Snowbird or South Lake Tahoe?

At Snowbird, swimming is limited to the resort's heated pools or the cold reservoirs in the Heber Valley, about an hour's drive away. The Great Salt Lake is somewhere you go to look at, not to swim.

South Lake Tahoe has proper beaches on the edge of town: Pope, Baldwin and Kiva under the pines, with Nevada Beach and Zephyr Cove across the state line. The water is famously clear but cold, so in practice swimming happens in July and August, and the rest of the year the beaches are for walking.

Neither place is somewhere to travel for the food, but South Lake Tahoe gives you more choice without getting in the car. Highway 50 has taquerias, brewpubs pouring local craft beer and skiers' breakfast places, and the Nevada side adds casino steakhouses and late diners.

Snowbird has a small group of lodge restaurants, slopeside cafeterias and the dining room at the top of the tram, where the views beat the menu. When you want variety, you drive down the canyon to Salt Lake City, which most guests do once or twice a week.

Snowbird has almost nothing to see. It is a resort of concrete lodges built in 1971, and the canyon's mining and quarrying past has left little behind. South Lake Tahoe has a few things worth an afternoon: the old estates of the Tallac Historic Site, Vikingsholm at the head of Emerald Bay and a small museum on the Washoe people and the logging era.

At Snowbird, the night out is après-ski on a sunny deck and in a couple of lodge bars, and by mid-evening the base has emptied for dinner and bed.

South Lake Tahoe offers late nights rather than a range of places. The casino towers at Stateline keep bars and gaming floors open all night, with a club or two that fill on busy weekends. There is still no bar district to wander, so for anything more you go to Reno.

Both are first-rate mountain bases, but they suit different trips. Snowbird is all about one mountain: the tram to Hidden Peak at about 3,350m, steep chutes and bowls, terrain running through Mineral Basin to Alta, and in summer the wildflowers of Albion Basin and granite walls for climbing.

At South Lake Tahoe, the lake is the centre of everything. Emerald Bay, the granite basins of the Desolation Wilderness and the Tahoe Rim Trail are all close to town. Skiing is spread across Heavenly, Kirkwood and Sierra-at-Tahoe, and summer adds kayaking, paddleboarding and the Flume Trail.

The two are evenly matched, but the outings are different. Snowbird's best day out is a real city: Salt Lake City, about forty minutes down the canyon, with Temple Square, the State Capitol and the museums. Park City's Victorian Main Street is about an hour away.

From South Lake Tahoe, the trips are to a scattering of small Gold Rush and silver-boom towns. Virginia City has boardwalks and saloons, Genoa is the oldest settlement in Nevada, and Coloma is where gold was found in 1848. The Amador wine country and Reno add some variety.

South Lake Tahoe suits more ages. Children get shallow sandy beaches and bike paths in summer, salmon at Taylor Creek in autumn, and beginner slopes, sledding hills and the Heavenly gondola in winter. There are no indoor attractions for a stormy day, though, and the casino strip is not a place for children to hang about.

Snowbird's car-free base makes it easy to keep track of children, and summer brings a mountain coaster and an alpine slide. Still, the mountain is built for strong skiers, and the altitude can tire young children.

Snowbird is simpler once you have arrived. The lodges, lifts and tram are a short walk apart on a car-free base, and many rooms are right on the slopes. The catch is the single canyon road, which jams on powder mornings and is sometimes closed for avalanche control.

South Lake Tahoe has a walkable core around Stateline and free shuttles to the ski areas in winter. Beyond that, the beaches, trailheads and Emerald Bay are spread out, so a car is close to essential. Expect slow summer traffic on Highway 50 and chain controls on the roads in during winter.

Neither is somewhere to shop. Snowbird's base stores are for the goggles you forgot, and the nearest street of boutiques is in Park City. South Lake Tahoe has a little more: souvenir and clothing shops around the gondola base, and a few galleries selling lake photography.

Snowbird is the more expensive. Lift tickets, slopeside rooms and resort meals all cost a lot, and the main way to save is to stay in Salt Lake City and drive up each morning, which means giving up the slopeside stay. Summer stays are cheaper than winter ones.

South Lake Tahoe is also expensive in peak weeks but gives you more ways to cut costs. Casino hotels on the Nevada side discount heavily midweek and in spring and autumn, a cabin kitchen keeps food costs down, and the beaches and trails are free.

South Lake Tahoe has far more live entertainment. The casino showrooms bring touring rock and country acts and comedians all year, and summer adds concerts at the Tallac estates and Shakespeare on the beach at Sand Harbor. Snowbird has summer concerts on the plaza and Oktoberfest oompah bands, and for anything more serious you drive to Salt Lake City.

They are about level here, but you relax in different places. At Snowbird, it happens on site, in the big spa on top of the main lodge, with a rooftop pool and hot tubs facing the canyon walls at dusk. The warm mineral crater at Homestead is an hour away.

At South Lake Tahoe, the hotel spas are an afterthought, and the better soaks are outdoors in natural springs. Grover Hot Springs has a mineral pool in an alpine meadow, and there are spring resorts in the Carson Valley half an hour over the pass.