Mammoth Lakes or Park City?

Neither town is anywhere near the sea, but Mammoth Lakes has the slightly better summer swimming. The granite-ringed lakes of the Lakes Basin, Horseshoe Lake especially, and the warmer Crowley Lake give a cold but scenic dip in July and August. Park City's equivalent is Jordanelle Reservoir down the valley, which has sandy swimming areas but cool water, and most visitors end up in hotel pools and hot tubs instead.

Park City eats noticeably better. Its Main Street and resort-base kitchens cook polished mountain American food such as elk, bison and trout for a wealthy ski crowd, and Salt Lake City's restaurants are within reach when you want variety.

Mammoth Lakes is mostly hearty fuel: big breakfasts, burgers, tacos, steakhouses and craft beer brewed in town, with a few more ambitious dinner kitchens around the Village. Some places also scale back in the quiet spring and autumn months.

Neither is a culture destination, but Park City has a heritage you can walk through. The restored wooden storefronts of Main Street, the mine headframes on the slopes, the Park City Museum in the old city hall and the Olympic museums from the 2002 Winter Games fill a good afternoon. Mammoth Lakes is largely modern lodges and condominiums, with a small museum in a log cabin, and its real history sites lie an hour or more away.

Mammoth Lakes winds down sooner. Après-ski fills the Village bars, pubs and brewery taprooms in the late afternoon, and only long ski weekends keep going late. On ordinary nights and outside the snow season, the town is quiet well before midnight.

Park City's Main Street has more to offer, with a short run of saloons, cocktail bars and a few places with DJs or bands that can get rowdy on winter weekends. It still closes up early, but Salt Lake City is down the canyon if you want a bigger night out.

Both are first-class mountain bases with a huge ski area at the door, so the difference is in the landscape. Mammoth Lakes looks onto the volcanic, high and dry Eastern Sierra: the Lakes Basin, Devils Postpile and Rainbow Falls, the tufa towers of Mono Lake, the Ansel Adams and John Muir wildernesses and, in summer, Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite. Its ski season often lasts into early summer.

Park City's strength is convenience and snow quality. Two ski areas rise directly from town, Utah's light, dry powder falls all winter, and Alta, Snowbird, Brighton and Solitude are within an hour. In summer, hundreds of kilometres of singletrack leave straight from the streets.

Park City has the edge because a real city sits about 40 minutes away. Salt Lake City offers Temple Square, the State Capitol and museums, and the Heber Valley steam railway, Swiss-style Midway and Ogden's railroad-era street add variety.

From Mammoth Lakes, outings are long drives along the highway beneath the Sierra. Bodie ghost town and the Manzanar internment camp are both memorable, but they are far apart, and the winter pass closures cut off the west side of the Sierra.

Mammoth Lakes keeps a family trip simple: a large ski school and gentle beginner areas, a tubing hill in winter, and rowing boats, trout fishing and the gondola to the summit in summer. There is nothing to do on a snowbound day, though, and the lakes and trailheads usually mean driving.

Park City matches the ski schools and adds much more off the slopes. The Utah Olympic Park, summer alpine slides, climbing walls and mountain coasters keep children busy, and the free buses mean you don't have to fit car seats for every trip to the lifts.

Park City is much easier without a car. Free buses tie Old Town, both ski bases and Kimball Junction together, Main Street is walkable if steep, and the airport is a shuttle ride away. Mammoth Lakes manages a ski stay with its free winter shuttles, the Village gondola, a summer trolley and the Reds Meadow shuttle, but the town is spread out, and the Eastern Sierra sights realistically need a car and, in winter, sometimes snow chains.

Park City is the better place to browse. Main Street mixes art galleries, Western-wear and cowboy-boot shops, jewellers and ski fashion, and Kimball Junction adds an outlet centre. Shopping in Mammoth Lakes is functional, meaning good ski, climbing and fly-fishing shops, landscape photography galleries and Village souvenirs, and little you would make a trip for.

Mammoth Lakes is a little gentler on the wallet, mostly outside winter. Its lift tickets and peak-week lodging are steep, but summer hiking and the lakes cost little beyond a park pass, and most visitors keep costs down by self-catering in a condominium.

Park City sits at the very top of the North American market, and the Christmas and New Year weeks are steeper still. Many visitors on a budget sleep in Salt Lake City or the Heber Valley and drive up for the day.

Park City has the fuller stage. The 1920s Egyptian Theatre on Main Street runs plays, comedy and cabaret all year, the Eccles Center takes touring shows, and the Utah Symphony plays outdoors at Deer Valley in summer. Mammoth Lakes has a likeable community theatre on the college campus, plus a summer jazz festival and chamber concerts in mountain meadows, which make for an evening out but not a reason to choose the town.

The two are close here, but they relax you in different ways. Mammoth Lakes has wild, undeveloped hot springs reached by dirt road, where you soak in simple pools with the Sierra across the valley, plus hotel hot tubs and massage in town.

Park City's version is polished, with large spas in the Deer Valley and Canyons lodges and outdoor hot pools under the snow. Nearby Midway adds the Homestead Crater, a warm spring inside a limestone dome where you can swim.