Salt Lake City or San Jose?

Salt Lake City's swimming is a novelty: an effortless float in the brine of the Great Salt Lake, usually done once, and then a drive to mountain reservoirs such as Jordanelle or Pineview for a real summer dip.

San Jose at least has the ocean, under an hour over the mountains at Santa Cruz and Capitola, with sand, surfers and a proper beach-town feel. The Pacific is cold, so it is a day of paddling and sitting on the sand rather than long swims, but it is still the better beach day of the two.

Salt Lake City's food is homely and a bit quirky: fry sauce, pastrami burgers, fried scones with honey butter and drive-through dirty sodas, with its best meals in the Mexican, Peruvian, Vietnamese and Pacific Islander kitchens along State Street. Wine and cocktails are thin on the ground.

San Jose eats noticeably better. Its large Vietnamese community makes the east side and Little Saigon a real destination, and taquerias, Indian and Korean restaurants and old Japantown family places add depth. The catch is that the good food is spread across suburban plazas, so you drive to dinner, though Los Gatos and the Santa Cruz Mountain wineries offer something slower.

Both cities can be seen in a couple of days, but Salt Lake City has the more coherent set of sights. Temple Square, laid out in 1847, gathers the granite temple, the domed Tabernacle and the Family History Library in one place, with the Capitol and the dinosaur halls of the Natural History Museum close by.

San Jose offers curiosities rather than a core: the staircases to nowhere of the Winchester Mystery House, the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum and Mission Santa Clara, plus the Computer History Museum for Silicon Valley's own story.

Neither city is built for big nights, and the difference is mostly one of style. Salt Lake City leans towards breweries, neighbourhood pubs in Sugar House and a long-standing gay bar scene, with Utah's liquor laws keeping drinks lighter and evenings early.

San Jose has more of a weekend crowd, with beer halls and a covered market at San Pedro Square and cocktail bars, dive bars and dance clubs in SoFA. It still winds down well before the small hours, and serious night owls take the train to San Francisco.

Salt Lake City has the stronger outdoors by some distance, because the Wasatch peaks rise right behind the city. Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons lead to famous dry powder at Alta and Snowbird, summer brings alpine lakes and wildflower meadows, and the foothill trails start above the Avenues. Westward, the Bonneville Salt Flats and Antelope Island's grasslands are a completely different landscape.

San Jose's hills are gentler but varied: redwood groves at Big Basin and Henry Cowell, the observatory on Mount Hamilton, and sea otters and whales along Monterey Bay. Almost all of it needs a car.

This is where San Jose pulls well ahead. San Francisco is about an hour away by Caltrain, Stanford and Palo Alto are closer still, and Monterey, Carmel and the Santa Cruz boardwalk make easy days on the coast. Napa and Sonoma are possible on a long day.

From Salt Lake City, Park City's Victorian Main Street, the Swiss-style village of Midway and Ogden's old railroad strip are good outings, but the list ends there. Arches, Zion and Bryce are too far for a day and need an overnight trip.

Salt Lake City has the edge with children, partly because the whole place expects them: restaurants and public spaces welcome large families, and it feels clean and safe. Hogle Zoo, the Living Planet Aquarium, Discovery Gateway and Tracy Aviary are all in the valley, Lagoon's roller coasters are close, and the ski schools are good in winter.

San Jose does well too, with Great America in Santa Clara, the small Happy Hollow zoo and the Monterey Bay Aquarium within reach, though outings mean more time in traffic.

Both cities have a walkable centre and a north-south rail line, but Salt Lake City's trains do more for a visitor. TRAX runs from the airport into downtown, and the FrontRunner commuter line reaches Ogden and Provo, so a half day on Ogden's 25th Street is possible without a car. The catch is scale: the blocks are so long that crossing the centre on foot takes longer than the map suggests.

In San Jose, light rail and Caltrain are mainly useful for downtown and a day in San Francisco. Both cities need a car beyond their rail lines, but San Jose needs one more. Its sights and the coast are spread along busy freeways where rush hour shapes the day, while Salt Lake's winter ski buses at least take you up the canyons.

San Jose is the better place to shop, mainly because of its large west-side mall and the open-air boutique street beside it, which together cover most international and luxury brands. Willow Glen, Los Gatos and the Asian supermarkets add some browsing.

Salt Lake City has City Creek Center and the converted streetcar barns of Trolley Square, but its real strength is outdoor gear. The local ski, climbing and camping shops are excellent, which matters more to many visitors than designer labels.

Salt Lake City is the cheaper trip by a clear margin. Downtown hotels are reasonable, Temple Square and its organ recitals are free, and a summer hiking trip costs far less than a ski week, when lift tickets and canyon lodging push the bill up.

San Jose sits in one of the country's most expensive regions, with hotels priced for business travel, so weekends are the better deal. The suburban Vietnamese and Mexican eateries and the free parks soften the cost, but car hire and parking make it hard to avoid.

Salt Lake City has the fuller stage, led by the Tabernacle Choir, whose rehearsals and broadcasts with the great organ are open to the public. The Utah Symphony, Utah Opera and Ballet West give it a deeper programme than its size suggests.

San Jose's best evenings are Opera San José in the restored California Theatre and the summer jazz festival downtown. On an ordinary weeknight the choice is thin, and keen theatregoers head to San Francisco.

Neither is a place to come just to unwind, but Salt Lake City has the more memorable soak: warm mineral water inside the limestone dome of Homestead Crater in Midway, plus resort spas after a day of skiing and a generally slow pace.

San Jose offers Korean-style bathhouses in the valley towns and hotel spas, with its calmest hours in the Japanese gardens at Hakone and Kelley Park. The city itself runs to the rhythm of the working week.