Los Angeles or Snowbird?

Los Angeles has a real coastline, more than 100km of it, running from the coves of Malibu past Santa Monica and Venice to the volleyball nets of the South Bay. The water is cool, so people tend to wade or surf in wetsuits, but beach life is a big part of a stay.

Snowbird is high in the mountains, a long way from any sea. Swimming means the resort's heated pools or a cold reservoir in the Heber Valley.

Food is one of the main reasons to choose Los Angeles. You can eat at taco trucks on the Eastside, charcoal barbecue in Koreatown, regional Chinese cooking in the San Gabriel Valley and Ethiopian and Oaxacan kitchens, with a serious chef-led dining scene on top of all that.

At Snowbird you eat at the resort: lodge dining rooms, cafeterias by the slopes and burgers at après-ski, all at captive-audience prices. For variety, guests drive down to Salt Lake City a night or two each week.

Los Angeles has a large modern cultural circuit: the Getty Center and Getty Villa, LACMA and the Broad, the Huntington's library and gardens, Griffith Observatory and the legacy of the Hollywood studios. It lacks an old historic quarter, and the sights are far apart.

Snowbird was built from scratch in 1971 and has nothing to see in the cultural sense apart from its concrete lodges. Little of the canyon's silver-mining past survives, so museums mean a trip to Salt Lake City.

Los Angeles has a proper night out in many forms: clubs with velvet ropes in Hollywood, the gay bars of West Hollywood, rooftop bars downtown and dive bars in Silver Lake and Echo Park. Bars close at 2am, and a night usually stays in one district.

Snowbird's nightlife is après-ski on a sunny deck and in a couple of lodge bars, and it's quiet by mid-evening. Most people want to be on the first tram in the morning.

Snowbird has the edge outdoors, and the outdoors is why the resort exists. Many rooms open straight onto the slopes. The tram climbs to Hidden Peak at about 3,350m, the terrain runs through Mineral Basin and across the ridge to Alta, and the ski season often lasts into late spring. In summer there are wilderness trails and climbing on the granite walls of the canyon.

Los Angeles has impressive nature for a city of its size, with Griffith Park, the Santa Monica Mountains, surf at Malibu and the San Gabriels rising behind the basin. But you fit it in between other plans, and you have to get through traffic to reach most of it.

Los Angeles has more good options within driving distance. Santa Barbara has its mission and red-tile streets, Catalina is a ferry ride away, and Laguna Beach, Ojai and Palm Springs are all within reach. Traffic can easily stretch a two-hour drive into three.

From Snowbird there are two outings that clearly justify the drive: Salt Lake City's Temple Square and the Victorian Main Street of Park City. After those come Midway, Sundance and Ogden, which are pleasant but don't stand out much.

Los Angeles is much better for most families. Disneyland, Universal Studios, Knott's Berry Farm and Magic Mountain are all within reach, along with dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum and the Aquarium of the Pacific. The difficulty is the driving.

Snowbird suits families who ski, especially those with teenagers, because the mountain leans towards steep, expert terrain. Its car-free base is easy to manage, and the summer alpine slide and ropes course help, but the zoo and children's museums are down in Salt Lake City.

Snowbird is easier to get around because it's so small. Lodges, lifts and the tram are a short walk apart along a car-free base, though the single canyon road gets jammed on powder mornings and avalanche control sometimes closes it.

Los Angeles spreads across a basin made up of dozens of separate cities. Metro lines are useful for the trips to Hollywood, Pasadena and Santa Monica, but most visitors still hire a car and plan each day around one area.

Los Angeles is a major shopping city. It has luxury houses on Rodeo Drive, streetwear and vintage on Melrose, independent shops on Abbot Kinney and the Rose Bowl flea market. Shopping across more than one area in a day means driving.

Snowbird has a few base-area shops that rent and sell ski gear and resort clothing. They're handy if you forget your goggles, but serious shopping means Park City's main street or the malls of Salt Lake City.

Neither place is cheap, but Los Angeles is easier to do on a budget. Hotels, tipping and car hire add up, but taco trucks, Koreatown and market stalls feed you well for little, and the beaches, Griffith Observatory and the Getty's collections cost nothing.

At Snowbird, lift tickets, slopeside rooms, rentals and resort meals all cost a lot. The usual ways to save are multi-resort passes, sleeping in Salt Lake City and driving up each morning, or coming in summer.

Los Angeles is one of the great performance cities. It has the Philharmonic at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and, in summer, picnics at the Hollywood Bowl, along with LA Opera, Broadway tours at the Pantages, rock venues on the Sunset Strip, top comedy and improv theatres and jazz in Leimert Park.

Snowbird offers summer concerts on the plaza, Oktoberfest oompah bands and the odd après-ski band. For a symphony, opera or theatre, you have to drive down the canyon.

Los Angeles has more ways to unwind. Koreatown's Korean bathhouses, with hot and cold pools, body scrubs and heated floors, are often open late, and there are yoga studios and spas everywhere. Ojai and the Palm Springs mineral springs are within reach when the city's traffic gets tiring.

Snowbird's version is narrower but very restful: a rooftop pool and hot tubs facing the canyon walls after a day on the slopes, followed by dark, quiet nights. The warm geothermal crater at Homestead in Midway adds a soak in a limestone dome.