonwood Canyon powder about an hour away. In summer there are hundreds of kilometres of lift-served bike and hiking trails. The base sits at around 2,000m, which takes a day to get used to.

Seattle's outdoors are more varied but further away: the Cascades start under an hour east, the glaciers of Mount Rainier are about two hours off, and the Olympic rainforest lies across the Sound. In town you can kayak on Lake Union, walk Discovery Park's bluffs, or take a ferry and sometimes spot orcas.

Seattle has the better choice of days out, mostly thanks to the water. From Deer Valley the main outing is Salt Lake City, for Temple Square and the Capitol. Midway, the Heber Valley steam railway and Sundance are closer, but most of the grandeur within reach is scenery rather than towns.

From Seattle, ferries cross to Bainbridge Island's harbour town and on to Port Townsend, a Victorian seaport. Woodinville's tasting rooms are half an hour away, and Tacoma's Museum of Glass makes an easy museum day.

The real trade-off is ski-school convenience against a wider spread of attractions. Deer Valley is at its best for families who ski: well-run children's ski schools, wide beginner runs with no snowboarders, and lodging you can ski back to. The Olympic Park adds tubing, an alpine coaster and ziplines. Away from the slopes, though, there is little for children, and lessons for everyone soon get expensive.

Seattle gives children more variety, with Woodland Park Zoo, the aquarium, the Pacific Science Center and the Museum of Flight. Even the ferry or the monorail feels like an outing. The downsides are steep streets for pushchairs and long wet months that call for indoor plans.

Seattle is easier to get around without a car. Deer Valley's fare-free buses link the base areas with Main Street and Kimball Junction, and slopeside lodging lets the car stay parked. But the resort sprawls across steep hillsides, and anything beyond Park City means driving on winter roads.

Seattle's walkable centre runs from Pike Place to Pioneer Square. Link light rail connects the airport with downtown, Capitol Hill and the University District, and one tap card covers buses, the monorail and the ferries. Outer neighbourhoods take a while by bus, and the national parks still need a car.

Seattle is clearly the better place to shop. Park City's Main Street has galleries, western boots, upmarket boutiques and ski shops on one short historic street, with an outlet centre at Kimball Junction. That suits an hour's browsing or buying mountain gear, but you see most of it in a single walk.

Seattle spreads its shopping across several neighbourhoods, each with its own character: record and vintage shops on Capitol Hill, Fremont's Sunday market, design shops in Ballard and makers' stalls at Pike Place. Shopping becomes a way to explore the city, and the downtown department stores and Bellevue's malls cover the rest.

Neither is cheap, but Deer Valley is in a different bracket. Its lodging, lift access, ski school and mountain meals are priced at the very top of the North American market. The usual ways to save are coming in summer, or staying in the Heber Valley or Salt Lake City and driving in.

Seattle is expensive for a city, with high summer hotel rates and steep admissions. Even so, light rail, food halls, teriyaki shops and the Pike Place counters make it far easier to keep daily costs down than at a luxury ski resort.

Deer Valley's highlight comes in summer, when the Utah Symphony plays outdoors at the Snow Park amphitheatre and the audience picnics on the grass. The rest of the year there are plays, comedy and small concerts at the 1920s Egyptian Theatre on Main Street, and touring acts at the town's performing arts centre. That is a pleasant extra to a trip, not a reason to choose the place.

Seattle is far ahead. Seattle Opera and Pacific Northwest Ballet share McCaw Hall, the symphony has a full season at Benaroya Hall, and the 5th Avenue and the Paramount stage musicals. This is the city of Hendrix and grunge, and its strongest suit is live bands, playing in Belltown, Capitol Hill and Ballard most nights.

Deer Valley is the better place to rest. The resort is built for comfort, with fireside lodges, hot tubs on snowy terraces and polished hotel spas. The Homestead Crater in Midway, a warm spring pool inside a limestone dome, is half an hour away.

Seattle has hotel spas and a few Korean-style bathhouses in the suburbs, and its hot springs are a long drive away. The city's calm comes from everyday habits instead: long mornings in coffee houses and quiet walks in the Japanese Garden or the Arboretum.