Salt Lake City or Taos?

Neither city is a place to swim, but Salt Lake City at least has water to try. You can float in the brine of the Great Salt Lake once for the novelty, and on hot days the Wasatch reservoirs such as Jordanelle and Pineview have paddleboards and sandy patches of shore.

Taos has even less. The Rio Grande in its gorge is for rafting, the mountain lakes stay cold, and a hotel pool or a hot spring is as close as you will get.

The two are about level, and the real difference is how focused each one is. Taos has one cuisine and does it well: northern New Mexican cooking with red or green chile, posole and sopaipillas in old family places, plus horno bread at the Pueblo.

Salt Lake City's own specialities are more of a quirk, such as fry sauce, fried scones and dirty sodas, but the valley has more range, with Mexican, Pacific Islander, Peruvian and Vietnamese kitchens along State Street and breweries in Sugar House.

Taos has the more memorable sights. Taos Pueblo, a World Heritage adobe village lived in for around a thousand years, has no real equal in Salt Lake City, and the buttressed church at Ranchos de Taos and the small art-colony museums add depth to a two or three day stay.

Salt Lake City's culture is mostly Temple Square: the temple, the Tabernacle and the pioneer history around them, with the Capitol and the dinosaur halls of the Natural History Museum beyond. It is interesting, but its sights are less varied and two days covers them.

Neither is a nightlife destination, but Salt Lake City gives you more to do after dark. Downtown, Main Street and the Granary District have bars, breweries, a few dance clubs and a long-standing gay scene, even if the state's liquor laws keep things restrained.

In Taos a night out means a margarita in an adobe hotel bar or a band in a saloon, and most evenings end soon after dinner.

Both are first-rate mountain bases, and the difference is in the landscape. Salt Lake City has the Wasatch rising straight from town, with Alta, Snowbird and the other Cottonwood Canyon resorts known for dry powder, foothill trails from the Avenues and, to the west, bison on Antelope Island and the white Bonneville Salt Flats.

Taos pairs the Sangre de Cristo peaks with a sagebrush plateau and the deep Rio Grande gorge. That means steep skiing at Taos Ski Valley, the climb up Wheeler Peak, whitewater in the Taos Box and the huge skies that drew the painters.

Taos has the much better outings. The High Road to Santa Fe passes through Truchas, Las Trampas and Chimayó before reaching the galleries and the O'Keeffe Museum, and Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch make a fine separate day.

From Salt Lake City, Park City's Victorian Main Street and Ogden's 25th Street are pleasant, but the list runs out fast, and Utah's famous national parks are too far away for a day.

Salt Lake City is far better set up for children. Families are large there and expected everywhere, and the zoo, aquarium, Discovery Gateway, Tracy Aviary, Lagoon and Thanksgiving Point mean you will not run out of rainy-day or reward options.

Taos suits families who are happy outdoors, with gentle river floats, horse riding and a good ski school, but it has nothing made for children, and the altitude can wear out small ones at first.

Salt Lake City is clearly the easier of the two. TRAX light rail runs from the airport to downtown and the University, FrontRunner trains reach Ogden and Provo, and ski buses climb the canyons in winter, so a stay based around Temple Square works without a car. Beyond that core, though, the valley sprawls and the wide grid makes walking slow, and the zoo, the canyons in summer and the outlying towns still call for one.

Taos has nothing comparable. Only the lanes around the plaza are walkable, and the Pueblo, the gorge bridge, the ski valley and every outing need your own car. The trip itself usually begins with a long drive from Albuquerque.

Salt Lake City is where you shop for what you need, and Taos is where you buy things made by hand. In Salt Lake City that means City Creek Center and Trolley Square for familiar brands, vintage finds around 9th and 9th and Sugar House, and above all excellent local ski, climbing and camping stores, which are handy before a trip into the Wasatch.

Taos is the better place for something that belongs to it. There are galleries around the plaza and Kit Carson Road, turquoise and silver jewellery, Rio Grande weaving, carved santos and micaceous pottery bought straight from its makers at the Pueblo. Outside that niche there are no fashion streets or department stores.

Costs are much the same, and in both cities the bill depends on the season. In Salt Lake City many of the main sights, Temple Square included, cost nothing, but a ski week with lift tickets and canyon lodging is expensive, while a summer hiking trip is cheap.

Taos has fairly priced motels and chile diners, but its historic inns and ski-valley lodging charge resort rates. Spring and late autumn, between the ski and summer seasons, are the cheapest times to visit, and in both places a hire car adds to the cost.

Salt Lake City has much more to see on stage. The Tabernacle Choir and the great organ can be heard at Temple Square, and the Utah Symphony, Utah Opera, Ballet West and touring Broadway shows give a full programme for a city of its size.

The performances people remember in Taos are of another kind. The traditional dances at Taos Pueblo on feast days such as San Gerónimo are watched quietly and without cameras, and apart from them and a summer chamber music festival there is little to attend.

Taos is the place to unwind. Ojo Caliente's outdoor mineral pools under the cliffs and the primitive springs at the bottom of the Rio Grande gorge are real reasons to go, and the town's yoga studios and retreat centres reflect a long habit of people coming here to slow down.

Salt Lake City has one unusual soak, the Homestead Crater's warm dome in Midway, but otherwise relaxation means resort spas after skiing.