Las Vegas or Moab?

Neither has a beach worth travelling for. Las Vegas at least has more ways to cool off: sand-edged wave pools and lazy rivers at the Strip resorts, and Lake Mead's gravel Boulder Beach is about 40 minutes away.

Moab offers shallow pools in Mill Creek, Ken's Lake and sandbars on a cold, fast Colorado River. For most visitors, swimming there means the motel pool after a hike.

Las Vegas is the place to eat well. It has steakhouses, French dining rooms and tasting menus from famous chefs on the Strip, plus kilometres of Sichuan, Korean, Thai and Vietnamese cooking along Spring Mountain Road, much of it open late.

Moab feeds hungry hikers well enough, with burgers, tacos, pizza and early coffee on Main Street. The choice is narrow, though, and gets thinner in winter. Utah's licensing rules also make a drink with dinner more formal than it is across the state line.

Neither is a place for museums or old buildings, but Las Vegas gives you more to look at. You have the themed resorts, the fountains and the Fremont Street light canopy, plus the Neon Museum and the Mob Museum to explain the city's short history.

Moab's town has only a small museum and a few uranium-boom buildings. Its real interest is far older: Ancestral Puebloan and Fremont rock art on the cliffs along Potash Road and Kane Creek, and dinosaur trackways nearby.

This is the widest gap between the two. Las Vegas runs all night, with resort superclubs, dayclub pool parties, casino bars and cheaper dive and cocktail bars around Fremont Street and the arts district.

Moab has a couple of brewpubs full of mountain bikers and rafters, and it is mostly quiet by eleven. Its best night-time sight is the sky itself, which is dark enough to show the stars in a way the lit-up Strip never can.

Both sit in striking desert, but Moab is the real outdoor base. Arches begins at the edge of town, and the Island in the Sky and Dead Horse Point look over the Colorado and Green river canyons. Add the Slickrock Trail, the Whole Enchilada descent from the La Sal Mountains, rafting, climbing and jeep tracks.

Las Vegas has good desert within reach: Red Rock Canyon's climbing and scenic drive, the red rock of Valley of Fire, and the pine forest on Mount Charleston. They are day outings from a city, not a landscape you live inside, as you do in Moab.

The day trips are thin from both, and Las Vegas does slightly better. Hoover Dam and Boulder City, the 1930s town built for the dam's workers, make an easy half day. The longer Grand Canyon and Zion tours are journeys to scenery rather than towns.

From Moab, the towns within reach are small. The more rewarding drive is south to Bluff's stone houses, Edge of the Cedars in Blanding and the towers of Hovenweep, though Hovenweep takes a full day.

Moab suits children better, provided they are old enough to walk and enjoy it. Short trails to Sand Dune Arch, dinosaur tracks, gentle river floats and jeep rides fill the days well, but unfenced drops and summer heat mean it is no place for toddlers.

Las Vegas has an indoor amusement park, a shark aquarium, tower thrill rides and a children's museum downtown. Getting to almost any of them means crossing casino floors and passing adult advertising, so most families treat it as a stop on the way to the parks.

Las Vegas is easier without a car. The monorail and all-night buses run along the Strip and up to downtown, and taxis and ride-hailing are everywhere. Walking between the huge resorts takes longer than it looks, though, especially in summer.

In Moab you can walk Main Street and cycle a paved path to the Arches entrance. Beyond that you need a car, ideally a high-clearance one for the dirt tracks to trailheads. Without one you depend on outfitters' shuttles and tours.

Las Vegas is a serious shopping trip. It has luxury houses in the resort arcades at Caesars Palace and the Venetian, the large Fashion Show mall and two outlet centres, all open late.

Moab's Main Street sells what the outdoors needs: bike and climbing gear, plus rock shops with geodes and fossils. It also has a few galleries with Navajo jewellery and weavings, which are more personal souvenirs than anything in the Las Vegas malls.

Neither is cheap, and the costs come from different places. In Las Vegas, midweek rooms can be a bargain, but weekends, resort fees, cocktails and shows push the bill up fast. Eating in Chinatown helps.

In Moab, simple motel rooms cost a lot in spring and autumn, and you pay for car hire, fuel and rafting or jeep tours. Against that, park entry lasts a week, public campgrounds are inexpensive, the best hikes are free and winter is much cheaper.

Las Vegas is one of the reasons people travel for a show. Dozens of productions play each night, from water-based acrobatics and magicians to long residencies by pop and country stars. The Smith Center adds touring Broadway musicals, the Philharmonic and ballet.

Moab has one real event: the Moab Music Festival at the end of summer, with chamber concerts in town and in canyon grottoes reached by boat. For the rest of the year, live music means the odd brewpub band.

Las Vegas has the facilities for pampering. Its large resort spas, with saunas, steam, salt rooms and long treatment menus, are restful on a weekday morning, as long as you keep away from the casino floor afterwards.

Moab offers stillness rather than treatments. It has a few massage studios for sore legs, quiet evenings and cliffs turning red at sunset. For real rest, people head out to a ranch or a cabin in the La Sals.