Phoenix or Taos?

Neither city is a place for a beach vacation, since both lie far inland, so the difference is in how you get into the water. In Phoenix that means the large resort pools with lazy rivers, the reservoirs on the Salt River such as Saguaro Lake, or a summer tubing trip down the river.

In Taos the Rio Grande is for rafting rather than swimming, and the mountain lakes stay cold. Here a hot spring is more likely than a swimming pool.

Phoenix gives you more choice. Sonoran borderland cooking such as carne asada, machaca and bacon-wrapped hot dogs from evening carts sits alongside serious wood-fired pizza, Scottsdale steakhouses and independent places downtown and around Roosevelt Row, though good meals usually mean a drive.

Taos has one regional kitchen and cooks it well. The draw is northern New Mexican food: posole, carne adovada, horno bread from Taos Pueblo and chile ordered "Christmas". Beyond that the town is small, and a week will cover most of it.

Taos has the deeper heritage. Taos Pueblo is a UNESCO-listed adobe village that has been lived in for around a thousand years and is still home to a Tiwa-speaking community. Add the buttressed church at Ranchos de Taos and the small art-colony museums, and the past here is something you walk through rather than look at behind glass.

Phoenix is a young city, and its strength is its museums. The Heard Museum's Native American collection, the Musical Instrument Museum and Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West are all excellent, but there is no historic centre, and each sight is a separate drive.

Phoenix is clearly the place for going out. You can choose between the clubs and rooftop bars of Old Town Scottsdale, the student bars on Tempe's Mill Avenue and the cocktail and craft beer bars downtown, though bars close at 2am and the districts are too far apart to combine.

Taos has a margarita in an old adobe hotel bar, a brewery, a saloon with a band and, in winter, après-ski at the ski valley. It has no clubs, and most evenings end soon after dinner.

Both are desert landscapes, but at very different heights. Phoenix has the low Sonoran desert, with saguaro forest in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve and steep scrambles up Camelback Mountain and Piestewa Peak right in the suburbs. All of it is ruled by the heat, which makes summer hiking dangerous after mid-morning.

Taos has more to offer outdoors. The Sangre de Cristo mountains rise to Wheeler Peak, at 4,013m the highest point in New Mexico, and the ski valley is about half an hour away. The Rio Grande gorge offers whitewater in the Taos Box and mountain biking on the West Rim, and the seasons change from snow to aspen gold.

Taos has the better outings, and the High Road to Santa Fe is the best of them. It passes the old Hispanic villages of Truchas and Las Trampas and the sanctuary at Chimayó before reaching Canyon Road's galleries. Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch, in O'Keeffe country, make a second strong choice.

From Phoenix, Arizona's long distances leave a shorter list: the hillside mining town of Jerome, Prescott's saloon street, red rock Sedona and Tucson's Mission San Xavier del Bac. You need a car from either base.

Phoenix is much better set up for children. The zoo, the aquarium, the science centre, a children's museum, water parks and spring training baseball in March cover several days, as long as you avoid the summer heat and accept a lot of driving.

Taos suits outdoor families, with ski school in winter and gentle float trips, horse riding and a public pool in summer. It has no zoo, aquarium or theme park, and the altitude can wear out young children for the first day or two.

You will want a car in either place, but the scale is very different. Phoenix is a huge flat grid of arterial roads, and its one light rail line runs only between the airport, downtown and Tempe.

Taos is a small town where the plaza area is easy to walk, but the Pueblo, the gorge and the ski valley are spread across the valley. Most visitors also drive about two and a half hours from Albuquerque just to get there.

Phoenix has the wider range. It has a luxury mall in Scottsdale, an open-air one by the Biltmore district, Western wear and galleries in Old Town, and Navajo and Zuni silver from museum shops and reputable galleries.

Taos offers only art and craft, but it is more personal. Its galleries carry art-colony landscapes, Pueblo micaceous pottery, Rio Grande weaving and carved santos, and you can buy from the makers at Taos Pueblo. Anyone who isn't a collector will be finished in an afternoon.

The two cost about the same overall, and in both a hire car adds a large share of the bill. What differs is the cheap season. In Phoenix, rates drop sharply in summer, and chain hotels along the freeways stay good value all year.

In Taos, ski season and summer bring resort rates at the inns and the ski valley, so spring and late autumn are the times to save.

Phoenix has the full set of big-city companies: a symphony, Arizona Opera, Ballet Arizona and touring Broadway shows at ASU Gammage, Frank Lloyd Wright's round auditorium in Tempe. The Musical Instrument Museum adds an intimate concert hall.

Taos offers fewer but rarer things to see. On feast days such as San Gerónimo in late September, Taos Pueblo holds traditional dances that visitors may watch quietly, without cameras. A summer chamber music festival makes up much of the rest of its calendar.

Both are good places to unwind, in very different ways. Phoenix offers the classic American resort rest: big spas at the foot of Camelback Mountain, treatments using sage and agave, golf and a sunny pool in winter, but no public baths or hot springs.

Taos is about hot springs and silence. You can soak in Ojo Caliente's mineral pools under the cliffs or walk down to the primitive springs beside the Rio Grande, and there are yoga studios and retreat centres in town.