Napa or Page, Arizona?

Neither town is by the sea, but Page has real summer swimming and Napa does not. In Napa, swimming mostly means a hotel pool. Locals drive out to Lake Berryessa in the eastern hills, and the cold, rough Pacific at Bodega Bay is more than an hour away.

Page sits on Lake Powell, which is pleasantly warm by midsummer. Lone Rock Beach has open sand, and the best swims are from boats and kayaks, jumping off sandstone into deep coves. There are no lifeguards, and the beaches change as the lake level rises and falls.

Food is Napa's great strength. Wine drives everything, from the Cabernet estates on Highway 29 to Pinot Noir and sparkling wine in Carneros. Yountville and St Helena have some of the country's most admired restaurants, and the Oxbow Public Market in town has oysters, cheese and bread.

Page feeds road-trippers and tour groups with diners, barbecue, Mexican food and chains. The Navajo taco is the one dish worth seeking out, and there is no fine dining or market to plan a meal around.

Neither town is a sightseeing destination, and you can see what either offers in a day. Napa's interest lies in its old buildings: the restored 1880 Opera House, the Victorian frontages along First Street, the stone wineries up the valley, and contemporary art at di Rosa in Carneros.

Page was founded in the 1950s, so it has engineering rather than history: the Glen Canyon Dam with its visitor centre, and a small museum devoted to John Wesley Powell. Its deeper cultural layer is the surrounding Navajo Nation, which visitors meet on guided canyon tours rather than in galleries.

Both towns are quiet after dark, but Napa has a little more going on. A long dinner can carry on at a downtown wine bar or a riverfront cocktail bar, which are livelier on summer weekends, and San Francisco is an hour away for a proper night out. Page has a few bars and a brewpub and is asleep well before midnight. Its best evening is spent under a very dark desert sky full of stars.

Page wins clearly here. Antelope Canyon's glowing slot walls, the loop of Horseshoe Bend, Lake Powell's flooded red canyons with Rainbow Bridge, rafting from Lees Ferry and the Vermilion Cliffs add up to one of the most striking landscapes around any small American town.

Napa's countryside is gentler and farmed: vineyards between the Mayacamas and Vaca ranges, balloon flights at dawn, a flat cycling trail, redwoods at Bothe-Napa Valley and the climb up Mount St Helena. It is lovely, but it is cultivated countryside rather than wilderness.

Napa is much better placed for days out. Sonoma's plaza and mission, Healdsburg and the Russian River valley offer more wine country, and San Francisco, Sausalito, Berkeley and Sacramento's old town and capitol are each about an hour away.

From Page the drives are long and the places at the end of them are small: the pioneer buildings at Lees Ferry, the cliff dwellings at Navajo National Monument, Kanab with its film-set past, and Pipe Spring. Monument Valley is within reach, but it is a landscape more than a town.

Page is easier with children, as long as they like being outdoors. Splashing at Lone Rock, a day on a boat among the coves and the short Antelope Canyon tours appeal to all ages. Sheer, unfenced edges at Horseshoe Bend, steep ladders on some tours and the summer heat all call for care.

Napa is built for adults, and tasting rooms bore children. The theme and animal park in Vallejo, the geyser and petting farm near Calistoga and the hotel pools fill a few days, but long drives between wineries wear young children out.

You need wheels in both, but Napa is somewhat easier. Its downtown is compact and walkable, many visitors hire a driver or join a tour so nobody has to drive after tastings, and the valley trail works for short bike rides. Weekend traffic on the main road is the drawback.

Beyond its motel strip, Page is car-only. There is no useful public transport, the sights are scattered along open highway and the major airports are hours away, so most people arrive on a road trip.

Napa has more to buy, and most of it is wine, shipped home by the case from the cellars you visited. Olive oil and kitchenware at the Oxbow market, the cookware and design shops of St Helena and an outlet mall add variety, though there is little fashion.

Page has supplies, souvenirs and one real draw that Napa lacks: Navajo silver and turquoise jewellery, rugs and pottery, sold at trading posts and roadside stalls and often bought straight from the maker.

Neither town is cheap, but Page costs noticeably less. Meals and fuel are priced like any small American town, and camping at Lone Rock or Wahweap or coming in winter keeps the bill down. Paid canyon tours and boat rentals still add up.

Napa is among the most expensive places to stay in the country, with luxury resort rooms, costly estate tastings, special-occasion restaurants and a driver for tasting days. Chain hotels further south, taquerias and smaller cellars help, but only so far.

Napa has a modest programme, and Page has almost none. In Napa, the 1880 Opera House and a restored Art Deco theatre host concerts and comedy. A classical festival plays at wineries and resorts in summer, a large rock and pop festival fills the fairgrounds in late spring, and San Francisco is close for opera and orchestras.

In Page, the choice is a Navajo dance presentation or dinner show put on for visitors, or a local band in a bar.

Napa is made for this. Calistoga has drawn bathers to its volcanic mud and mineral pools since the nineteenth century, and the resorts in Carneros and the hills have large spas. The daily round of tastings and long lunches is slow by design.

Page has motel pools and a few hotel treatments, and little else. Its calm comes from wide views and quiet desert evenings, but early starts for the canyons and long drives make most stays active rather than restful.