Park City or Deer Valley?

Neither place has a beach. Summer swimmers from both end up at Jordanelle Reservoir below the resort, which has sandy swimming areas, cool water and a short season in July and August. Deer Creek Reservoir, further down the Heber Valley, is a quieter alternative. In practice, Deer Valley's lodge pools and Park City's hotel hot tubs are where most visitors get wet.

Both draw on the same pool of restaurants, so the real difference is where you eat. A Deer Valley stay centres on polished lodge dining on the mountain and the base-area turkey chili that skiers treat as a ritual, with Main Street a bus ride down the hill.

In Park City, the steakhouses, sushi and mountain cooking of elk, bison and trout are on your doorstep. Après-ski spills onto the slopeside decks with whiskey and local craft beer, and the chains at Kimball Junction cover cheaper meals. Neither has street food or a cuisine of its own, so for real variety you drive to Salt Lake City.

Neither is a sightseeing destination, and both have the same heritage to offer. There is the restored silver-mining Main Street, mine headframes on the slopes, the Park City Museum in the old city hall with its basement jail cells, and the Utah Olympic Park from the 2002 Games. The difference is that Park City guests sleep among the old wooden storefronts. From Deer Valley's purpose-built lodges, all of it is an afternoon's outing down the hill.

The night out is the same in both: the short run of saloons and cocktail bars on Main Street, packed on winter weekends and quiet well before the small hours. What differs is where your evening starts. Deer Valley winds down in fireside lounges, and its guests go to bed early to catch first chair. Park City starts on slopeside decks as the lifts close and leaves you a short walk from the bars, which matters if you mean to stay out.

Both have one of North America's great mountain settings, and the skiing overlaps. You have Deer Valley's groomed, skiers-only runs, the huge Park City Mountain beside them, and the powder of Alta, Snowbird, Brighton and Solitude about an hour over the ridge.

The difference is in character. Deer Valley is about perfectly groomed runs and calm slopes. Park City puts both resorts within reach, and in summer hundreds of kilometres of singletrack leave straight from the streets. There is also fly fishing on the Provo and Weber rivers, and the aspens turn gold on the ridges in autumn.

The list is the same from either base. Salt Lake City, about forty minutes away, has Temple Square, the State Capitol and its museums. Closer in are the Heber Valley's steam railway and Swiss-styled Midway, Sundance in its canyon and, about an hour north, railroad-era Ogden. From Park City, Salt Lake City's restaurants also make a good evening out. From either, you need a car, and the grandest things within reach are landscapes rather than towns.

Deer Valley is excellent for families who ski. It has wide groomed beginner runs, no snowboarders, well-run ski schools and lodging you can ski back to. Off the slopes, though, it has little for children beyond the Olympic Park and summer lift rides.

Park City gives a family more room. The town is safe and clean, the free buses spare you from fitting car seats, and the Olympic Park's splash-pool freestyle shows and the resort-base bike trails are close at hand. In both, children feel the altitude for the first day or two, and the zoo and museums are in Salt Lake City.

Both use the same free buses, but they are most useful from Park City. From Old Town you can reach Main Street, both ski bases and Kimball Junction, and many hotels run their own shuttles as well. Parking in Old Town is awkward, so leaving the car behind comes naturally.

Deer Valley's lodges are spread across steep hillsides where walking between them is rarely practical, so ski-in lodging matters more there than the bus. From either, the airport is about forty minutes away by shuttle. Trips to other valleys and ski areas need a car, with snow tyres in winter.

Park City has the better shopping simply because Main Street is on the doorstep. Galleries, Western boots and hats, jewellers, outdoor gear and upscale ski fashion fill the gaps between meals, and the Kimball Junction outlets are at the edge of town. From Deer Valley it is the same street, but a planned bus trip rather than an evening stroll. Neither has markets or much local craft.

Neither is a place to economise, but Deer Valley is at the very top even by ski-resort standards. Its slopeside lodging is overwhelmingly luxury, its lift access is among the most expensive in North America, and meals on the mountain cost accordingly.

Park City is expensive too, above all over Christmas and New Year. Still, its chain restaurants at Kimball Junction and much lower prices in summer and autumn give a little more room to manage. From either, the real saving comes from staying in Salt Lake City or the Heber Valley and driving up.

The two share one programme. In summer there is the Utah Symphony's outdoor festival at Deer Valley's Snow Park amphitheatre, and year round there is the 1920s Egyptian Theatre on Main Street, with touring shows at the Eccles Center. Deer Valley guests have the picnic concerts on their own lawns. Park City adds free summer concerts in its parks and plazas and has the Egyptian Theatre's comedy and cabaret close by in winter.

Deer Valley's slopeside lodges are quiet by design, so rest comes with the stay even at the height of ski season, with fireplaces, hot tubs on snowy terraces and some of the most polished hotel spas in the mountain West. In Park City, calm depends more on timing. Main Street fills up on winter weekends, and the town is at its most restful in the off-season weeks, when the aspen trails empty and mornings slow down.

The means of unwinding are otherwise shared. There are massages for ski-weary legs at the big lodge spas, outdoor hot pools under the snow, and the Homestead Crater in Midway, a warm spring inside a beehive-shaped limestone dome less than half an hour away, where you can swim or snorkel.