Palm Springs or Santa Fe?

Neither city has a beach, and both lie far from the coast. What differs is what takes its place. Palm Springs is built around the pool, with nearly every place to stay arranged around one and a long hot season to use it. In Santa Fe a hotel pool is incidental, and summer swimming means a drive to Abiquiu Lake or a float on the Rio Grande.

Santa Fe is the better place to eat, because it has a cuisine of its own. Red and green chile, blue corn, posole and sopaipillas are served in old adobe dining rooms around the Plaza. There is also a fine-dining tier unusual for a town this size, and the Railyard farmers' market makes a good morning.

Palm Springs eats more casually, with brunch on shaded patios, poolside cocktails and dependable American cooking along Palm Canyon Drive. Its most distinctive tastes are out in the valley, in the date shakes of the Indio groves and the taquerias further east.

Palm Springs has one real subject, but it is a strong one: mid-century modern design. Houses by Albert Frey, Richard Neutra and the Alexanders are best seen on a self-guided drive or bike ride, and the art museum and the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum complete a short list.

Santa Fe has far more to see. The Spanish founded it as a colonial capital in 1610, and it keeps its adobe Plaza, the Palace of the Governors and a group of historic churches. Its museums of folk art, Native American art and Georgia O'Keeffe also have more ambition than you would expect from a town this size.

Neither is a place for a big night out, but Palm Springs has more going on. The LGBTQ bars around Arenas Road have patios and drag nights, Palm Canyon Drive has retro cocktail lounges, and spring weekends bring hotel pool parties. Together they make for a social evening with character.

Santa Fe winds down after dinner. A margarita on a rooftop as the sun sets over the Jemez Mountains, or a beer at a brewery near the Railyard, is about as late as most evenings run. Anyone wanting more drives an hour to Albuquerque.

Both sit beneath real mountains, and the outdoors is a main reason to visit either. Palm Springs is about contrast. The aerial tramway lifts you from the desert floor to pine forest on Mount San Jacinto, the Indian Canyons hide palm oases, and Joshua Tree's boulders are an hour away, all best from autumn to spring.

Santa Fe's country is higher and more varied. It has aspen forest that turns gold in autumn, the Pecos Wilderness, the volcanic Valles Caldera and the red-rock canyons around Abiquiu. It also has skiing less than an hour from the Plaza and rafting on the Rio Grande, which Palm Springs cannot match.

Santa Fe is much the better base for excursions. The High Road to Taos runs through Chimayo and Truchas to Taos Pueblo, which has been lived in for about a thousand years. Bandelier's cliff dwellings, Los Alamos, Pecos and Ghost Ranch are each a day out, so a week fills easily.

From Palm Springs the outings are smaller and odder. There are the pines of Idyllwild, the lived-in Western film set at Pioneertown, the abandoned shoreline of the Salton Sea and Temecula's wineries. Both cities need a car for almost all of this, though Santa Fe at least has the train to Albuquerque.

Neither is built around children, and both suit older kids best. Palm Springs works as a pool trip with outings to the Living Desert zoo, the tramway and the Air Museum. Many of its boutique hotels are adults-only, though, and from late spring the heat rules out the middle of the day.

Santa Fe offers a children's museum, the ladders up to Bandelier's cliff dwellings and ski lessons in winter. Gallery afternoons and long dinners test young patience, however, and the 2,100m altitude can tire small children for the first day or two.

Santa Fe is the easier town to manage without a car. The Plaza, the cathedral, Canyon Road and the Railyard all lie within a short walk of each other, and the Rail Runner reaches Albuquerque. Museum Hill, the trailheads and the pueblos still mean driving.

In Palm Springs only the downtown strip is walkable, and only in the cooler months. The canyons, the tramway, the rest of the valley and Joshua Tree all need a car. Its one real advantage is an airport right on the edge of town.

Santa Fe is the stronger shopping town for anyone buying art or craft. Native American jewellery and pottery are sold directly by their makers under the Palace portal, and galleries line Canyon Road. In summer the Indian Market, the Spanish Market and the Folk Art Market draw collectors from far away.

Palm Springs has its own niche in mid-century furniture, lighting and vintage clothing in the Uptown Design District. For mainstream buying, it has the polished stores of El Paseo and the Cabazon outlets nearby.

Both are expensive, and in much the same ways: hotels at resort prices, restaurants aimed at well-off visitors and a hire car on top. The difference is timing. Palm Springs becomes a bargain in its summer heat, while Santa Fe is at its dearest in summer, during the markets and the opera, and again at Christmas, with cheaper rooms out along Cerrillos Road.

Santa Fe has the finer stage. Its centrepiece is the summer opera in an open-sided theatre north of town, where performances begin as the sun goes down. A chamber music festival, a flamenco tradition and concerts at the Lensic and in the old churches add to it.

Palm Springs relies on the wider valley, with Coachella and Stagecoach in Indio each April, touring shows at the McCallum Theatre and well-known acts at the casinos. In town, drag cabaret and piano bars are the typical entertainment. Each city goes quiet in its off-season, which is summer in Palm Springs and winter in Santa Fe.

Palm Springs is the better place to unwind. The town grew up around the Agua Caliente spring and its bathhouse, Desert Hot Springs fills its motel pools with mineral water straight from the ground, and resort spas are found across the valley. All of it runs to a slow rhythm of pool, late breakfast and pink evening light on San Jacinto.

Santa Fe has good soaking too, with onsen-style tubs in the foothills and the old springs at Ojo Caliente an hour north. It also has plenty of spas and yoga studios. These are outings, though, rather than the point of the whole stay.