Deer Valley or Sonoma?

Neither place is for swimmers, and they let you down in different ways. Deer Valley has Jordanelle Reservoir just below the resort, a boating lake with a sandy shore that is good for a swim on hot July and August afternoons.

Sonoma has a real coastline, but it is more than an hour away and the cold, rough Pacific there is for looking at. Summer swimming means the gravel beaches of the Russian River. In both places, most people end up in the hotel pool.

Sonoma is the stronger trip for eating and drinking, because here they are the reason to come: tasting rooms around the plaza, wineries all along the valley, and cooking based on local cheese, olive oil and coast oysters. Its limits are its small size and the narrow range of cuisines.

Deer Valley eats well but not as distinctively. You get polished lodge food on the mountain and a cluster of steakhouses, sushi and après-ski grills on Park City's Main Street. It has no cuisine of its own, and drinking means restaurants and a few breweries rather than vineyards.

Sonoma has the more substantial history. Its large plaza, where the Bear Flag Revolt began, is lined by the last of California's Franciscan missions and the adobe barracks, and Vallejo's house and Jack London's ruined Wolf House are nearby. That makes a good half day.

Deer Valley offers less: the restored silver-mining Main Street in Park City, its museum in the old city hall, and the Olympic park from 2002. It fills an afternoon at most.

Neither has much of a night out, but Deer Valley has more of one. In ski season, Park City's Main Street saloons and cocktail bars fill up after the lifts close, especially at weekends, though they close early and Utah's liquor laws apply. Sonoma's evenings end with dinner and a glass in a wine bar on the plaza, and the town is quiet well before midnight.

Deer Valley is the far bigger outdoor destination. You have its own groomed slopes, the huge Park City Mountain next door, and Alta and Snowbird an hour away, then lift-served biking, fly-fishing on the Provo and the Uinta lakes in summer. The altitude of around 2,000m takes a day to get used to.

Sonoma's landscape is softer and more pastoral: vineyard back roads for cycling, oak hills, redwood groves at Sugarloaf Ridge, and balloon flights at dawn. It is lovely for walks, but the summer heat and the fire-season smoke are drawbacks.

Sonoma is much the better base for outings. San Francisco is about an hour away, and Napa, Healdsburg, Petaluma's Victorian riverfront and the bay towns of Sausalito and Tiburon are all close, though many of them are yet another wine town.

From Deer Valley, the main excursion is Salt Lake City and Temple Square. After that come modest places such as Midway, Sundance and Ogden, and the grander sights within reach are mostly landscape rather than towns.

Deer Valley works far better with children, at least for families who ski. It has well-run ski schools, beginner runs free of snowboarders, ski-in lodging, and an alpine coaster and ziplines at the Olympic park. The bigger children's attractions are down in Salt Lake City, though.

Sonoma is calm and safe but built for adults. A playground on the plaza, the miniature railway and the African wildlife park near Santa Rosa will fill a day or two, and most families are better off visiting from San Francisco.

Deer Valley is easier to manage without a car. Free buses link its base areas with Main Street, Park City Mountain and Kimball Junction, and slopeside lodging means you can leave the car parked. You still need to drive for the canyons or the airport.

Sonoma's plaza is easy on foot, but the wineries, parks and coast are spread across the valley and the buses are of little use. A hire car, a driver or a tour is close to essential, partly so nobody has to drive after tasting.

Shopping is a pleasant sideline in both places, and what you take home is different. On Park City's Main Street you will find mountain gear, western boots and hats and galleries, with an outlet centre at Kimball Junction. Around Sonoma's plaza the shopping is for the kitchen: wine bought straight from the wineries, olive oil, cheese and homeware, plus a summer farmers' market.

Neither is a budget destination, but Deer Valley is the harder on the wallet. It has mostly luxury slopeside lodging and some of the highest lift prices in North America, and ski school and rental push the cost up further. Summer helps somewhat.

Sonoma is expensive too, with costly rooms and tasting fees that add up, plus the cost of a car. It is easier to cut costs, though, by staying in Santa Rosa or Petaluma and picnicking among the vines.

The two are broadly level here. Both have modest programmes that peak in summer, and neither is worth planning a trip around. The difference is the calendar. Deer Valley keeps a stage going through the ski season at the Egyptian Theatre, the restored 1920s house on Main Street, so a winter week can include a play, a comedy night or a small concert. In summer, the Utah Symphony's festival at the Snow Park amphitheatre adds picnics on the lawn with classical music and pops.

Sonoma's live programme is mostly a summer affair: Broadway-style evenings under the oaks among Jack London's ruins, and concerts in winery gardens. From autumn to spring there is little on in the valley itself. Outside the summer, the main option is the Green Music Center at Sonoma State University, about half an hour's drive away, where touring orchestras play in a proper concert hall.

Deer Valley's way of relaxing is hotel comfort: hot tubs on snowy terraces, fireplaces and polished spas built around skiers' sore legs. Its one natural soak is the warm spring pool inside the Homestead Crater, about half an hour away in Midway.

Sonoma has real mineral water at Boyes Hot Springs, where a historic resort spa sells day passes, and Calistoga's mud baths are about an hour away over the hills. Much of its calm comes from the town's pace, though: quiet mornings on the plaza and long afternoons in the shade.