Mammoth Lakes or Phoenix?

Neither is a beach destination, since both lie far inland. Mammoth Lakes has the edge for anyone who wants to swim outdoors with a view. In July and August you can take a cold dip in Horseshoe Lake among granite peaks, or swim in the slightly warmer Crowley Lake, though the season is short.

In Phoenix, swimming mostly means a resort pool with slides and a lazy river. These are welcome in the heat but are no substitute for open water. The Salt River reservoirs such as Saguaro Lake add small beaches under bare desert cliffs, and tubing down the river is a local summer pastime.

Phoenix has a food identity of its own. It comes from the Sonoran borderlands: carne asada, paper-thin flour tortillas, bacon-wrapped hot dogs from evening carts and family-run Mexican kitchens. The city also has a strong reputation for wood-fired pizza and bread, though eating well means driving between central Phoenix, Roosevelt Row and Scottsdale.

Mammoth Lakes feeds skiers well with big breakfasts, burgers, steaks and local craft beer. It has no regional cooking and little range, and some kitchens cut back in spring and autumn, so meals here are refuelling rather than a reason to go.

This is one of the widest gaps between the two. Phoenix has museums worth a day each, above all the Heard Museum's Native American collections, the Musical Instrument Museum and Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West. The Hohokam ruins at Pueblo Grande cover older history. There is no old centre to wander, so every sight is a separate drive.

Mammoth Lakes is a modern ski town of lodges and condominiums with one small history museum in a log cabin. Its heritage lies an hour or more away along the highway, at Bodie and Manzanar.

Phoenix gives you a real choice of nights out. Old Town Scottsdale has clubs and rooftop bars, Tempe's Mill Avenue has student drinking, and Roosevelt Row has cocktail and craft beer bars, with summer evenings spent on misted patios. The districts are far apart, so you pick one and take a ride-hail home.

In Mammoth Lakes, going out means après-ski in the Village and a few brewery taprooms. These can run late on winter weekends, but the town is quiet before midnight for the rest of the year and has no clubs.

Both reward people who like being outside, but Mammoth Lakes is on another level. It has a huge ski mountain whose season reaches into early summer, the granite lakes of the Lakes Basin, Devils Postpile and Rainbow Falls, and wilderness trails. Mono Lake's tufa towers are nearby, and Tuolumne Meadows is within reach once Tioga Pass opens, so the alpine scenery serves both winter and summer.

The desert around Phoenix is striking in its own way. There is saguaro forest in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, steep climbs up Camelback and South Mountain at the edge of the suburbs, and Sedona's red rock within a drive. Its limit is the summer heat, which makes hiking after mid-morning dangerous.

Phoenix has more within comfortable reach, and the roads stay open all year. Tucson and the white Mission San Xavier del Bac are under two hours south. To the north are Sedona's red rock country with Montezuma Castle on the way, hillside Jerome and Prescott's saloon street.

From Mammoth Lakes the list is short and spread along a single highway. Bodie ghost town and the sober history of Manzanar are both worth the drive, but there is little else, the Sierra passes close in winter, and most outings head into the mountains rather than to other towns.

Both work for families, but in different ways. Mammoth Lakes is about doing things outdoors together: ski school and gentle slopes, a tubing hill, rowing boats and trout fishing, all in a small, safe town where condominium kitchens make life easier. It has nothing indoors for a snowbound day, and the altitude can tire young children at first.

Phoenix has the indoor back-up that Mammoth lacks, with a zoo, an aquarium, a science centre, a children's museum and water parks. The trade-offs are long drives across the metro area and summer heat that keeps small children inside after the early morning.

Neither is easy without a car, but Mammoth Lakes is more manageable. In winter, free shuttles and the gondola from the Village to the slopes let you do a ski week without driving. In summer, a trolley and the Reds Meadow shuttle reach the main spots, and you need a car only to explore the wider Eastern Sierra.

Phoenix is built for driving, with dozens of kilometres of arterial roads between Scottsdale, Tempe and the trailheads. The light rail line from the airport through downtown to Tempe helps within that corridor, but almost everyone rents a car.

Phoenix is much the better place to shop. Scottsdale's luxury mall and the open-air centre near the Biltmore carry the big brands, Old Town has galleries and Western wear, and Navajo and Zuni turquoise jewellery, Hopi katsina carvings and pottery make souvenirs with real roots. Mammoth Lakes mostly sells gear: ski, climbing and fly-fishing shops, rental outlets and landscape photography.

Phoenix is the easier place on the wallet, especially outside the busy months from January to April. In summer, resort rooms drop sharply in price, chain hotels along the freeways are good value all year, and Sonoran Mexican food keeps meals cheap. The main extra cost is a rental car.

Mammoth Lakes in ski season is expensive across the board, with lift tickets, rentals, lodging and dining all at big-resort prices. Summer and the shoulder months are kinder, since hiking and the lakes cost little. A condominium kitchen helps, though even groceries carry resort-town prices.

Phoenix has the full programme of a big city, mostly from autumn to spring. There are the Phoenix Symphony, Arizona Opera and Ballet Arizona, touring Broadway shows at the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed ASU Gammage, and touring bands in Tempe and downtown.

Mammoth Lakes has a community theatre on the college campus. In summer it adds a jazz festival, chamber concerts and outdoor music in meadows with the mountains behind, which makes for a pleasant evening but not a reason to plan a trip.

Phoenix is the more polished place to rest. Large desert resorts under Camelback Mountain and in north Scottsdale have full spas with sage and agave treatments, several pools and golf, all at their best in the dry winter warmth. It comes at resort prices, and there is nowhere public to bathe.

Mammoth Lakes offers something Phoenix cannot: soaking in primitive volcanic hot springs out in the sagebrush, with the Sierra across the valley. These are simple pools at the end of dirt roads, and the lodge spas in town are more for tired ski legs than for pampering.