Salt Lake City or Snowbird?

Neither is a place for swimming, but Salt Lake City has a little more to offer. You can float in the Great Salt Lake from Antelope Island once for the novelty, and Pineview, Jordanelle and Deer Creek have sandy patches and paddleboards on hot July days. Snowbird has its heated pools, and the same Heber reservoirs are about an hour's drive away.

Salt Lake City has a far wider choice of food. Its best meals come from the Mexican, Peruvian, Pacific Islander and Vietnamese kitchens along State Street, and local oddities such as fry sauce, fried scones and dirty sodas add some character. Sugar House and downtown add breweries and a few ambitious modern restaurants.

At Snowbird you eat at the resort, in lodge dining rooms, slopeside cafeterias and the summit restaurant with its view. The food is competent but nothing is local, and most guests drive down the canyon to the city for a change of menu once or twice a week.

Salt Lake City has a modest list of sights, enough for two unhurried days, and most of it tells the story of the faith that founded the city. The pioneer buildings around Temple Square, Brigham Young's old home and the genealogy library that draws researchers from abroad give it a character no other American city has. The hilltop Capitol, the cathedral's painted interior and a natural history museum strong on dinosaurs fill out the rest.

Snowbird has nothing comparable. It was built for skiing in 1971, and the canyon's mining days have left almost no trace. Staying on the mountain costs you nothing on the slopes, but every museum or historic building means a trip down the canyon road. Anyone who wants sightseeing as part of the trip will find it easier to sleep in the valley.

Salt Lake City's nightlife is modest, but it does exist: bars and a few dance clubs around Main Street and the Granary District, a long-standing gay scene and pubs in Sugar House, all shaped by Utah's liquor laws. At Snowbird the evening peaks at après-ski on a sunny deck and is mostly over by mid-evening, because the first tram matters more than a late night.

The outdoors is both places' main strength, and they share the same range, so the difference is where you stand in it. Snowbird is inside Little Cottonwood Canyon. Its tram goes to Hidden Peak, its terrain runs over into Mineral Basin and Alta, and its summer trails lead into the Lone Peak and Twin Peaks wilderness areas.

Salt Lake City gives you a wider spread of landscapes. Foothill trails start above the Avenues, both Cottonwood canyons and Park City are within reach, and to the west are the bison on Antelope Island and the white Bonneville Salt Flats, which the resort's mountain setting can't offer.

Snowbird has the better day trips, mainly because Salt Lake City itself is the outing: forty minutes down the canyon for Temple Square, the Capitol and the museums. Park City, Sundance below Mount Timpanogos and Midway are also within reach.

From Salt Lake City, Park City, Midway and Ogden's 25th Street make good outings, and the Golden Spike site is a longer drive. The red-rock national parks are too far from either for a day trip.

Salt Lake City is much better for families. Restaurants and public spaces expect children, and the zoo, aquarium, planetarium, Tracy Aviary and Lagoon's roller coasters can fill a week, though you need a car to get between them.

Snowbird's car-free base is easy to manage with children, and summer brings an alpine slide, a mountain coaster and ropes courses. But the steep mountain suits confident young skiers more than small children, and the altitude can tire toddlers.

Both make you rely on a car, in different ways. Salt Lake City has TRAX light rail to the airport and the FrontRunner train to Ogden and Provo, but its huge blocks and wide valley spread things out.

Snowbird is the opposite: everything is a short walk along the base, but the only way out is a single winding road. That road jams on powder mornings and is sometimes closed for avalanche control.

Salt Lake City is the only one of the two with real shopping. City Creek Center, Trolley Square and the independent shops around 9th and 9th cover the basics, and its local ski and climbing stores are excellent. Snowbird's base shops are useful for replacing goggles or renting gear, and that is all they are for.

Salt Lake City is noticeably cheaper. Downtown hotels are reasonably priced, Temple Square is free and light rail is inexpensive, though skiing still costs a lot from any base.

At Snowbird, slopeside rooms, resort meals, rentals and lift tickets all carry ski-resort prices, especially in peak winter weeks. Staying in the city and driving up saves a lot, and summer at either costs well below a winter week.

Salt Lake City offers far more live performance. You can attend Tabernacle Choir rehearsals and daily organ recitals, and Abravanel Hall, Utah Opera, Ballet West and the Eccles Theater give it a fuller arts calendar than its size suggests. Snowbird has plaza concerts in summer, oompah bands at its Oktoberfest and the odd après-ski band, so anyone who wants an orchestra has to drive down the canyon.

The two are about level here, and both can reach the warm mineral water of the Homestead Crater in Midway. The difference is in setting. Snowbird has a large rooftop spa with a pool and hot tubs facing the canyon walls, and its nights are dark and still.

In Salt Lake City, rest comes from the quiet pace of the city and from the resort spas you drive up to, rather than anything right outside your hotel.