Napa or Park City?

Neither town has any beach, and both send swimmers to a reservoir. From Napa that means Lake Berryessa in the eastern hills, with the cold, rough Sonoma coast more than an hour away for a scenic drive rather than a swim.

Park City's equivalent is Jordanelle, closer to town and with sandy swimming areas, though its water is cool and usable only in high summer. In both places the hotel pool, or in Park City the hot tub, is where you will actually get wet.

Napa is one of the great food and wine destinations, and Park City is a ski town that eats well. In Napa the meals follow the wine: Cabernet estates along Highway 29, Pinot and sparkling wine in Carneros, celebrated restaurants in Yountville and St Helena, and the Oxbow Public Market for oysters, cheese and bread in town.

Park City offers polished mountain cooking on Main Street, with elk, bison and trout, plus the ritual of whiskey and craft beer on slopeside decks. Beyond that the choice is narrow and cheaper meals lean on chains at Kimball Junction, while Napa at least has its taquerias.

Both are thin on sights, and an afternoon or a day covers either. The difference is in kind. Napa offers Victorian buildings along First Street, the 1880 Opera House, contemporary Northern California art at di Rosa and old stone wineries up the valley.

Park City's story is silver mining, told through the wooden storefronts of Main Street, mine headframes on the slopes and the Park City Museum with its basement jail, with the Olympic Park and its ski museums adding a sporting chapter.

Park City has rather more going on after dark, at least in winter. Après-ski on the decks leads into Main Street's saloons and cocktail bars, a few with DJs or bands, and on ski-season weekends it can get loud.

Napa's evenings are a long dinner and maybe a glass at a downtown wine bar, and the town is quiet by late evening all year. Neither stays up late, and a proper night out means driving to San Francisco or Salt Lake City.

Park City is the outdoor destination here. It sits high in the Wasatch with two big ski areas leaving from town, famously light powder, and Alta and Snowbird over the ridge, then turns into a mountain-biking and hiking base in summer with lift-served trails and fly fishing on the Provo and Weber rivers.

Napa's landscape is gentler and more pastoral: vineyard floor between two ranges, dawn balloon flights, a flat cycling trail, redwoods in Bothe-Napa Valley State Park and the climb up Mount St Helena. It is lovely, but it is scenery for a slow day rather than a reason to travel.

Napa has much more within easy reach. Sonoma's plaza and mission, the wine valleys around Healdsburg and the small towns up the valley are all short drives, and San Francisco, Berkeley and the Marin towns make a full city day, reachable by ferry from Vallejo.

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's railroad street fill a few more days, but most of what lies beyond is landscape rather than places to explore.

Park City is the far better bet with children. Ski schools and gentle learning areas, an Olympic Park with coasters, ziplines and freestyle skiers landing in a splash pool, and alpine slides at the resort bases in summer give children plenty, and the free buses make getting there simple.

Napa is designed for adults. A Vallejo animal park, the Calistoga geyser and hotel pools help, but tasting rooms, long drives between estates and summer heat wear younger children down. Park City's own caveats are altitude on the first days and the cost of a winter family stay.

Park City is much easier without a car. Free buses tie Old Town, Main Street, both ski bases and Kimball Junction together, hotels add shuttles, and parking is awkward enough that leaving the car behind makes sense, although trips to other valleys still call for one.

In Napa only the compact downtown is walkable. The wineries and towns spread up the valley, buses are too sparse to rely on, and since tasting and driving do not mix, many visitors end up paying for a driver or a tour.

Neither is a shopping destination, and each has an outlet centre for the familiar brands. What you browse differs: in Napa it is wine shipped home by the case, food gifts and olive oil at the Oxbow market, and the cookware and design stores of St Helena.

Park City's Main Street sells the mountain West instead, with art galleries, cowboy boots and Western wear, outdoor gear and ski fashion.

Both are among the costliest places in the country to visit, and neither rewards a tight budget. Napa is priciest on weekends and at harvest, with tastings, celebrated restaurants and a hired driver all adding up; staying in chain hotels further south and eating at taquerias softens it.

Park City's expense follows the snow, with lift tickets, ski school and slopeside rooms peaking at Christmas and New Year, but summer and autumn are noticeably cheaper, and staying down in Salt Lake City or the Heber Valley cuts costs further.

The two are evenly matched, each with a historic small venue and a stronger summer. Napa has its 1880 Opera House and an Art Deco theatre for touring acts, plus a summer classical festival in winery venues and a large rock and pop festival at the fairgrounds in late spring.

Park City's 1920s Egyptian Theatre hosts comedy, plays and cabaret all year, and summer brings the Utah Symphony to the lawns at Deer Valley and free concerts around town. For opera or major theatre, both send you to the nearby city.

Napa is the better place simply to unwind. Calistoga has been a spa town since the nineteenth century, with volcanic mud baths and mineral pools, the resorts in Carneros and the hills nearly all have large spas, and the whole day runs at a deliberately slow pace.

Park City's wellness is the recovery side of an active stay: lodge spas with massages for sore legs and outdoor hot tubs in the snow. Its one distinctive soak is the Homestead Crater in Midway, a warm spring inside a limestone dome where you can even snorkel.