Moab or Salt Lake City?

Neither is a place for a beach vacation, and the water they do have is quite different. Moab has the shallow pools of Mill Creek, Ken's Lake and sandbars on a fast, cold Colorado, which are good for cooling off after a hike and little more. Salt Lake City has the novelty of floating in the Great Salt Lake from Antelope Island, plus mountain reservoirs such as Jordanelle and Pineview, with paddleboards and patches of sand on a hot July day.

Salt Lake City gives a hungry visitor more to explore. The Mexican, Pacific Islander, Peruvian and Vietnamese kitchens along State Street, local oddities such as fry sauce and fried scones, and the breweries and roasters of Sugar House add up to real variety.

Moab's Main Street is about big, casual plates after a long day outside, with burgers, tacos, pizza and a couple of breweries, and the choice shrinks in winter. Utah's drinking rules shape dinner in both places.

Salt Lake City fills a proper day or two of sightseeing: Temple Square with the Salt Lake Temple and Tabernacle, the Beehive House, the State Capitol on its hill and the dinosaur halls of the Natural History Museum.

The town of Moab offers a morning at most, with the small Museum of Moab and a few uranium-boom buildings. Its real heritage is on the cliffs outside town, where Ancestral Puebloan and Fremont petroglyphs line Potash Road and Kane Creek, a kind of history the city does not show you.

Salt Lake City at least gives you a choice of evening: bars and a few dance clubs downtown and in the Granary District, a long-standing gay bar scene and the pubs of Sugar House, though the city still goes to bed early. Moab has a couple of brewpubs full of rafters and bikers and no clubs at all, and the streets are quiet by eleven, so the best thing to do after dark there is look up at the sky.

Both are superb outdoor bases, but the landscapes are very different. Moab is red-rock desert: Arches on the edge of town, the canyon maze below Island in the Sky and Dead Horse Point, the Slickrock Trail and rafting on the Colorado.

Salt Lake City is mountain country. The Wasatch rises straight from the city, with the powder of Alta, Snowbird, Brighton and Solitude in winter, alpine lakes and wildflowers in summer, and the white Bonneville Salt Flats out to the west. Choose according to whether you want canyons or peaks.

A day out from Moab usually means more landscape, or a small town such as Bluff, with its pioneer stone houses, or Monticello below the Abajo Mountains. The best cultural outing heads south to the ruins at Edge of the Cedars and the towers of Hovenweep, which takes a long day in the car.

From Salt Lake City you can reach more places worth a day. Park City's restored Victorian Main Street is about forty minutes over the mountains, and the Swiss-flavoured village of Midway, the old railroad strip of 25th Street in Ogden and the Golden Spike site are all within reach. Arches and the other famous parks are too far for a day trip, though.

Salt Lake City is built around children, with Hogle Zoo, the Living Planet Aquarium, the Clark Planetarium, Tracy Aviary, Lagoon's roller coasters and good ski schools in winter.

Moab can thrill school-age kids with Sand Dune Arch, dinosaur tracks, gentle river floats and Junior Ranger programmes. Summer heat, unfenced drops and long drives make it hard work with toddlers, though.

Salt Lake City is the easier place without a car. TRAX light rail links the airport, downtown and the University, FrontRunner trains run to Ogden and Provo, and ski buses climb the canyons in winter, although the long blocks stretch out walks and the valley sprawls.

In Moab only Main Street is walkable, along with a paved bike path north to Arches. Everything else needs your own vehicle, ideally one with high clearance, or a seat on an outfitter's shuttle.

Salt Lake City has department stores and familiar brands at City Creek Center, the old streetcar barns of Trolley Square and vintage shops around 9th and 9th. Moab offers bike and climbing shops, rock shops selling geodes and fossils, and some Navajo jewellery and weavings. In both places outdoor gear is the real strength, and neither is somewhere to shop for fashion.

In spring and autumn Moab's few rooms fill up and charge resort rates for simple motels, and car hire, rafting and jeep tours soon add up. The cheap way to see it is to sleep in a public campground or on free dispersed land, stick to the hikes that cost nothing, or come in winter.

A summer trip to Salt Lake City costs less overall, with reasonable downtown hotels, free sights on Temple Square and cheap light rail. The expensive trip there is the winter ski week, once lift tickets and lodging in the canyons are added.

Salt Lake City is far ahead here. The Tabernacle Choir holds open rehearsals and the Tabernacle has daily organ recitals, and the city also has the Utah Symphony at Abravanel Hall, Utah Opera, Ballet West and touring Broadway shows at the Eccles Theater.

Moab's one highlight is the Moab Music Festival at the end of summer, with chamber concerts in canyon grottoes reached by boat. The rest of the year, expect a weekend band in a brewpub.

In Moab, rest comes from the setting rather than from any spa: dark skies, quiet evenings and red cliffs at sunset, after days that start early and leave your legs sore. There are a few massage studios and no hot springs worth the drive.

Around Salt Lake City you can actually soak. Visitors bathe in warm mineral water inside the limestone dome of the Homestead Crater at Midway or in smaller springs north of the city, and Park City's resort spas suit tired skiers. That makes the city the better choice for unwinding, even if rest is a bonus of the trip rather than its purpose.