Mammoth Lakes or Seattle?

Neither is a beach destination, but Seattle has more to offer. In Mammoth Lakes the swimming is a short, cold summer dip in Horseshoe Lake or Crowley Lake, and most people sit on the shore or take out a kayak instead.

Seattle has real sand at Alki Beach and Golden Gardens, good for bonfires and sunsets over the Olympics. In July and August it also has lifeguarded beaches on Lake Washington, where the water is far warmer than the Sound or a Sierra lake.

This is one of the clearest gaps between the two. Mammoth Lakes feeds skiers well with big breakfasts, burgers, steak and its own craft beer, but meals are fuel after a day outside, and some kitchens scale back in the quiet months.

Seattle has a real regional table: oysters, Dungeness crab and wild salmon, the stalls of Pike Place Market, serious coffee, Washington wines and strong Asian cooking in the Chinatown-International District. In Seattle you can plan days around eating.

Mammoth Lakes has almost nothing to visit in town apart from a small museum in a log cabin. Its history is better seen on a drive to Bodie or Manzanar.

Seattle is no heritage city either, but it fills two or three days. There is the Space Needle and Chihuly glass at Seattle Center, the Seattle Art Museum, the Burke and the huge Museum of Flight, plus Pioneer Square's brick blocks from after the 1889 fire for a walk.

Evenings in Mammoth Lakes mean après-ski drinks in the Village and brewery taprooms. They are lively on winter weekends and quiet by midnight the rest of the time. Seattle offers a real night out on Capitol Hill's Pike and Pine strip, with cocktail bars, dance floors and the city's LGBTQ+ scene, as well as Ballard taprooms and Belltown clubs. Even so, Seattle's bars stop serving at 2am, so it suits people who like going from bar to bar more than serious clubbers.

Both are outstanding bases for the outdoors, with Mammoth Lakes slightly ahead because the wilderness starts at the edge of town. Its landscape is high, dry and volcanic: the ski mountain, the granite lakes of the Lakes Basin, Devils Postpile, Mono Lake's tufa towers, and in summer Yosemite's Tuolumne Meadows over Tioga Pass.

Seattle's nature is green, wet and coastal, and the big sights are mostly an hour or two away: the Cascades off Interstate 90, Mount Rainier's glaciers and meadows, and the Olympic rainforest. Closer in, there is kayaking on Lake Union, and you may see orcas from the ferries.

Seattle has the better choice of days out, many of them by ferry. Bainbridge Island is half an hour away, with Whidbey Island and the Victorian seaport of Port Townsend further out. By road there are Woodinville's tasting rooms and Tacoma's Museum of Glass.

From Mammoth Lakes, other towns are few and far apart along the highway. Bodie ghost town lies to the north, and Manzanar and Bishop to the south, each an hour or more away. Most days out from Mammoth go into the mountains rather than to other towns.

Both work for children in different ways, with Seattle a little more rounded. Mammoth Lakes suits families who love the outdoors: ski school and snow tubing in winter, rowing boats, trout fishing and the gondola in summer. But there is nothing indoors for a snowbound day, and the altitude can tire young children at first.

Seattle has the zoo, the aquarium, the Pacific Science Center and the Museum of Flight to fill its wet months, though its steep streets are hard going with a pushchair.

Seattle is easier without a car. Its centre is walkable from Pike Place to Pioneer Square, light rail runs in from the airport, and one card covers buses, the monorail and the ferries. You only need a car for the national parks.

Mammoth Lakes can handle a ski week with free shuttles and the gondola, and summer adds a trolley and the Reds Meadow shuttle. But the town is spread out, and touring the Eastern Sierra almost requires a car, sometimes with snow chains.

In Mammoth Lakes, shopping means ski, climbing and fly-fishing gear, rental shops and galleries of landscape photography. Seattle is far better for browsing: department stores downtown, makers' stalls at Pike Place, vintage and record shops on Capitol Hill, Fremont's Sunday market, and the malls of Bellevue for luxury. Both have good outdoor-gear shops, but only Seattle is worth an afternoon of shopping for its own sake.

Neither is cheap, but the costs fall in different seasons. In Mammoth Lakes, winter is the expensive time, with lift tickets, ski rental and lodging in the peak weeks. In summer, hiking costs little beyond a park pass, and cooking in a condominium keeps food bills down. Seattle is dearest in summer and the cruise season, when hotel rates are high and tax and tipping add to meals, though public transport, teriyaki shops and rooms near the light rail help.

Seattle is the place for a night at a performance. There is opera and Pacific Northwest Ballet at McCaw Hall, the symphony at Benaroya Hall, and musicals at the Paramount and the 5th Avenue. Live music runs deepest in the clubs of the city of Hendrix and grunge.

Mammoth Lakes has a community theatre on the college campus and a summer of jazz, chamber music and concerts in a meadow. These make pleasant evenings, but they are modest.

Mammoth Lakes is the better place to unwind. Its volcanic ground feeds primitive hot springs out in the sagebrush, and the lodges add hot tubs and massage for legs tired from skiing. Seattle has hotel spas and Korean-style bathhouses in the suburbs, and its nearest natural springs are a long drive away, so its calm comes instead from mornings in coffee houses and walks in the Japanese Garden.