Jackson Hole or Seattle?

Neither is a beach destination, but Seattle at least has sand. Alki Beach and Golden Gardens on Puget Sound make good evening spots for bonfires and sunsets over the Olympics, even though the water is only for paddling. In July and August the lifeguarded beaches on Lake Washington are good for a proper swim.

Jackson Hole has only mountain lakes. String Lake warms up enough by late summer, but Jenny Lake and the Snake River stay cold, so a swim there is a short reward after a hike.

Seattle has much more to eat. Oysters, Dungeness crab and salmon at Pike Place Market, roasters in every neighbourhood, Washington wines and strong Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese and Korean cooking in the Chinatown-International District give you a week of different meals.

Jackson does well for a small town, with elk, bison and trout in chef-led dining rooms and huckleberries in almost everything. After a few nights of steakhouses and saloons, though, the choice runs thin, and very little is cheap.

Seattle's sights are modern but there are enough for two or three days. The Space Needle and Seattle Center have the Chihuly glass and the Museum of Pop Culture. There are also the Seattle Art Museum, the Burke Museum's Northwest Coast collections and the large Museum of Flight, and Pioneer Square adds some old brick and stone.

Jackson Hole has the National Museum of Wildlife Art, the antler arches on the Town Square and the barns of Mormon Row beneath the Tetons. They are striking, but you can see them all in one day between hikes.

Seattle has a real night out. On Capitol Hill, Pike and Pine streets have cocktail bars, dive bars, dance floors and the centre of the city's LGBTQ+ scene. Ballard has brewery taprooms and Belltown has a few clubs, though everything winds down at 2am.

Jackson's evenings are shorter and simpler. In winter there is après-ski at Teton Village, and after that a cowboy saloon with a dance floor and a few brewpubs. Most people are in bed well before midnight so they can be on the trail or the slopes early.

Both are superb bases, but Jackson Hole puts you right inside the landscape. Grand Teton National Park starts minutes from town and Yellowstone is an easy drive north. You see moose, bison, elk and even bears on ordinary drives, and in winter the tram at Teton Village serves some of the steepest lift-served skiing in North America.

From Seattle the wilderness is a drive away: the Cascades within an hour, Rainier in about two, the Olympic rainforest across the Sound. Its strength is the mix of city and outdoors, with kayaking on Lake Union, the bluffs of Discovery Park and orcas sometimes seen from the ferries.

Outings from Jackson Hole lead into the landscape rather than to other towns. The drive over Teton Pass to Victor and Driggs shows the quieter western face of the range, and Pinedale and Star Valley have small local museums, but none of them fills a day on its own.

Around Seattle the day trips have proper destinations as well as scenery. A half-hour ferry reaches Bainbridge Island's harbour town and wineries, and further crossings lead to Whidbey Island's farm villages and the Victorian seaport of Port Townsend. The Woodinville tasting rooms are half an hour away, and Tacoma, about an hour south, has the Museum of Glass.

Both work well with children, in different ways. Jackson Hole is a wildlife and outdoor vacation: moose and bison from the car, Junior Ranger badges, a sleigh ride through the elk herd, the summer rodeo and the shootout on the square. Drives are long, though, and there is little to do when it rains.

Seattle is the better bet for indoor days, with Woodland Park Zoo, the aquarium, the Pacific Science Center and the Museum of Flight. On the other hand, its steep streets up from the waterfront are hard going with a pushchair.

Seattle works without a car. Link light rail runs from the airport through downtown to Capitol Hill, and one card covers buses, the monorail and the water taxis. Outer neighbourhoods are slow to reach by bus, and the hills make walking harder work.

In Jackson the few blocks around the Town Square are easy on foot and a bus runs out to Teton Village. The parks, trailheads and dawn wildlife drives all need a car, and winter roads call for care.

Seattle offers more range. Downtown has department stores and big outdoor gear shops, and Pike Place has makers' stalls. In the neighbourhoods you find vintage clothes and records on Capitol Hill, a Sunday market in Fremont and design shops in Ballard.

Jackson's shopping is narrower but more distinctive. It fills a few boardwalked blocks of Western and wildlife art galleries, handmade cowboy hats, boots and turquoise jewellery, with high-end ski gear alongside plenty of souvenirs.

Neither is cheap, but Jackson Hole is harder on a budget. Rooms, meals, lift tickets and rental cars all cost resort prices, and beds are scarce in high season. The consolation is that trails, viewpoints and roadside wildlife cost nothing beyond park entry.

Seattle is expensive too, but there are more ways to save. Public transport replaces a rental car, teriyaki shops and the counters at Pike Place offer cheaper meals, and rooms near the light rail in outer neighbourhoods bring the bill down.

In Jackson Hole, live performance mostly happens in summer. The Grand Teton Music Festival brings orchestral players to the timber concert hall in Teton Village for several weeks, and chuckwagon dinner shows and country bands in the saloons fill other evenings. Outside that season there is little beyond community theatre.

In Seattle you can find a performance in any week of the year. Seattle Opera and Pacific Northwest Ballet share McCaw Hall, the symphony plays a full season at Benaroya Hall, and the 5th Avenue and the Paramount stage musicals. Most nights, clubs in Belltown, Capitol Hill and Ballard keep up the city's tradition of Jimi Hendrix and grunge.

The two are close here, and the difference is in kind. Jackson Hole offers natural soaking: a hot springs pool in a forested canyon south of town, reached in winter by snowmobile or dog sled, riverside pools on the Snake and resort spas for sore skiers.

Seattle's version of rest is slower and more urban. It has Korean-style bathhouses in the suburbs, hotel spas, quiet walks in the Japanese Garden and long mornings in neighbourhood coffee houses.