Moab or Sedona?

Neither town has a beach, but Sedona offers better swimming. At Slide Rock you can ride a sandstone chute into cold pools, and Grasshopper Point and Red Rock Crossing have deeper holes below the cliffs.

Moab has Mill Creek's shallow pools, Ken's Lake and sandbars on a fast, silty Colorado that calls for care. For most visitors, cooling off in Moab means the motel pool.

Sedona eats better. It has terraces facing the red rocks, Southwestern menus, plenty of vegetarian and health-focused cooking, and Verde Valley tasting rooms just down the road. The choice still runs out after a handful of good kitchens.

In Moab, food is mainly refuelling: burgers, tacos, pizza and brewery meals on Main Street, served in big portions to people in dusty boots. Utah's alcohol rules also make a glass of wine with dinner a more formal affair than across the border in Arizona.

Sedona has a little more to see. The Chapel of the Holy Cross, built into a butte in 1956, is worth seeing for the building as well as the view. The town also has a heritage museum, many Western and Native American galleries, and the Sinagua cliff dwellings at Palatki and Honanki a short drive out.

Moab's sights are mostly outside town. Ancestral Puebloan and Fremont petroglyphs line Potash Road and Kane Creek, and dinosaur trackways lie nearby. In town, the small Museum of Moab and a few uranium-boom buildings fill a morning at most.

Both towns go quiet early, and in both the best thing to do after dark is look at the stars. The difference is in the crowd. Moab's brewpubs fill with mountain bikers and rafters trading stories, and on busy weekends one or two stay loud late. Sedona's wine bars and resort lounges in Uptown suit a calm drink after dinner.

Both towns sit among some of the finest red rock country in the American Southwest. Moab gives you more scale and more ways to enjoy it. Arches and the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands are both close, and you can raft the Colorado, canyoneer, climb, or ride the Whole Enchilada down from the snowy La Sal Mountains.

Sedona's landscape is closer at hand. Trails to Cathedral Rock, Bell Rock and Devil's Bridge start almost in town, the West Fork walk climbs into shady pine forest, and the South Rim of the Grand Canyon is about two hours away.

Sedona is much better for day trips. Jerome, the old copper town on its mountainside, is about forty minutes away. Montezuma Castle and Tuzigoot are within half an hour, the Verde Canyon Railroad runs through a roadless canyon, and Flagstaff, Walnut Canyon and the wine towns of the Verde Valley are all within easy reach.

From Moab, most outings are more landscape. The towns nearby are small, Bluff is about two hours south, and the Puebloan sites at Edge of the Cedars and Hovenweep take a full, long day.

For families the two are close, and both work best with active, school-age children. Moab has dinosaur tracks, a dinosaur trail park, Junior Ranger programmes and gentle raft floats on the Colorado. Sedona's best family day is Slide Rock, and jeep tours there go down well with most ages.

Sedona's hotels are aimed more at couples and spa guests, so families often add it to a Grand Canyon trip rather than staying long. In both places, summer heat, unfenced drops and long drives make toddlers hard work.

Sedona is a little easier without a car. Uptown is walkable, and a shuttle serves some of the busiest trailheads. The town is spread along two highways meeting at the Y, though, and weekend traffic and full trailhead car parks are part of the experience.

Moab's Main Street is easy on foot, and a paved path lets you cycle to the Arches entrance. Beyond that you need a car, and dirt roads into the backcountry often need a high-clearance one.

Sedona is better for shopping, especially for art. Tlaquepaque's courtyards hold galleries and craft studios, the main road has Native American jewellery, pottery and rugs, and the crystal and metaphysical shops are a Sedona speciality.

Moab's shops are practical: well-stocked bike and climbing stores, rock shops full of geodes and fossils, and a few galleries with Navajo weavings. Neither town has fashion shopping.

Neither town is cheap, but Moab is the easier one to keep cheap. Public campgrounds and free dispersed camping lie around the parks, one park pass covers a week, most hikes cost nothing, and winter rooms cost much less.

Sedona is mostly resorts and boutique lodges with high prices, and jeep tours, balloon flights and spa treatments add to the bill. Many visitors keep costs down by staying in Cottonwood or Flagstaff instead.

Both towns have only a few occasions a year rather than a regular season. Moab's highlight is the Moab Music Festival at the end of summer, when some chamber concerts are held in canyon grottoes you reach by boat. Sedona spreads things out more, with the Sedona International Film Festival in late winter, some local theatre and Native American flute players at the resorts.

This is where the two differ most. Sedona is a well-known retreat town, with destination spas facing the canyons, yoga, meditation and breathwork, and early walks to the vortexes that many visitors come for.

Moab is built for exertion, not rest. A few massage studios look after sore legs, and the calm comes from desert evenings and dark skies. Visitors who want real rest there tend to book a ranch or a cabin in the La Sals.