Salt Lake City or Whitefish?

Swimming in Salt Lake City starts with the Great Salt Lake, where floating effortlessly in brine is worth doing once, though the muddy shore and summer flies send most people home quickly. For an afternoon in the water you have to drive up to Wasatch reservoirs such as Jordanelle, Deer Creek or Pineview.

Whitefish makes it easier. City Beach on Whitefish Lake, with its sand, dock and paddleboards, is right at the edge of town, and Flathead Lake's clear water and pebbly state park shores are a short drive south. The water only warms enough from mid-July to late August, but in that window it is the better place to swim.

Salt Lake City has more range. The best meals come from the Mexican, Pacific Islander, Peruvian and Vietnamese kitchens along State Street, and the local quirks include fry sauce, pastrami burgers and drive-through dirty sodas. Utah's liquor rules mean wine and cocktails are the weak spot.

Whitefish cooks hearty mountain food carefully: elk and bison burgers, Montana beef, trout, and huckleberries in almost everything in late summer. The choice is confined to Central Avenue, international cooking is scarce, and on a week's stay you will be back at the same few tables.

This is the widest gap between the two. Salt Lake City has a proper set of sights built around its pioneer founding: Temple Square with the granite temple and domed Tabernacle, the Beehive House, the Family History Library, plus the State Capitol, the painted Cathedral of the Madeleine and the dinosaur halls of the Natural History Museum. That is two full days.

Whitefish has the timber-framed Great Northern depot and its small museum of railway and logging history, and not much more. Sightseeing in town takes an hour.

Both go to bed early, but Salt Lake City has a little more variety: bars and breweries downtown and in the Granary District, a few dance clubs, a long-established gay scene and pubs in Sugar House, all shaped by Utah's drinking laws. Whitefish's evenings are about saloons and taprooms on Central Avenue, with pool tables, après-ski crowds and summer patios. It is friendly and sometimes loud, but there are no clubs at all.

Both are first-class mountain bases, and the difference is in kind. Salt Lake City has the Wasatch rising at the edge of town, with Alta, Snowbird, Brighton and Solitude up the Cottonwood Canyons and famously dry powder over a long season. The landscape also changes completely to the west, with bison on Antelope Island and the white expanse of the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Whitefish is the gateway to Glacier National Park: the Highline Trail, Grinnell Glacier, Lake McDonald and the Going-to-the-Sun Road, with grizzlies and mountain goats. That is real wilderness rather than resort country, but the high country is only reliably open from July to September. Big Mountain covers skiing for the rest of the year.

Salt Lake City has the better short outings. Park City's Victorian mining-town Main Street is about forty minutes away, with Midway and Heber just beyond, Ogden's old railroad strip on 25th Street makes a good half day, and the Golden Spike site gives you a longer drive into history. The famous national parks are too far away to visit in a day.

From Whitefish, the towns are minor attractions: the Conrad Mansion in Kalispell, the galleries of Bigfork, the cherry orchards on Flathead Lake's east shore and the mission church at St Ignatius. Most days out here go into the park, not to other towns.

Salt Lake City is clearly the stronger choice with children. Hogle Zoo, the Living Planet Aquarium, Discovery Gateway, the Clark Planetarium, Tracy Aviary and Lagoon's roller coasters give you a different outing every day, and restaurants are used to large families. Expect to drive between them.

Whitefish is safe and easy but narrow. The ski school, the summer alpine slide and zip line, calm City Beach and short Glacier walks such as the Trail of the Cedars suit outdoorsy children. Children who are not keen on the outdoors will run out of things to do, and the drives into the park are long for small children.

Salt Lake City has the transit that Whitefish lacks. TRAX light rail runs from the airport to downtown and the University, and FrontRunner trains reach Ogden and Provo, though the very wide streets and long blocks make walking slow, and the canyons still call for a car or the winter ski buses.

Whitefish is the opposite case: a few compact blocks you can cover on foot, a long-distance train stopping at the depot and a free shuttle to the ski area in winter. Beyond that, Glacier, Flathead Lake and the trailheads really need a car.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Salt Lake City has more to work with: City Creek Center's department stores, the old streetcar barns of Trolley Square, independent and vintage shops around 9th and 9th and Sugar House, and excellent local ski and climbing outfitters. Whitefish fills an afternoon on Central Avenue with western wear, boots, wildlife art and huckleberry jam. For anything bigger you go to Kalispell.

Salt Lake City is easier on the wallet. Downtown hotels are reasonable, light rail is cheap, and everything on Temple Square is free to visit. Costs climb only if you ski, with lift tickets and canyon or Park City lodging.

Whitefish is a resort town with few rooms, and in July, August and ski season they are priced accordingly. Add resort-town meals and a hire car. Late spring and autumn are cheaper, as is staying in Kalispell or Columbia Falls, and the park itself is good value once you are inside.

Salt Lake City has a real arts calendar. The Tabernacle Choir's rehearsals and broadcasts are open to the public, often with the great organ, and there are daily organ recitals as well. Add the Utah Symphony at Abravanel Hall, Utah Opera, Ballet West and touring Broadway shows at the Eccles Theater, and there is something to book on most evenings.

Whitefish has more on stage than you might expect from a small town, but not much. The community arts centre puts on local theatre and visiting shows all year, and summer adds a professional theatre season, the valley symphony's summer festival and free outdoor concerts. Even so, on most evenings you will find a band in a bar rather than a performance to book ahead.

Salt Lake City has the slight edge thanks to geothermal water. The Homestead Crater in Midway, where you soak in warm mineral water inside a limestone dome, is about an hour away, and there are smaller hot springs closer by. Whitefish has no thermal baths within easy reach, so relaxing means lodge spas, yoga studios and quiet mornings by the lake, an unhurried pace rather than a soak.