Page, Arizona or Palm Desert?

Page has real swimming, as long as you come in summer. Lake Powell warms enough for long swims. Lone Rock has open sand you can drive down to, and the best of it is reached by boat or kayak, pulling into sandstone coves to jump into deep water. There are no lifeguards, and the shoreline shifts with the lake level.

Palm Desert has no beach, and the Salton Sea is not for swimming. Here, water means the resort pool, which is pleasant and often heated in winter. Sand and surf mean a full day's drive over the mountains to the coast.

Neither is a place to travel for food, but Palm Desert eats noticeably better. The resort restaurants and patio bistros along El Paseo are polished, even if their menus look alike. Further east in Indio and Coachella there are family-run taquerias and date shakes from the groves, and Palm Springs is close for more variety.

Page feeds road-trippers with diners, barbecue and chains, and it closes early. Its one real local dish is the Navajo taco, frybread with beans, meat and chilli, best found at roadside stands on the reservation.

Both towns were built after the Second World War and have little history of their own, though Palm Desert has a bit more to offer. It has a branch of the Palm Springs Art Museum with a sculpture garden, and the galleries on El Paseo. The mid-century modern houses of Palm Springs are twenty minutes away.

Page's sights are tied to its founding. The Glen Canyon Dam visitor centre and a small museum about John Wesley Powell can each fill an hour. The deeper cultural layer is the surrounding Navajo Nation rather than anything indoors.

Palm Desert at least offers a gentle evening: wine bars and cocktail lounges on El Paseo patios, tribal casinos open into the small hours, and the livelier bars of Palm Springs, including its well-known gay scene.

Page has a few bars and a brewpub, and it goes quiet long before midnight. The best thing to do after dark there is to look up at one of the darkest, starriest skies you are likely to see.

Page is surrounded by famous landscapes. Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon are visited with Navajo guides, and Horseshoe Bend drops hundreds of metres to the river. Lake Powell's maze of canyons leads by boat to Rainbow Bridge, and Lees Ferry is where Grand Canyon rafting begins. The Wave and Buckskin Gulch lie within an hour or two.

Palm Desert's outdoors are good but on a smaller scale. Trails climb straight into the Santa Rosa Mountains, palm oases hide in the Indian Canyons and the aerial tramway rises to cool pine forest. Joshua Tree, about an hour away, adds boulders for climbing.

Palm Desert has more places to drive to. Palm Springs is twenty minutes away, Temecula's wine country and the mountain village of Idyllwild are within an easy day, and there are odd outings to Pioneertown's old film set and the painted hillside of Salvation Mountain.

Page has scenery everywhere but few towns. Lees Ferry's pioneer buildings, the cliff dwellings at Betatakin and Kanab's Western film history are the main heritage trips, and most involve long, empty drives.

Palm Desert has more for children. The Living Desert, a large zoo and botanical garden in town, fills a morning, the tramway delights older children, and resort pools with slides cover the gaps.

Page works for active families. A day splashing at Lone Rock or on a rented boat is an easy success, and the Antelope Canyon tours are short. But the viewpoints have sheer, mostly unfenced edges, some canyon tours involve steep ladders and there is nothing built for children.

Both towns need a car, but the driving is different. In Page the strip is small enough to walk, but the sights are on open highway, and the nearest major airports are hours away, so most people arrive on a road trip.

Palm Desert is a spread of resorts and shopping centres along wide boulevards with easy parking. El Paseo is the one stretch made for walking, and ride-hailing fills in for evenings out.

Palm Desert is the place for shopping. El Paseo is a palm-lined street of fashion boutiques, jewellers and galleries, and a large designer outlet centre lies half an hour west. Palm Springs adds vintage and mid-century furniture.

Page sells mostly supplies and souvenirs. Its one real strength is Native American craft, with Navajo silver, turquoise, rugs and pottery bought at trading posts and roadside stalls, often straight from the maker.

Neither is cheap, and the cheap times fall in opposite seasons. In Page the costs come from what you do: Antelope Canyon is only open on paid tours, and boats and houseboats are expensive. Camping at Lone Rock and visiting in winter keep costs down.

In Palm Desert the costs come from where you stay. Winter resort rates are high, but they drop sharply in the summer heat. Golf and spa days use up a budget fastest.

Palm Desert has a real stage in the McCallum Theatre. Through the winter it brings touring Broadway shows, ballet, orchestras and big-name singers, and there are casino concerts all year. In spring the polo grounds in Indio host Coachella and then Stagecoach.

Page offers little beyond Navajo dance presentations and dinner shows put on for visitors, and the odd local band in a bar.

Palm Desert is built for slowing down. Resort spas, massages and long poolside afternoons set the pace, and the small spa hotels of Desert Hot Springs fill their pools from natural hot mineral springs, half an hour away.

Page has motel pools and a few hotel treatments. Its calm comes from the desert's quiet evenings and dark skies, but most days there begin before sunrise.