San Jose or Snowbird?

Neither is a beach destination, but San Jose at least has the sea within a drive. Over the Santa Cruz Mountains lie the sheltered sands of Santa Cruz and Capitola, a pleasant day of paddling or surfing in a wetsuit in cold Pacific water.

Snowbird has nothing of the kind. Swimming means the resort's heated pools or the chilly reservoirs of the Heber Valley, and the Great Salt Lake is somewhere to look at rather than swim in.

San Jose eats far better. Its large Vietnamese community, its taquerias and its Indian and Korean restaurants give real depth, even if you have to drive between suburban plazas to find them. Wineries and the restaurants of Los Gatos add a slower option for an evening.

At Snowbird you eat what the lodges serve: decent, expensive and much the same from one place to the next, with the dining room at the top of the tram as the scenic highlight. Most guests head down to Salt Lake City once or twice a week for a change.

San Jose has modest sights, but it does have some. The Winchester Mystery House, the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, Mission Santa Clara and the Computer History Museum fill a couple of interesting days.

Snowbird is a 1971 resort of concrete lodges built to withstand avalanches, and the canyon's mining history has left almost nothing to see. Any museum or historic building there means a trip down to Salt Lake City.

San Jose has a low-key but genuine night out, with beer halls around San Pedro Square, cocktail and dive bars along South First Street and a few clubs that fill on weekends. It winds down early by big-city standards, and San Francisco is the escape for a late night.

Snowbird's evening peaks at après-ski on a sunny deck and is mostly over by mid-evening, because everyone wants to be on the first tram.

Both are good for the outdoors, but Snowbird is in another league. It sits high in Little Cottonwood Canyon, with famously deep, dry snow, expert terrain linked to Alta and a ski season that can last into late spring. Summer brings granite climbing, mountain biking and the wildflowers of Albion Basin.

San Jose's strengths are gentler and more varied: redwood groves at Big Basin and Henry Cowell, foothill hikes at Alum Rock, and sea otters and whales in Monterey Bay. It makes a fine choice for a mixed outdoor trip, though almost all of it needs a car.

San Jose is much the better base for excursions. San Francisco is an easy run by Caltrain, and Monterey and Carmel, the Santa Cruz boardwalk and Stanford are all close. Napa and Sonoma are within reach too, if the traffic allows.

From Snowbird, the two obvious outings are Salt Lake City, for Temple Square and the Capitol, and the old Main Street of Park City. After those, the choice comes down to pleasant small places such as Midway, Sundance and Ogden's 25th Street.

San Jose gives children more to do, with Great America, Happy Hollow's small zoo, the children's discovery museum and, a drive away, the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The price is a lot of time in the car.

Snowbird suits families who ski, ideally with teenagers or confident youngsters, since the mountain leans towards steep, expert terrain. Its car-free base is easy to manage, and summer brings the alpine slide and mountain coaster. Bear in mind that the altitude can tire small children.

Snowbird is easier day to day, as long as you stay put. Lodges, lifts and tram are a short walk apart on a car-free base. The weak point is the single canyon road, which clogs on powder mornings and is sometimes closed for avalanche control.

In San Jose, downtown, the light rail and Caltrain cover only a fraction of what you will want to see. The mansion, the foothill parks and the coast are spread across the valley, so you will need a hire car or ride-hailing and an eye on rush hour.

San Jose wins easily. The west side's huge mall and its open-air boutique street have most international and luxury brands in one place, and the main streets of Japantown, Los Gatos and Willow Glen add some character.

Snowbird has a few base-area shops for goggles, outerwear and rentals. Proper browsing means Salt Lake City or Park City's main street.

Both are expensive, for different reasons. In San Jose the cost comes from business-traveller hotels, which ease off at weekends, along with car hire and parking. Its cheap Vietnamese and Mexican eateries help a great deal.

At Snowbird the bill is lift tickets, slopeside rooms and resort meals in peak winter weeks. Staying in Salt Lake City or coming in summer cuts it noticeably.

San Jose has a small but real arts calendar: Opera San José in the restored 1920s California Theatre, the symphony, touring Broadway, arena concerts and a long-running summer jazz festival. Snowbird offers summer concerts on the plaza and oompah bands at its Oktoberfest, and anything more serious means the drive to Salt Lake City.

Snowbird is the better place to slow down. The rooftop pool and hot tubs on the main lodge look out at the canyon walls, the nights are dark and still, and the warm mineral water in the crater at Homestead is about an hour away.

San Jose offers hotel spas and Korean-style bathhouses in the valley towns, plus an hour of calm in the Japanese gardens at Hakone or Kelley Park. Around them, though, the city keeps to the pace of the working week.