Moab or Napa?

Neither place is for a beach trip, so the difference is only in how you cool off. In Moab that means Mill Creek's shallow pools, Ken's Lake or a careful dip from a sandbar in the cold, fast Colorado after a hike. In Napa it means a resort pool or a summer drive to Lake Berryessa, while the cold Sonoma coast, more than an hour away, is somewhere to look at rather than swim.

Moab feeds people who have been outside all day. Main Street has burgers, tacos, pizza and brewery pints, coffee from early morning for hikers and a few more ambitious Southwestern dinners, with big portions and dusty boots welcome everywhere. It does the job, but nobody travels for it, choice thins in winter, and Utah's alcohol rules make wine with dinner a more formal affair.

In Napa the food and wine are the trip. Tasting rooms line Highway 29 and the Silverado Trail, with Cabernet from the valley floor and Pinot Noir and sparkling wine from Carneros, while Yountville and St Helena hold some of the country's most celebrated restaurants, and the Oxbow Public Market gathers oysters, cheese and bakers in town. Eating cheaply is the weak spot: apart from the taquerias that serve vineyard workers, there is little street food and not much beyond Californian cooking.

Culture is thin in both places, but Napa offers a little more. Moab's real interest is outside town, in the Ancestral Puebloan and Fremont rock art along Potash Road and Kane Creek, the dinosaur trackways and the small Museum of Moab.

Napa has the 1880 Opera House and the Victorian streets downtown, contemporary art at di Rosa in Carneros, and the stone wineries and old main streets of St Helena and Calistoga. That fills a day, where Moab fills a morning.

Both towns go quiet early, but their evenings are different. In Moab, mountain bikers and rafters fill a couple of brewpubs to compare routes, everyone is in bed by eleven, and the real night-time sight is the star-filled sky. In Napa the evening is a long dinner and a glass at a wine bar on First Street or the riverfront. The extra edge is San Francisco, about an hour away, for a proper night out, which Moab has no answer to.

For the outdoors, Moab is in a different league. Arches starts a few minutes from town, and Canyonlands' Island in the Sky and Dead Horse Point are less than an hour away. Your days fill with canyon hikes, the Slickrock Trail and the Whole Enchilada descent on a bike, rafting on the Colorado, canyoneering and climbing.

Napa's countryside is gentler and more pastoral: vineyard views, a cycle trail along the valley floor, balloon flights at dawn, redwoods at Bothe-Napa and the climb up Mount St Helena. It makes a fine morning before the tastings rather than the reason to come.

From Moab, a day out mostly means more scenery. Green River, Monticello and Bluff are small places, and the most rewarding outing is the long drive south to the Puebloan sites at Edge of the Cedars and Hovenweep.

Napa is far better placed. Sonoma's plaza and mission are about half an hour away and Healdsburg and the Russian River valleys about an hour. San Francisco, Berkeley and Sausalito can be reached by car or by ferry from Vallejo, and Sacramento's old town and state capitol give you yet another choice.

Moab is the better choice for active families. School-age children love scrambling to Sand Dune Arch or the Windows, hunting for dinosaur tracks, floating calm stretches of the Colorado and earning Junior Ranger badges. The summer heat and the unfenced drops make it hard going with toddlers.

Napa is made for adults, and tasting rooms and long dinners bore children quickly. The theme and animal park in Vallejo, the geyser near Calistoga and the hotel pools help, but they fill gaps rather than make the trip.

Both towns have small centres you can walk, and both need a car beyond them. In Moab there is no way round it: the parks lie at the end of long desert roads, many trailheads are on dirt tracks, and outfitters' shuttles are the only alternative to driving yourself.

Napa is a little easier. Its wineries are spread over some 50km of road and the buses are too infrequent to rely on. Still, the valley cycle trail covers short stretches, and hiring a driver or joining a tour solves the problem of tasting and driving.

Moab's shops are practical: bike, climbing and camping gear, rock shops with geodes and fossils, and a few galleries selling Navajo jewellery and weavings. Napa gives you more to browse. You can ship wine home by the case, buy food gifts and kitchenware at the market hall, try the design and cookware stores on St Helena's main street, and find familiar brands at the outlet mall. Neither is a place for fashion.

Neither is cheap, but Moab is far easier to do on a budget. Its motels charge resort prices in spring and autumn, yet one park pass covers a week, campgrounds and free dispersed camping are easy to find, the best hikes cost nothing, and winter is much cheaper.

Napa is among the most expensive places to stay in the United States. Hotel rooms are priced for luxury travel, tastings at the famous estates are costly, the restaurants are aimed at special occasions, and tasting days mean paying a driver. Chain hotels further south and taquerias soften the cost, but only so far.

Moab's one standout is the Moab Music Festival at the end of summer, with chamber concerts in canyon grottoes reached by boat. The rest of the year there is little more than a weekend band in a brewpub. Napa has more on offer: the Opera House and a restored Art Deco theatre downtown, a summer classical festival at wineries and resorts, and a big rock and pop festival each late spring. San Francisco's stages are an hour away.

Moab is a place for early starts and sore legs, with a few massage studios and no hot springs worth the drive. Its restful side is the quiet of desert evenings and the cliffs turning red at sunset.

Napa is made for slowing down. Calistoga's mud baths and mineral pools have drawn visitors since the nineteenth century, and nearly all the resorts in Carneros and the hills have large spas. Late breakfasts, a few tastings and long terrace lunches make rest the natural pace of the day.