Napa or Scottsdale?

Neither city has a beach, and in both a stay revolves around the hotel pool. The difference is the day out. From Napa, the cold Sonoma coast at Bodega Bay is over an hour away and is for looking at, with Lake Berryessa as the summer swimming spot. Scottsdale has the sandy coves and boat hire of Saguaro and Canyon lakes, plus tubing on the lower Salt River.

Napa is by far the stronger place to eat and drink. Wine is the point of the trip, from grand estates to family cellars in the side valleys, and Yountville and St Helena hold some of the most celebrated restaurants in the country, supplied by the farms around them. The Oxbow Public Market and the vineyard workers' taquerias give it a lighter, cheaper side.

Scottsdale eats well but generically: steakhouses, sushi, patio grills and long brunches aimed at golfers and groups. Its truly local food is Sonoran Mexican, with plate-sized flour tortillas and green chile, and many of the more characterful tables are over in Phoenix.

Neither is a museum city, but Scottsdale gives you more to see. Napa's sights are a few Victorian frontages along First Street, the 1880 Opera House, the di Rosa art estate in Carneros and the old stone wineries up the valley, all easily covered in a day.

Scottsdale has Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright's desert studio and part of a UNESCO listing, plus a museum of western art, a small contemporary museum and galleries of Native American work. The Heard Museum in Phoenix and the Musical Instrument Museum just over the city line add two more substantial half-days.

In Napa, an evening means a long dinner and perhaps a glass at a downtown wine bar, and the valley is asleep by late evening. For a real night out you drive to San Francisco. Scottsdale has an actual going-out district in Old Town, with dance clubs, rooftop lounges and patio bars that fill at weekends and in spring with bachelor and bachelorette groups. It is glossy and loud rather than alternative, but it gives you somewhere to go after dinner.

Both are good for the outdoors, in very different ways. Napa's landscape is gentle and cultivated. The vineyard floor runs between the Mayacamas and Vaca ranges, with a paved cycle trail, dawn balloon flights, redwoods in Bothe-Napa Valley State Park and the climb of Mount St Helena for the views.

Scottsdale has the edge for wilder country. The saguaro trails of the McDowell Sonoran Preserve start on its northern side, Camelback Mountain and Pinnacle Peak are short, steep climbs, and the Superstition Mountains and Tonto National Forest lie beyond. Its outdoor season is narrower, though, as summer heat confines hiking to dawn.

Napa is much better placed for days out. Yountville, St Helena and Calistoga are minutes up the valley, and Sonoma and Healdsburg open up a second wine region. San Francisco, Berkeley and the Marin towns are about an hour away by car, or by ferry from Vallejo.

Scottsdale's best outings take longer. Sedona's red rocks, the cliff dwelling of Montezuma Castle and the mining town of Jerome are around two hours north, and Tucson is as far south. Closer in there is little beyond Goldfield ghost town, the Apache Trail and Phoenix itself, and the Grand Canyon needs a night away.

Scottsdale is the easier choice with children. Its resorts come with lazy rivers, slides and kids' clubs, the railroad park, the aquarium with its butterfly house and the Phoenix Zoo fill the days, and spring training baseball in March is relaxed fun.

Napa is designed for adults, and tasting rooms and long drives between wineries soon bore children. The theme and animal park in Vallejo, the geyser near Calistoga and the hotel pools help, but they fill a couple of days rather than a whole trip.

In both places only the old centre is walkable, and you need a car for the rest. The reasons differ. Napa's wineries spread over some 50km of valley road and a tasting day rules out driving yourself, so many visitors book a driver or a tour. In Scottsdale the driving is simple, on a grid with easy parking, and a free trolley links Old Town with the main shopping areas.

Scottsdale is a real shopping destination. It has a luxury mall on Scottsdale Road, open-air centres further north, and Old Town dealers selling Navajo and Hopi silver, Pueblo pottery and southwestern painting of a high standard.

In Napa, the main purchase is wine, often shipped home by the case, along with olive oil and kitchenware from the Oxbow market, the cookware shops of St Helena and an outlet mall. There is little fashion and nothing like Scottsdale's trade in Native American craft.

Neither is cheap, but Napa is harder on the wallet. Rooms are priced for luxury travel, estate tastings and the famous restaurants add up quickly, and a driver for tasting days is a further cost. Even with chain hotels to the south and taqueria meals, it remains an expensive trip.

Scottsdale is costly in the winter and spring high season, but its resorts cut their rates sharply in the summer heat. Motels and Mexican food keep a careful budget workable all year, and the desert trails cost nothing.

Scottsdale offers more evenings in front of a stage. Its Old Town arts centre covers chamber music, jazz and dance, and the Musical Instrument Museum's theatre runs world music concerts. Phoenix's symphony, opera and ballet and Tempe's touring Broadway shows are all within half an hour.

Napa manages concerts and comedy at its old opera house, touring bands at an Art Deco theatre, a summer classical festival in winery venues and a large rock and pop festival in late spring. Outside those dates it is quiet, and opera or an orchestra means the drive to San Francisco.

Both are made for slowing down, and both have large resort spas. Napa has the older tradition: Calistoga's volcanic mud baths and mineral pools have drawn bathers since the nineteenth century, and a day of tastings and a long terrace lunch is restful in itself. Scottsdale has no bathing heritage but a dense cluster of polished desert spas, many open to day guests, with yoga and retreats easy to find and dry winter sun doing the rest.