Moab or South Lake Tahoe?

Moab has no beach to speak of. Cooling off there means Mill Creek's shallow pools, Ken's Lake or a careful dip from a sandbar in the fast, silty Colorado, and none of these makes a day out.

South Lake Tahoe has a proper lakeshore right at the edge of town. Pope, Baldwin and Kiva beaches lie under the pines, and the boulder coves of Sand Harbor are a short drive away, with clear turquoise water over white sand. The catch is the altitude. Even in August the shallows only reach about 20°C, so swimming is for high summer and the rest of the year is for walking the shore.

In both towns you eat to refuel, and neither has a local cuisine worth seeking out. South Lake Tahoe gives you a little more range. The casino hotels on the Nevada side run steakhouses, buffets and late-night diners, there are a few lakeview dining rooms for a special evening, and small local breweries make the most distinctive thing on the menu.

Moab's Main Street has burgers, tacos, pizza and a few more ambitious Southwestern kitchens. Choice thins out in winter, and Utah's alcohol rules make a drink with dinner more formal than many visitors expect. In both places, busy weekends mean waiting for a table.

Neither town gives you much to see indoors, but the history on offer is very different. Around Moab it is ancient: Ancestral Puebloan and Fremont rock art along Potash Road and Kane Creek, the Sego Canyon panels and dinosaur trackways in the rock, with the small Museum of Moab for background.

South Lake Tahoe's sights belong to the early 20th century, when the lake was a summer retreat for wealthy San Franciscans. The estates at the Tallac Historic Site and Vikingsholm at the head of Emerald Bay show that era, and a small museum covers the Washoe people and the logging years.

South Lake Tahoe gives you somewhere to go after dark, mainly because of the state line. On the Nevada side, the casino towers at Stateline keep their gaming floors and bars open all night, with a lounge or a club that fills on long weekends and in peak seasons. In winter, après-ski at the gondola base is the most sociable hour of the day.

In Moab the evening is a brewpub where bikers and rafters swap stories, and the town is largely asleep by eleven. What it has instead is a star-filled night sky that the glow of the Tahoe casinos cannot match.

Both are outdoor bases of the first rank, but they are completely different landscapes. Moab is red-rock desert. Arches National Park starts a few minutes from town, the canyons of Canyonlands and Dead Horse Point are less than an hour away, and the slickrock is some of the most famous mountain biking terrain anywhere. Rafting on the Colorado, canyoneering and jeep trails fill out the week, and the area is best in spring and autumn.

South Lake Tahoe is granite and water. You have the deep blue lake, the view over Emerald Bay, the lake-studded Desolation Wilderness and the Tahoe Rim Trail along the ridges. Winter brings deep snow and Heavenly's slopes rising straight from town, so Tahoe works in two seasons where Moab's heat and cold squeeze it into two shoulders.

From Moab, a day out almost always means more landscape. The few places to visit are far apart: pioneer Bluff about two hours south, the Ancestral Puebloan ruins and museum at Edge of the Cedars in Blanding, and Hovenweep's stone towers at the very limit of a day.

South Lake Tahoe has more towns within reach. Virginia City's boardwalks and saloons are about an hour over the mountains, by way of Carson City and Genoa. Coloma, where gold was found in 1848, and the Amador wine country lie down Highway 50, and Reno or Sacramento's old town are there for a bigger outing. That gives you easy options for a day of bad weather.

South Lake Tahoe works for families in both seasons. Summer means shallow, sandy beaches, paddleboards and the short trails at Taylor Creek, and winter brings ski schools, snow play areas and the gondola ride. Snowbound days are harder with nothing built for children indoors, and the casino strip is best walked past.

Moab is a great adventure for school-age children who like climbing on rocks. There are short walks to Sand Dune Arch, dinosaur tracks, gentle raft floats and Junior Ranger programmes. The summer heat, the long unfenced drops at viewpoints and the hours in the car make it a much harder trip with toddlers.

You will want a car in both places, but South Lake Tahoe is a little more forgiving without one. Free shuttles and buses run along the main highway and up to the ski areas in winter, and the core around Stateline is walkable. Expect slow summer weekend traffic around Emerald Bay and chain controls on the passes when it snows.

In Moab, Main Street is easy on foot and a paved path takes cyclists to the Arches entrance, but beyond that there is no useful public transport. The trailheads lie at the end of long desert roads and dirt tracks, and a high-clearance vehicle opens up much more of the backcountry.

Shopping is practical in both towns and not worth planning a day around. What you buy reflects each place. In Moab it is bike and climbing gear, rock shops selling geodes and fossils, and galleries with Navajo jewellery and weavings. In South Lake Tahoe it is ski and snowboard shops, rental stores, apparel around the gondola base and lake photography.

Both are expensive at the times most people want to go, but they get cheaper at different times of year. Moab's limited motel rooms charge resort rates in spring and autumn and fall back in winter. Its real savings come from public campgrounds, free dispersed camping and a park pass that covers a week of hiking.

At South Lake Tahoe, peak ski weeks and high summer cost the most, with steep lift tickets and Christmas-week cabin rates. The bargains are casino hotels on the Nevada side midweek and in the spring and autumn shoulder seasons, and a cabin kitchen keeps meal costs down.

South Lake Tahoe has something on through the year. The casino showrooms and arena bring touring rock and country acts, comedians and tribute shows, and summer adds Shakespeare on the beach at Sand Harbor and concerts at the Tallac estates.

Moab has one standout event. The Moab Music Festival at the end of summer puts on chamber concerts, some in canyon grottoes reached by boat, which makes for a memorable evening. Outside that, live music means a weekend band in a brewpub.

South Lake Tahoe is the easier place to unwind. Grover Hot Springs, with a mineral pool in an alpine meadow, is about 45 minutes south, and the Carson Valley's hot spring resorts are half an hour over the pass. Quiet lakeside mornings and cabins in the pines slow the pace once you step away from the casinos.

A Moab trip is energetic, with early starts and long, hot days. The town has a few massage studios for sore legs. Its calm comes from silent desert evenings and cliffs turning red at sunset, and those wanting real rest head for a ranch or a cabin in the La Sal Mountains.