Park City or Santa Fe?

Neither town has anything like a beach, so this shouldn't decide your trip. The difference is in the summer swim. Park City has Jordanelle Reservoir a short drive down the valley, with sandy swimming areas and cool water. Santa Fe's nearest options, Abiquiu Lake or a float on the Rio Grande, are about an hour away and make a day out rather than a quick dip.

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 give meals a sense of place. Its fine-dining tier is unusual for a town of its size, and the Railyard farmers' market is worth a morning.

Park City eats well for a ski town, with elk, bison and trout on Main Street and après-ski on the slopeside decks, but nothing on the menu belongs to the region. In both towns the international choice is thin.

The gap here is wide. Santa Fe has the adobe Plaza, the Palace of the Governors, its old chapels, and the folk art and Native American collections on Museum Hill. Add the O'Keeffe Museum and the galleries of Canyon Road, and you have two or three full days.

Park City's story is that of a silver-mining town. You can see it in the wooden storefronts on Main Street, the old headframes on the slopes, the Park City Museum and the Olympic museums. It is interesting, but an afternoon covers it.

Both are early-evening towns, and for a real night out you drive to the nearest city, Salt Lake City or Albuquerque. The mood differs. Park City's evenings start with après-ski on the decks and move to a short run of saloons and bars on Main Street that get loud on winter weekends. Santa Fe's evenings are a long dinner, a margarita on a rooftop at sunset and a few breweries around the Railyard, and they are liveliest in summer.

Both towns sit at the foot of serious mountains, but Park City is the stronger outdoors base, especially in winter. Two large ski areas rise straight from town, Utah's dry powder falls all season, and Alta and Snowbird are over the ridge. In summer the singletrack trails leave from the streets, and lifts carry bikes uphill.

Santa Fe offers more variety than depth. It has one ski area under an hour away and the Pecos Wilderness above it, while desert mesas, Valles Caldera and rafting in the Rio Grande Gorge lie further out. It suits walkers who come for the landscape as much as for sport.

Santa Fe has far more within reach. The High Road to Taos runs through Chimayo and Truchas, and around the city there are Taos Pueblo, the cliff dwellings at Bandelier, Los Alamos and the old mining villages on the Turquoise Trail. That is enough for a week of different outings, almost all of them by car.

From Park City, Salt Lake City is the obvious trip. The Heber Valley steam railway, Swiss-style Midway and Ogden fill another day or two, and after that most of what lies within reach is scenery.

Park City suits families on the slopes. Its ski schools have gentle learning areas, and the free buses save you carrying car seats to the lifts. The Utah Olympic Park has a coaster, ziplines and freestyle jumps to watch, and alpine slides join them in summer. The catch is how fast the costs add up.

Santa Fe has a children's museum and the ladders at Bandelier's cliff dwellings, but its days revolve around galleries and long dinners, so it works best with older children who like hiking and history. Both towns sit at about 2,100m, which can tire small children for the first day or two.

Park City is easier without a car. Free buses link Old Town, both ski bases, the outlying lodging areas and Kimball Junction, and hotel shuttles fill the gaps. You only really need a car for other valleys and ski areas.

Santa Fe's historic centre is walkable, with the Plaza, Canyon Road and the Railyard within about twenty minutes of each other on foot. Beyond that, buses are infrequent, so Museum Hill, the trailheads and the pueblos all need a hire car. The Rail Runner train to Albuquerque does give it the rail link Park City lacks.

Santa Fe is a place to buy art and craft. Native American artists sell silver and turquoise jewellery under the portal of the Palace, galleries line Canyon Road and the Railyard, and the Indian, Spanish and folk art markets draw collectors every summer.

Shopping in Park City means pleasant browsing on Main Street between galleries, cowboy-boot shops, outdoor gear stores and ski fashion. For anything everyday, there are the outlets and chain stores at Kimball Junction.

Neither is a budget destination, but Park City costs more. In ski season, lodging, lift tickets, ski school and dinners on Main Street sit at the top of the resort market, and the Christmas and New Year weeks are steeper still. Summer and autumn are much cheaper, and many visitors save by staying in Salt Lake City or the Heber Valley.

Santa Fe charges resort prices around the Plaza, especially during the summer markets and the opera season, and you will need a hire car. Even so, cheaper beds along Cerrillos Road and free hiking and gallery browsing keep a stay easier to manage.

Santa Fe has the stronger programme, built around its summer opera festival in an open-sided theatre where performances begin at sunset. A chamber music festival and a long flamenco tradition add to it, and the historic Lensic keeps a smaller calendar going through winter.

Park City has comedy and plays at the Egyptian Theatre, touring shows at the Eccles Center, and Utah Symphony concerts on the lawns at Deer Valley in summer. In both towns, summer is the time to go for performances.

Both are easy places to unwind, but in different ways. In Park City, relaxing follows a day on the mountain: the big lodge spas at Deer Valley and Canyons, outdoor hot tubs in the snow, and a swim in the warm geothermal crater at Midway.

Santa Fe has a longer tradition of people coming to slow down. It has Japanese-style soaking tubs among the pines and many yoga studios and healers, and the mineral springs at Ojo Caliente are an hour north. Neither town has a public bathing culture.