Monterey or Park City?

Monterey at least has a real shoreline: Del Monte Beach on the edge of town, Carmel Beach's white sand and the Asilomar dunes, though the bay is cold and rip currents are common, so these are beaches for walks, picnics and tide pools.

Park City has no coast, and its nearest equivalent is the summer swimming area at Jordanelle Reservoir. For most visitors, getting in the water means a hotel pool or hot tub.

The two eat equally well for their size but in very different registers. Monterey cooks from the sea and the Salinas Valley: squid, Dungeness crab, sand dabs and artichokes, with Pinot Noir from the Santa Lucia Highlands, best found away from the wharf in Old Monterey, Pacific Grove and Carmel.

Park City serves mountain fare along Main Street and at the resort bases, elk, bison, trout and steaks, and its real ritual is après-ski on the slopeside decks. Both are narrow in range and dear, and Park City's escape valve for variety is Salt Lake City.

Monterey has much more to see. As the old capital of Alta California it keeps a walkable cluster of adobes, the Custom House, Colton Hall and the Royal Presidio Chapel, with the Carmel Mission and Steinbeck's Cannery Row close by.

Park City's heritage is its silver-mining past: the wooden storefronts of Main Street, mine headframes on the slopes, the Park City Museum and the Olympic museums from 2002. It is interesting but quickly covered, where Monterey can fill a couple of unhurried days.

Neither town is built for late nights, and both send serious revellers elsewhere, to Santa Cruz or to Salt Lake City. The difference is in the mood. Monterey's evenings are dinner followed by a pub, wine bar or brewpub on Alvarado Street, quiet by midnight.

Park City starts with après-ski as the lifts close and moves on to Main Street saloons and the odd place with a DJ or band, which can get rowdy on winter weekends but goes to sleep early out of season.

Both are superb outdoor bases, but Park City wins for anyone who wants to be active in big terrain. Its two ski areas, dry Utah powder, Cottonwood Canyon resorts over the ridge and hundreds of kilometres of summer singletrack make it a year-round mountain playground.

Monterey's strength is wildlife and coastline rather than sport: humpbacks and orcas over the submarine canyon, sea otters in the kelp, kelp-forest diving, and the cliff walks of Point Lobos and Big Sur. It is more for watching and walking than for skiing or riding.

Monterey has the better spread of outings, most of them short: Carmel-by-the-Sea and Victorian Pacific Grove next door, Carmel Valley's wineries, Steinbeck's Salinas, the mission at San Juan Bautista and Santa Cruz's boardwalk under an hour north.

From Park City, Salt Lake City is the one big outing, with Temple Square and the Capitol. The Heber Valley steam railway, Swiss-style Midway and Ogden add a little, but much of what lies in reach is scenery rather than towns.

Both are easy, safe places with children, built around different centrepieces. Monterey's is the aquarium, with its kelp forest, otters and jellyfish, backed by tide pools, whale-watching boats and the waterfront path, though most outings beyond it need a car.

Park City's are the ski schools and the Utah Olympic Park's alpine coaster, ziplines and splash-pool freestyle shows, with alpine slides in summer and free buses to the slopes. Altitude can tire small children at first, and there is no aquarium or zoo in town.

Park City is noticeably easier without a car. Free buses tie Old Town, both ski bases and the lodging areas together, and many hotels run shuttles, though reaching other valleys still calls for driving.

Monterey's flat coastal trail makes the waterfront from the wharf to the aquarium and Pacific Grove a pleasure on foot or by bike, but local buses are sparse. Carmel Valley, the 17-Mile Drive, Point Lobos and Big Sur all really need a car.

Neither is a shopping destination, and the interest lies just off the main strip in both. Monterey's own shops are mostly taffy and otter souvenirs, with the real browsing in Carmel's galleries and boutiques and Pacific Grove's antiques. Park City's Main Street leans Western and alpine, with cowboy boots, outdoor gear and ski fashion, plus an outlet centre at Kimball Junction.

Both are costly, but Monterey is the gentler on the wallet. Highway motels and towns like Seaside and Marina offer cheaper beds, and the coastal trail, tide pools and wildlife from shore cost nothing, although summer weekends and Pebble Beach's car week push rates up.

Park City in ski season sits at the top of the resort market, with lift tickets and ski school on top of lodging. Summer and autumn are far cheaper, and staying down in Salt Lake City or the Heber Valley is the usual budget route.

Both have modest year-round programmes and come alive in particular seasons. Monterey's pull is festival heritage: the Monterey Jazz Festival each September on the fairgrounds that hosted the 1967 Pop Festival, plus the summer Carmel Bach Festival and the open-air Forest Theater.

Park City's best months are summer, with the Utah Symphony on the Deer Valley lawns and free concerts in the parks, while the 1920s Egyptian Theatre on Main Street keeps comedy and plays going through the rest of the year.

Park City offers more to actively unwind with. The big lodge spas at Deer Valley and the Canyons are geared to sore legs, outdoor hot tubs come with almost every stay, and the Homestead Crater in Midway lets you swim in warm spring water inside a limestone dome.

Monterey's calm is mostly in its pace: fog lifting off the bay, evening walks along the Pacific Grove shore, quiet days in Carmel. Resort spas exist in sunnier Carmel Valley and at Pebble Beach, but there is nothing like a warm spring to drop into.