Page, Arizona or Sun Valley?

Page wins easily here. Lake Powell warms enough in midsummer for long swims, Lone Rock Beach has sand you can drive down to, and boats and kayaks reach coves where you can jump off the rock into deep water. There are no lifeguards, and the shoreline shifts with the lake level.

In Sun Valley, swimming is a brief and bracing summer extra. Redfish Lake, an hour north, has a sandy shore and cold water. Most visitors end up in the heated outdoor pools.

Sun Valley eats noticeably better. Ketchum packs a surprising range of restaurants into a small town, from après-ski grills to ambitious kitchens cooking Idaho trout, lamb and elk, and it has a summer farmers' market and patio dining. It is pricey, though, and some kitchens cut back in the shoulder months.

Page feeds road-trippers efficiently with diners, barbecue and Mexican places, and the town is quiet early. Its one real local find is the Navajo taco, frybread with beans, meat and chilli, best bought from a roadside stand on the reservation.

Neither place is a sightseeing destination, but the history behind each is quite different. Page is an engineering story: a 1950s town built for the Glen Canyon Dam, whose visitor centre is the main sight, with a small museum on the explorer John Wesley Powell and the Navajo Nation all around.

Sun Valley's story is about glamour and literature. It was America's first destination ski resort, the Lodge corridors are lined with photographs of film stars, and Hemingway's grave and memorial are in Ketchum. An afternoon is enough in either place.

Evenings are short in both places, but Sun Valley has more going on. Ketchum's saloons, wine bars and hotel lounges fill with skiers coming off the mountain, a couple of old western bars stay loud until closing time, and busy winter weekends can bring a band.

Page has a few bars and a brewpub and is quiet well before midnight. Its best night out is the dark desert sky full of stars.

Both are outstanding, in completely different landscapes. Page is red desert and water: Horseshoe Bend, the glowing slot canyons of Antelope Canyon, Lake Powell's flooded canyons leading to Rainbow Bridge, rafting from Lees Ferry, and the Wave and Buckskin Gulch in the Vermilion Cliffs. It is best explored in spring and autumn, or on the water in summer.

Sun Valley is alpine country that changes with the seasons. Winter brings skiing on Bald Mountain, Nordic trails and backcountry touring. In summer there is singletrack, fly fishing on the Big Wood River and Silver Creek, and climbing and alpine lakes in the Sawtooths, with gold aspens to finish the year.

In both places the trips worth taking are into the wild, not to other towns, and there is little to choose between them. From Page you can reach a bit more history: pioneer buildings at Lees Ferry, the cliff dwellings at Navajo National Monument, and Kanab's film-set past with Pipe Spring nearby.

From Sun Valley you can see Hailey's small main street, drive over to the log-cabin outpost of Stanley, or make the longer run south to Shoshone Falls.

These two suit families equally well, and in both cases the family has to like the outdoors. In Page that means splashing at Lone Rock, a boat day on the lake and short canyon tours, set against fierce summer sun, unfenced cliff edges and long drives.

Sun Valley offers a dedicated beginners' hill and a good ski school, plus an ice rink, horse rides and bike paths in summer. Its drawbacks are altitude, midwinter cold and quiet days for teenagers who don't ski.

Sun Valley is far easier without a car. Ketchum is small and flat, a free bus links the town, the village and the lift bases, and a paved path runs down the valley, so many ski weeks need no driving at all. You will still want wheels for trailheads and the Sawtooths.

Page needs a car from the start. Horseshoe Bend, the marinas and the Vermilion Cliffs all lie outside town, there is no useful public transport, and most people arrive by road anyway.

Sun Valley offers more, aimed at a wealthy crowd. In a few blocks of Ketchum you will find fine art and western art galleries with evening gallery walks, well-stocked ski and fly-fishing shops, and boutiques selling cashmere and western wear.

Page sells mostly supplies and souvenirs, but it has one thing Sun Valley cannot match: Navajo silver, turquoise, rugs and pottery, often bought directly from the people who made them.

Page is clearly the cheaper stay, though guided canyon tours, boat hire and scarce summer rooms soon add up. Camping at Lone Rock or Wahweap, or coming in winter, keeps the cost down.

Sun Valley is expensive all round, with rooms, meals and lift access priced for a second-home community and little budget lodging. Staying down the valley and visiting in spring or autumn helps a little.

Sun Valley has a real summer programme. For several weeks the Sun Valley Music Festival brings a professional orchestra to the open pavilion by the lodge, admission is free and people picnic on the lawn, and star skaters perform on the outdoor rink in the evenings. Outside summer there is very little.

Page has nothing comparable, beyond Navajo dance presentations put on for visitors and the occasional bar band.

Sun Valley is much the better place to unwind. It has full hotel spas, heated outdoor pools in the snow and natural hot springs beside the creek in Warm Springs valley, and once the lifts close the pace is slow.

In Page, rest means motel pools and a quiet desert evening between early starts, so it suits a busy itinerary more than a restful one.