Salt Lake City or Santa Barbara?

Salt Lake City is about as far from the ocean as an American city gets. People float on the Great Salt Lake once for the strange experience, on muddy shores with brine flies in summer. For proper swimming, locals drive up to Wasatch reservoirs such as Jordanelle or Pineview.

Santa Barbara has real beaches in town, East Beach and West Beach, with Arroyo Burro, Butterfly Beach and the shallow sands of Carpinteria close by, and the surf is gentle. The cool Pacific is the main drawback, and many swimmers wear wetsuits, but it is still a proper beach destination in a way the Utah city can never be.

Salt Lake City eats in a homely way: fry sauce, pastrami burgers, fried scones and the drive-through soda shops. Its best meals come from the Mexican, Pacific Islander, Peruvian and Vietnamese kitchens along State Street, and Utah's liquor rules keep wine and cocktail culture thin.

Santa Barbara is the better table by some distance. Spot prawns and sea urchin come in on the harbour boats, the farmers' markets are superb, and Santa Ynez wines can be tasted on foot in the Funk Zone. The range is narrower than its prices suggest, though, and outside the Eastside taquerias there is little cheap food.

Santa Barbara edges ahead, though the two are different kinds of sightseeing. In Salt Lake City almost everything revolves around one faith. There is Temple Square with the Tabernacle and its organ, the Beehive House and the Family History Library, plus the Capitol and the dinosaur halls of the Natural History Museum.

In Santa Barbara the town itself is the sight, rebuilt after 1925 in white stucco and red tile. The County Courthouse tower and the Old Mission are the high points. Either city fills two or three unhurried days.

Neither city is a place to stay out late, and both wind down early. In Salt Lake City the scene is breweries, a few dance clubs around Main Street and the Granary District and a long-standing gay bar scene, with state liquor laws limiting stronger drinks.

Santa Barbara's evenings revolve around wine. The Funk Zone tasting rooms fill up early, while lower State Street belongs to students at weekends. It is better for a long dinner and a glass of pinot noir than for dancing.

Salt Lake City has the bigger landscape. The Wasatch rises to peaks over 3,000m right behind town, with alpine lakes, wildflower meadows and some of the most famous ski powder in the country less than an hour away. Westward, the bison of Antelope Island and the white Bonneville Salt Flats add a completely different desert world.

Santa Barbara's outdoors is gentler and more varied by sea. Trails climb from the suburbs through chaparral to ridge views of the islands, and the water adds whale watching, kayaking, the Rincon surf break and boats to Channel Islands National Park. Summer fires sometimes close the trails.

Santa Barbara has more to do beyond the city. Over the mountains, the Santa Ynez Valley combines wineries in Los Olivos and Los Alamos with Danish Solvang, and Ojai, Ventura and La Purisima mission make more good outings.

From Salt Lake City, Park City's Victorian main street and the village of Midway are the obvious trips, with Ogden's 25th Street for a half day. Beyond them the options thin out, and the national parks people associate with Utah are too far away for a day trip.

Salt Lake City is built around children in a way few cities are. Large families are the local norm, and it offers the zoo, aquarium, Discovery Gateway, the planetarium and Lagoon's big roller coasters, with ski schools in winter. Most of it is spread across the valley, so you will drive between places.

Santa Barbara is a calmer, smaller-scale option. The hilltop zoo, the touch tanks at the Sea Center, MOXI and Carpinteria's shallow water are lovely for young children, but older ones wanting thrill rides face a two-hour trip to Los Angeles.

In both cities the centre is manageable without a car and the rest is not, but they feel different on foot. Salt Lake City's wide streets and long blocks stretch even short walks. In return, TRAX light rail runs from the airport to downtown and the university, and the FrontRunner trains reach Ogden and Provo.

Santa Barbara's downtown is compact and flat, with State Street running straight to a shoreline path for walking and cycling. Its trailheads and wine country, like the Utah canyons, still need wheels.

Santa Barbara is the more enjoyable place to browse. It has boutiques and galleries in the tiled paseos off State Street, upmarket shops on Montecito's Coast Village Road and design shops in the Funk Zone, and farmers' market produce and local wine make the best things to take home.

Salt Lake City offers practical malls, City Creek with its running creek and the old streetcar barns of Trolley Square. Its real strength is its excellent local ski, climbing and camping gear shops.

Salt Lake City is noticeably cheaper. Downtown rooms are fairly priced, Temple Square costs nothing and the light rail is inexpensive. Costs climb with lift tickets and Park City lodging, so a summer hiking trip is far cheaper than a winter ski week.

Santa Barbara is expensive almost across the board, from beach and Montecito rooms to tastings and tours. Taquerias, free trails and beaches, and staying in Goleta or Ventura midweek are the main ways to save.

The two are close, but their strengths differ. Salt Lake City has the stronger institutions: the world-famous Tabernacle Choir and its great organ, open to the public, along with the Utah Symphony, Utah Opera and Ballet West.

Santa Barbara's appeal is in its venues and its summers. The restored Granada, the historic Lobero and the Arlington's Spanish-village interior are attractions in themselves, major bands play the outdoor Bowl in its canyon, and the Music Academy of the West fills the town with concerts every summer.

Santa Barbara is the easier place to unwind. Mild sun and quiet mornings set the pace, there are polished resort spas in Montecito and plenty of yoga studios, and the long spa tradition of the Ojai Valley is about an hour away.

Salt Lake City's most memorable soak is out of town: warm mineral water inside the limestone dome of Homestead Crater in Midway. Otherwise, rest means a resort spa after a day on the slopes.