Las Vegas or Taos?

Neither city has a beach, and neither should be chosen for swimming. Las Vegas at least has more water to play in: the large Strip resort pools, some with sand-lined wave pools and lazy rivers, and the gravel shore of Boulder Beach on Lake Mead, where the water is warm in summer but there is no shade.

Taos offers less. The Rio Grande is for rafting, the mountain lakes stay cold, and the closest thing to a swim is a hotel pool or a soak in a hot spring.

Las Vegas gives you far more choice. On the Strip there are steakhouses, French dining rooms, tasting menus and the famous buffets. Off it, Spring Mountain Road has kilometres of Sichuan, Korean, Thai and Vietnamese cooking open late, and the suburbs have strong Mexican food.

Taos has the one thing Las Vegas lacks, a cuisine of its own. Northern New Mexican dishes come with red or green chile, and there is horno bread at the Pueblo. The scene is small, though, and a week will cover most of it.

Taos has far more to see in the way of history. Taos Pueblo is a living UNESCO site, its adobe houses lived in for about a thousand years. The buttressed church at Ranchos de Taos and small museums such as the Harwood and Millicent Rogers fill two or three slow days.

In Las Vegas the sights are mostly the resorts as spectacle: replica skylines, fountains and the light canopy over Fremont Street. The Neon Museum and the Mob Museum tell the city's short story well, but you will run out of sights quickly.

There is little contest here. Las Vegas runs around the clock, with superstar DJs in the resort nightclubs, pool parties by day, and drinks you can carry along a Strip that is still busy at three in the morning. Fremont Street and the arts district offer cheaper dive bars and cocktail lounges.

A night out in Taos means a margarita in an old adobe hotel bar, a brewery taproom or a saloon band. Almost nothing stays open late.

Both sit in dramatic country, but Taos has more range and lets you use it for more of the year. From town you can reach the Rio Grande gorge, raft the Taos Box, climb Wheeler Peak or ski the steep slopes of the ski valley. Its summer heat stays mild enough for hiking.

Las Vegas has superb desert within an hour: the sandstone climbing at Red Rock, the flame-coloured rock of Valley of Fire, and the cooler pine forest of Mount Charleston. But from June to September the heat confines desert walking to dawn.

Taos has the better set of outings. Santa Fe, with its galleries and O'Keeffe museum, is reached along the High Road through Truchas, Las Trampas and Chimayó. Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch, and the cliff dwellings at Bandelier, make further days out.

From Las Vegas the standard day out is Hoover Dam paired with Boulder City. After that come long tours to the Grand Canyon or Zion, which are journeys to landscapes rather than to towns.

Taos is the easier choice with children, as long as they like being outside. There are ski lessons in winter, and in summer gentle float trips, horse riding and gorge walks, in a calm town where children are welcome everywhere. Expect long drives and a tiring first day or two at altitude.

Las Vegas has more attractions built for children, such as the indoor amusement park, the shark aquarium and the Discovery Children's Museum. But reaching almost anything means crossing a casino floor, and the adult tone of the Strip is hard to avoid.

Las Vegas is easier to manage without a car, though it is not exactly walkable. Buses run the Strip and on to downtown day and night, a monorail runs behind the resorts, and taxis and ride-hailing are everywhere. Walking between the huge resorts takes much longer than it looks, and you need a car for the desert.

In Taos a car is close to compulsory. Only the plaza area is walkable, and the Pueblo, the ski valley, the gorge and every village are spread across a wide valley, usually reached after a long drive up from Albuquerque.

Las Vegas has much more to buy. The resort malls house the major fashion and jewellery houses and stay open late, Fashion Show adds department stores, and there are outlet centres at both ends of the Strip. What you will not find there is anything local.

Taos offers that, and almost nothing else. There are galleries around the plaza, turquoise and silver jewellery, Rio Grande weaving, carved santos, and micaceous pottery bought from its makers at the Pueblo.

Neither is a budget trip, but the costs come from different places. In Las Vegas, midweek rooms can be a bargain that weekends and conventions wipe out, and resort fees, shows, clubs and Strip dining push the bill up fast.

Taos has fairly priced motels and diners, but historic inns and ski-valley lodging charge resort rates in ski season and summer. The hire car you cannot avoid adds to the bill. Its quieter shoulder seasons are when it is gentlest on the budget.

Live entertainment is one of the main reasons to go to Las Vegas. Dozens of shows play every night in purpose-built resort theatres, from water acrobatics to magicians, and big stars take long residencies. The Smith Center downtown adds touring Broadway musicals, ballet and the Philharmonic.

Taos has a few rare moments rather than a programme. You can watch the dances at Taos Pueblo on feast days such as San Gerónimo, without photographs. There is also a summer chamber music festival, and otherwise bar bands.

Taos is the better place to slow down. The silence of the plateau sets the pace, you can bathe outdoors in the several mineral waters at Ojo Caliente, and primitive hot springs sit beside the Rio Grande at the bottom of the gorge. Yoga studios and retreat centres fill out the picture.

Las Vegas has some of the country's largest hotel spas, with thermal circuits and salt rooms, and they are restful on a weekday morning. Step outside, though, and the noise and lights of the casinos undo much of the good.