Salt Lake City or South Lake Tahoe?

Neither city is anywhere near the sea, but South Lake Tahoe at least has real beaches. Pope, Baldwin and Nevada Beach put white sand and remarkably clear water right at the edge of town. The lake stays cold, though, so swimming is really a July and August pleasure.

Salt Lake City offers a one-off float in the Great Salt Lake, with mud and brine flies, or a drive up to reservoirs such as Jordanelle and Pineview. Either is fine for a hot afternoon, but neither compares with a day on Tahoe's shore.

Salt Lake City eats better. That is mostly thanks to the Mexican, Pacific Islander, Peruvian and Vietnamese kitchens along State Street and across the south and west of the valley, plus a few ambitious restaurants downtown and in Sugar House. Fry sauce, fried scones and the dirty-soda drive-throughs add some local quirks, though Utah's liquor rules keep wine and cocktails thin.

South Lake Tahoe is resort eating: casino steakhouses and buffets, brewpubs and taquerias along Highway 50, and a cabin kitchen that often beats all of them. Its small craft breweries are the one thing worth seeking out.

Salt Lake City has a real centrepiece in Temple Square, with the granite temple, the domed Tabernacle and its organ, and the Beehive House nearby. Add the State Capitol, the painted Cathedral of the Madeleine and the dinosaur halls of the Natural History Museum. It all fits into two days, but it tells a distinctive city story.

South Lake Tahoe's sights fill an afternoon: the old lakeside estates of the Tallac Historic Site, Vikingsholm at the bottom of the walk down to Emerald Bay, and a small museum on the Washoe people and logging. People don't come here for indoor sightseeing.

Both towns go to bed early, but in different ways. Salt Lake City has more variety: bars, breweries and a few dance clubs downtown and in the Granary District, a long-standing gay scene and the neighbourhood pubs of Sugar House. Utah's limits on strong drinks and late opening apply to all of it.

South Lake Tahoe has less choice but no closing time. Cross into Nevada and the Stateline casinos keep their bars and gaming floors open all night, and après-ski at the gondola base is the liveliest hour of a winter day. What it lacks is any bar district to wander.

Both are first-rate mountain bases, and the difference lies in the setting. Salt Lake City has the Wasatch rising straight from town, with Alta, Snowbird, Brighton and Solitude up the Cottonwood canyons and their famous dry powder. Its desert side adds bison on Antelope Island and the white expanse of the Bonneville Salt Flats.

South Lake Tahoe is built around water and granite: Emerald Bay, the lake-filled basins of the Desolation Wilderness, the Tahoe Rim Trail, paddling on glassy mornings, and Heavenly's gondola rising from Stateline. Salt Lake City offers more variety of terrain. Tahoe puts lake and peaks together in one view.

South Lake Tahoe has the better spread of outings, drawn from the Gold Rush and silver-boom country around it. Choices include the boardwalks and saloons of Virginia City, Genoa and Carson City, and Coloma and the Amador wineries down Highway 50, with Reno or a loop round the lake as extras.

From Salt Lake City, Park City's Victorian Main Street makes a fine outing, and Midway and Ogden's 25th Street are each worth half a day, but the list ends there. Utah's famous national parks are too far to visit and return in a day.

Salt Lake City is the stronger family base, partly because so much is built for children and restaurants expect them as a matter of course. When rain or snow sets in, the Living Planet Aquarium, the Discovery Gateway children's museum, the Clark Planetarium and the dinosaur halls of the Natural History Museum keep the day on track. On warm days there is Hogle Zoo, Tracy Aviary in Liberty Park and the roller coasters at Lagoon, about twenty minutes north.

South Lake Tahoe works well for outdoor families, with shallow sandy beaches, bike paths, the Taylor Creek trails and sledding hills. It has nothing indoors when snow or rain sets in, though, and the Stateline casino strip is no place to linger with children.

Salt Lake City has real public transport for a visitor. TRAX light rail runs from the airport to downtown and the University, FrontRunner trains go to Ogden and Provo, and the address grid is easy to read once you know it. The long blocks make walks longer than they look, and a car still helps for the canyons and the zoo.

In South Lake Tahoe, the walkable part is the small core around Stateline and the gondola, with free shuttles along the highway. Beyond that you really need a car. Summer traffic crawls around Emerald Bay, and winter storms bring chain controls on the roads in.

Salt Lake City at least has a downtown to shop in: the open-air City Creek Center, Trolley Square in its old streetcar barns, and independent and vintage shops at 9th and 9th and in Sugar House. Its locally run outdoor gear shops are excellent.

South Lake Tahoe has rental and gear stores, souvenir shops by the gondola and a few galleries selling lake photography. That covers supplies and a keepsake, and little more.

Salt Lake City is the gentler bill. Downtown hotels are reasonably priced, everything on Temple Square is free and light rail is cheap. As at Tahoe, though, lift tickets and canyon lodging push a winter ski week well above a summer hiking trip.

South Lake Tahoe charges resort prices exactly when most people want to go: long weekends, Christmas, peak ski weeks and high summer. Midweek casino hotel deals in spring and autumn and a cabin kitchen soften the cost, and the beaches and lake views are free.

Salt Lake City has a full arts calendar. The Tabernacle Choir's open rehearsals and broadcasts with the great organ are the signature, alongside the Utah Symphony at Abravanel Hall, Utah Opera, Ballet West and touring Broadway shows at the Eccles Theater.

South Lake Tahoe relies on casino showrooms for touring rock, country and comedy acts, plus summer evenings outdoors: Shakespeare on the beach at Sand Harbor and concerts at the Tallac estates. It has no classical season and no resident theatre company.

Neither town has a bathing tradition, and in both the spas are mostly attached to ski resorts, plus casino hotels at Tahoe. The difference is in the hot springs and the setting. From Salt Lake City, the standout is the Homestead Crater at Midway, a warm soak inside a limestone dome about an hour away.

South Lake Tahoe has open-air soaking instead: Grover Hot Springs in an alpine meadow, and the Carson Valley resorts just over the pass. Its quiet lakeside mornings and cabins in the pines make the calmer retreat once you step away from the casino corner.