Palm Springs or Taos?

Neither has a beach, and both are a long way from the coast. In Palm Springs, water means the pool, and the town is built around it, with almost every hotel and rental house arranged around one for long hot afternoons.

Taos sits at 2,100m, and its water is the Rio Grande, which is for rafting rather than swimming, plus mountain lakes too cold to swim in. A hotel pool or a riverside hot spring is as close as it gets.

Both have small dining scenes of similar depth, and what you eat is very different. Palm Springs is about long patio brunches, poolside cocktails and mid-range American cooking along Palm Canyon Drive. The best finds are the date shakes from the Indio groves and the taquerias further down the valley.

Taos has a real regional cuisine: northern New Mexican enchiladas, posole and carne adovada, with red or green chile, plus horno bread from the Pueblo. It has more character but less range, and a week covers it.

Taos has the deeper story. Taos Pueblo is a World Heritage site that is still lived in, and the buttressed church at Ranchos de Taos and a cluster of small art-colony museums and historic homes add two or three rewarding days.

Palm Springs has one outstanding theme, mid-century modern architecture, which you can follow by bike or car through Twin Palms and Vista Las Palmas, past Frey and Neutra houses. Beyond that, the art museum and the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum are the main visits.

Palm Springs is clearly the better place for an evening out. Arenas Road has a long-standing run of LGBTQ bars with patios and drag nights, retro cocktail lounges line Palm Canyon Drive, and spring weekends bring hotel pool parties. It is still small, with few clubs and early closing.

Taos barely has a night scene: a margarita in an old adobe hotel bar, a brewery taproom or a saloon band, and après-ski in winter. Most nights end soon after dinner.

Both are places you visit for the landscape, and Taos has the edge in variety. It has a deep river gorge, New Mexico's highest summit at Wheeler Peak, steep skiing half an hour away, rafting through the Taos Box, and golden aspens in autumn.

Palm Springs has a dramatic setting of its own. The tramway lifts you from palm desert to pine forest on San Jacinto, and the canyon oases and Joshua Tree are close by. It is a cycling and golf place in the cooler months, while summer heat limits hiking to dawn.

Taos has much the better range of outings. Santa Fe is about an hour and a half south by the main road, with its plaza, galleries and the O'Keeffe Museum. Taking the High Road instead adds time but goes through the old villages of Truchas and Las Trampas to the sanctuary at Chimayó. To the west, Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch lead into O'Keeffe country.

From Palm Springs the trips are smaller and odder: the pine village of Idyllwild, the old Western film set at Pioneertown, the eerie Salton Sea shore with Salvation Mountain, and the Temecula wineries. Los Angeles and San Diego are too far for a comfortable day.

Neither is built for children, but they suit different families. Palm Springs is a pool vacation with outings to the Living Desert, the tramway and the Air Museum, though many boutique hotels are adults-only and summer middays are off limits.

Taos suits active families, with a good ski school in winter and gentle river floats and horse riding in summer, but it has no zoo or attractions made for children, and the altitude can tire little ones at first.

Both are car towns with small walkable centres: Palm Canyon Drive in one, the plaza and Bent Street in the other. The real difference is getting there. Palm Springs airport sits on the edge of town, while most Taos visitors land in Albuquerque and drive for about two and a half hours.

Both are specialist shopping towns with different specialities. Palm Springs is for mid-century furniture, lighting and vintage clothes in the Uptown Design District, with luxury on El Paseo and the Cabazon outlets close by.

Taos is about art and craft: plaza galleries, turquoise and silver jewellery, Rio Grande weaving, santos, and micaceous pottery bought from makers at the Pueblo.

Taos is the gentler on the budget. Its simple motels and New Mexican diners are fairly priced, and spring and late autumn are especially easy, although historic inns and ski lodging charge resort rates.

Palm Springs is expensive from winter into spring, when pool houses and boutique hotels charge resort prices and festival weekends push them higher still. The exception is high summer, when rooms become cheap for anyone who can bear the heat.

Palm Springs offers more to attend. Coachella and Stagecoach fill the Indio polo grounds each April, the McCallum Theatre brings touring shows, and the casinos book well-known acts. In town, drag cabaret and piano bars set the tone.

Taos is quieter but has moments that cannot be found elsewhere: traditional dances at the Pueblo on feast days such as San Gerónimo, watched under strict rules, and a summer chamber music festival.

Palm Springs is the stronger choice for a restful stay. You can soak in the Agua Caliente spring right downtown, Desert Hot Springs fills its motel pools with hot mineral water, and resort spas are found across the valley.

Taos offers quiet and big skies, but its best bathing is at Ojo Caliente, about fifty minutes away, or in rough riverside pools at the bottom of the gorge, reached on foot. Yoga studios and retreat centres add a more spiritual note.