Park City or Phoenix?

Both are far inland, so neither offers a beach vacation, and the difference lies in the kind of water each has. Park City's swimming is at Jordanelle Reservoir, which has sandy swimming areas and mountain views, but the water is cool and the season lasts only a few summer weeks. Hot tubs see more use.

Phoenix has warm water against desert scenery: Saguaro and Canyon lakes below bare cliffs, and tubing down the lower Salt River. Above all it has resort pools with slides and lazy rivers, which is where a summer stay is spent.

Park City eats well for a small town, but the range is narrow. You get polished mountain cooking on Main Street and at the ski bases, with elk, bison and trout, and après-ski drinks on slopeside decks are the social high point. There is no local cuisine to seek out, and for variety you drive down to Salt Lake City.

Phoenix has food that belongs to the place: Sonoran carne asada and machaca, paper-thin flour tortillas, bacon-wrapped hot dogs from evening carts, and family-run Mexican kitchens, plus a strong wood-fired pizza tradition. Eating well there usually means driving between central Phoenix, Roosevelt Row and Scottsdale.

In Park City the main sight is the old silver-mining town itself: the wooden storefronts climbing Main Street, mine headframes on the slopes, the museum in the old city hall with its jail cells, and the Olympic Park. An afternoon covers it.

Phoenix has no historic centre to wander, but its museums are a real reason to visit. The Heard holds a major collection of Native American art, the Musical Instrument Museum is large and absorbing, and Wright's Taliesin West is an architectural pilgrimage. Pueblo Grande's Hohokam ruins add older history, though each sight is a separate drive.

Park City's evenings begin on the slopeside decks as the lifts close and then move to a short run of saloons and cocktail bars on Main Street. It is lively on winter weekends but finishes early, and outside ski season the town is quiet.

Phoenix offers more choice, split between districts. Old Town Scottsdale has clubs and rooftop bars, Tempe's Mill Avenue runs on students, and Roosevelt Row has craft beer bars and a local crowd. Bars stay open until 2am, and on summer nights the drinking moves to misted patios and resort pool parties.

Park City is the mountain destination of the two. Two big ski areas start in town, the dry Utah powder falls all winter, and Alta, Snowbird, Brighton and Solitude are over the ridge. In summer the same slopes carry hundreds of kilometres of singletrack, lift-served biking and hiking, with fly fishing on the Provo and Weber rivers.

Phoenix's desert is impressive in its own way, with Camelback and Piestewa Peak rising from the suburbs, the saguaro forest in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, and Sedona's red rock within reach. Its outdoor season is October to April, when Park City is under snow, which makes the two complementary rather than direct rivals.

From Park City the main outing is Salt Lake City and Temple Square, with the Heber Valley's steam railway, the Swiss-style chalets of Midway and railroad-era Ogden as the other options. After those, most of what is in reach is scenery rather than towns.

Phoenix has a more varied list, though the distances are longer: Jerome hanging on its hillside, Prescott's saloon street, the cliff dwelling at Montezuma Castle, Sedona, and Tucson's adobe barrios and the white Mission San Xavier del Bac. Both cities need a car for these trips.

Park City is the easier of the two with children. It has good ski schools and gentle learning areas, a safe compact town and free buses to the slopes, and the Olympic Park's alpine coaster and ziplines. In summer the resort bases add alpine slides and climbing walls. The drawbacks are high winter costs and altitude, which can tire small children for a day or two.

Phoenix has the zoo, aquarium, science centre and water parks that Park City lacks, plus spring training baseball. However, every outing is a long drive across the metro area, and from June to September the heat keeps young children indoors.

You can do Park City without a car. Free buses link Old Town, both ski bases, the outlying lodging areas and Kimball Junction, Main Street is walkable if steep, and resort parking is awkward enough that leaving the car behind makes sense. Getting there is a shuttle ride of about 40 minutes from the airport, and you only need wheels for trips into other valleys or to the ski areas over the ridge.

Phoenix works the other way round. Its flat grid of arterial roads stretches for dozens of kilometres, and the light rail is useful mainly along the stretch that takes in the airport, downtown and Tempe. Buses are too slow to count on, and walking only works in a few small centres such as Old Town Scottsdale and Mill Avenue, where summer heat makes even short walks hard going. Plan on renting a car.

Both have galleries and Western-wear shops, but in Park City that is most of what there is. Main Street's boot shops, outdoor gear and ski fashion are pleasant for browsing, and Kimball Junction adds outlets and chain stores.

Phoenix has more range, with Scottsdale's luxury mall, the open-air centre near the Biltmore and the boutiques of Old Town. Its distinctive buy is Native American work: Navajo and Zuni silver and turquoise, Hopi katsina carvings and rugs, best bought from museum shops and reputable galleries.

Park City is among the most expensive resort towns in North America in ski season. Slopeside lodging, lift tickets, ski school and Main Street dinners all add up, and the Christmas and New Year weeks cost even more. Summer and autumn are much cheaper, and budget visitors often stay in Salt Lake City or the Heber Valley.

Phoenix sits at mid-range American prices. Scottsdale resorts are expensive from January to April, but chain hotels are good value all year, Sonoran food is cheap, and hiking is free. The main extra cost is the rental car.

Park City's programme is small, built around the Egyptian Theatre, a 1920s playhouse, and the Eccles Center. Its best season is summer, when the Utah Symphony plays outdoors on the Deer Valley lawns and free concerts are held around town.

Phoenix has a full big-city set of institutions: a symphony, Arizona Opera, Ballet Arizona, touring Broadway shows at Wright's round ASU Gammage, and the intimate hall at the Musical Instrument Museum. Its season runs from autumn to spring, so the two cities are busiest at opposite times of year.

Both are about resort spas rather than public bathing, and Phoenix has a slight edge as a place to go mainly to rest. Its large desert resorts below Camelback and in north Scottsdale offer treatments using sage, clay and agave, and long, dry winter days are ideal for lying by the pool.

Park City's version is more physical: lodge spas aimed at sore legs and hot tubs out in the snow. It also has something Phoenix lacks, the Homestead Crater in Midway, where you swim in geothermal water at about 35°C inside a limestone dome.