Page, Arizona or Sonoma?

Page has real summer swimming even without a coast. Lake Powell gets warm enough for long swims, and days are spent jumping off sandstone into deep coves or camping on the sand at Lone Rock. There are no lifeguards, and the shoreline moves as the lake level rises and falls.

Sonoma has nothing like it. The Pacific at Bodega Bay is cold and rough and better for walking the headlands, so swimming means a hotel pool or the gravel banks of the Russian River.

Sonoma is far the better place to eat and drink. You get wine from the tasting rooms on the plaza and from Carneros, seasonal cooking built on local cheese, olive oil and oysters from the coast, and lunches meant to last all afternoon. Its limit is range: there are few cuisines and little late eating.

Page feeds road-trippers rather than food lovers. The strip is lined with diners, barbecue places and chains, and the one dish worth looking for is the Navajo taco on frybread.

Neither town is a cultural destination, but Sonoma has more to show. Its plaza holds Mission San Francisco Solano, the adobe barracks and the site of the Bear Flag Revolt of 1846. Vallejo's house and the ruins of Jack London's Wolf House are close by, and together they fill an unhurried half day.

Page was founded in the 1950s to house the dam builders. It offers the Carl Hayden Visitor Center at Glen Canyon Dam and a small museum about Powell, and its deeper culture belongs to the surrounding Navajo Nation rather than to the town.

Both towns go quiet early, and neither has clubs. In Sonoma the evening is built around a long dinner, followed perhaps by a wine bar or one of the saloons on the plaza, and anything later means Santa Rosa or San Francisco. Page has a brewpub and a few bars, but its best night is spent outdoors under a desert sky dark enough to be full of stars.

Page sits in one of the most striking landscapes in the American West. Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend and the flooded red canyons of Lake Powell are minutes away, and Rainbow Bridge is reached by boat. Lees Ferry, the Vermilion Cliffs and the Wave are within an hour or two.

Sonoma's countryside is gentler: valleys of vines, oak-covered hills, redwood groves at Sugarloaf Ridge, back roads for cycling and balloon flights on calm mornings. It is lovely to wander through, but the scenery is pastoral rather than spectacular.

Sonoma is much better placed for outings. San Francisco is about an hour's drive away, Napa, Healdsburg and Petaluma are closer still, and Sausalito and Tiburon sit on the bay. The drawback is that many of these trips turn out to be another wine town.

Around Page the scenery is close but there are few places to visit, and they are far apart. The main ones are the pioneer buildings at Lees Ferry, the cliff dwellings at Navajo National Monument and the small Western town of Kanab, each across long, empty highway.

Page gives children more to remember. Splashing at Lone Rock, exploring coves by boat, a short Antelope Canyon tour and a motel pool make for easy, active days. Summer heat, unfenced cliff edges and long drives all need managing.

Sonoma is calm and safe, but life there revolves around tasting rooms. The plaza playground, a miniature railway park and an African wildlife park near Santa Rosa fill a day or two, after which most families find San Francisco a better base.

You need a car in both, but less so in Sonoma. Its plaza is walkable, with tasting rooms a few blocks apart, the flat valley roads suit a bicycle, and hiring a driver for tasting days is common.

In Page you can walk the main strip, but every sight is outside town and there is no useful public transport. The nearest major airports are hours away, so Page is really a stop on a road trip.

What Page offers is craft rather than shops. Navajo silver and turquoise jewellery, rugs and pottery are sold at trading posts and roadside stalls, often by the people who made them. Beyond that, the town has supermarkets, gift shops and boating supplies for stocking a houseboat.

Sonoma is the better place for an afternoon's browsing. Independent boutiques, home and kitchen shops and galleries fill the arcades round the plaza, and there is wine, cheese and olive oil to carry home. There is little fashion in either town, and no department stores to plan a trip around.

Page leaves more money in your pocket, though Antelope Canyon tours and boat hire take a good share of it. Meals and fuel cost what they would in any small American town, and you can keep costs down by camping at Lone Rock or Wahweap or coming in winter.

Sonoma has wine-country prices. Rooms are priced for weekends away, restaurants are aimed at well-off visitors, and tasting fees mount up over a few days. Staying in Santa Rosa or Petaluma and picnicking among the vines helps.

Sonoma has a modest summer season, with outdoor Broadway-style concerts among the ruins at Jack London State Historic Park, concerts at wineries and the 1930s theatre on the plaza. The Green Music Center's concert hall, about half an hour away, draws touring orchestras. Page has almost nothing beyond Navajo dance presentations staged for visitors and the odd band in a bar.

Sonoma is the place to slow down. Hot mineral water at Boyes Hot Springs feeds a historic resort spa that sells day passes, there are inn spas around the valley, and Calistoga's mud baths are an hour away, though all of it comes at resort prices.

Page's calm comes from the desert, with its wide views and silent, starry evenings. Stays there tend to be busy with early canyon starts and long drives, though, and spas amount to little more than what some hotels offer.