Scottsdale or Snowbird?

Neither city has any beach life, so a sea swim means going elsewhere. The difference is in the kind of water you get. Scottsdale's resort pools are central to a stay, and in warm months you can visit the sandy coves at Saguaro and Canyon lakes or float down the Salt River on a tube.

At Snowbird, swimming means a heated pool. The Heber Valley reservoirs are cold mountain water, and the Great Salt Lake is something to look at rather than swim in.

Scottsdale has much more choice. Old Town and the resort corridors are full of steakhouses, sushi, patio grills and brunch spots, and the Sonoran Mexican cooking across the wider metro area, with carne asada, huge flour tortillas and green chile, gives you something with real local flavour. It isn't a destination for food lovers, but you won't run short of good meals.

At Snowbird you eat in a few lodge restaurants, slopeside cafeterias and après-ski bars, all priced for guests who have nowhere else to go. Most visitors drive forty minutes down to Salt Lake City once or twice a week just for a change.

Scottsdale has a modest cultural side, and Snowbird has almost none. Scottsdale has Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West, which is on the UNESCO list, plus a museum of the American West, a small contemporary art museum and gallery streets of southwestern and Native American work. The Heard Museum and the Musical Instrument Museum are a short drive away.

Snowbird is a concrete ski village built in 1971. Little remains of the canyon's mining and quarrying past, so any museum visit means a trip down to Salt Lake City.

Scottsdale has a real night out. Old Town's few blocks of patio bars, dance clubs and rooftop lounges are loud and party-minded at weekends and during spring training season, and quieter cocktail and wine bars sit around the edges.

Snowbird's evening peaks at après-ski on a sunny deck and is mostly over by mid-evening, since everyone wants the first tram. For anything later, you have to drive a mountain road to Salt Lake City or Park City.

Both sit right against wild country, but Snowbird's is the more dramatic. The tram climbs to about 3,350m, the canyon gets enormous snowfalls, and the chutes, bowls and tree runs reach across Mineral Basin to Alta. In summer the same mountain opens up wilderness hiking, the Albion Basin wildflowers and granite climbing.

Scottsdale's outdoors is the Sonoran Desert. The McDowell Sonoran Preserve has trails among saguaros and boulders, and there are short climbs up Camelback and Pinnacle Peak, plus horse riding, balloon flights and golf. It is very good from autumn to spring, but summer heat limits it to dawn.

Both have a similar range of outings, but the landscapes and history are very different. From Scottsdale the drive north leads to Sedona's red rock, the cliff dwelling at Montezuma Castle and the hillside town of Jerome. Tucson and the San Xavier mission are a similar distance south.

From Snowbird the obvious trips are Salt Lake City, for Temple Square and the Capitol, and Park City's Victorian Main Street. Smaller places such as Midway, Sundance and Ogden's 25th Street fill out the list.

Scottsdale is easier with children. Resorts with lazy rivers, slides and kids' clubs, the railroad park's miniature trains, the aquarium and butterfly house, and the nearby zoo give a lot of choice. The catch is that everything needs a drive, and summer afternoons are spent indoors or in the water.

Snowbird suits families of keen skiers, especially teenagers, more than families with toddlers. The car-free base is easy to manage, and summer brings a mountain coaster and alpine slide. The altitude can tire small children, though.

Snowbird is simpler once you are there. Lodges, lifts and the tram are a short walk apart on a car-free base, and many rooms open straight onto the slopes. The weak point is the single canyon road, which clogs on powder mornings and can close for avalanche control.

Scottsdale is long, spread out and built for driving, and the light rail does not reach it. Outside walkable Old Town and its free trolley, you need a hire car or ride-hailing for almost everything, although the roads themselves are easy.

Scottsdale is a real shopping destination. It has a luxury mall with the big fashion houses, open-air centres to the north and an Old Town gallery district selling southwestern art, Navajo and Hopi silver, Pueblo pottery and cowboy boots.

Snowbird has a few base-area shops for goggles, outerwear and ski rental. For anything more, go to Salt Lake City's malls or Park City's boutiques.

Neither is cheap, but Scottsdale is easier on a careful budget. Its resorts cut rates sharply in the hot summer, there are motels and business hotels along the main roads, Mexican food across the metro is good value, and the desert trails are free.

At Snowbird, lift tickets, slopeside rooms and resort meals all add up quickly. The main ways to save are a multi-resort pass, a hotel in Salt Lake City with a daily drive up, or a summer visit.

Scottsdale offers a few good evenings. Its Old Town arts centre puts on chamber music, jazz and dance, the Musical Instrument Museum's theatre hosts world music concerts, and the symphony, opera and touring Broadway shows are half an hour away in Phoenix and Tempe.

Snowbird has summer plaza concerts, Oktoberfest oompah bands and the odd après-ski band. Anything more serious means a trip down the canyon.

Pampering is a main reason to go to Scottsdale. It has many large resort spas with desert treatments and outdoor pools, many of them open to day guests, and an unhurried pace of golf, long lunches and early nights.

Snowbird has one spa, but it is a fine one: a rooftop pool and hot tubs facing the canyon walls, best at dusk after skiing, with quiet, dark nights around it. The warm mineral crater at Homestead in Midway is an unusual soak about an hour away.