Snowbird or Taos?

Neither place has any swimming worth planning around. Snowbird is high in the Wasatch and Taos is on a desert plateau, both far from the sea. What differs is the substitute: Snowbird has heated resort pools and the cold Heber Valley reservoirs about an hour away, while Taos has hotel pools and hot springs, and its Rio Grande is for rafting rather than a dip.

Snowbird's food is resort food: lodge dining rooms, a restaurant with a view at the top of the tram, slopeside cafeterias and après-ski burgers. It is competent, but nothing about it is local, and most guests drive down to Salt Lake City once or twice a week for variety.

Taos has a cuisine of its own. Northern New Mexican cooking, with enchiladas, posole and carne adovada under red or green chile and bread from the Pueblo's hornos, gives every meal a sense of place, even if the scene is small enough to get through in a week.

Snowbird has almost nothing to see beyond its concrete lodges from 1971, and the canyon's silver-mining past has left little trace. Culture means a drive down to Salt Lake City.

Taos is in another league here. Taos Pueblo, a UNESCO World Heritage site lived in for around a thousand years, is a sight of real weight in its own right. The buttressed church at Ranchos de Taos, the Harwood and Millicent Rogers museums and the homes of the old art colony add two or three unhurried days.

Both places go quiet soon after dinner, and neither has clubs. At Snowbird the evening peaks at après-ski in the base-area lodge bars and on the sunny deck, then empties as skiers head to bed before the first tram. Taos spreads its few options across a small town, with a margarita in an old adobe hotel bar off the plaza, a brewery taproom or a saloon with a band, plus après-ski up at the ski valley in winter.

Both are serious mountain bases with steep, demanding skiing, but Snowbird's snow is the bigger draw. The tram climbs to Hidden Peak at about 3,350m, the canyon often gets more than 12m of dry snow in a season, and the terrain runs through Mineral Basin to Alta, with skiing often lasting into late spring.

Taos offers more varied landscape rather than deeper snow. It has Wheeler Peak and its alpine lakes, rafting through the Taos Box in the Rio Grande gorge, mountain biking on the West Rim and the Enchanted Circle drive under huge desert skies.

From Snowbird, the main outings are Salt Lake City, about forty minutes down the canyon, for Temple Square and the State Capitol, and Park City's Victorian Main Street, about an hour away. After those, Midway, Sundance and Ogden's 25th Street are pleasant but minor, and most of what lies beyond is open country.

Taos has the richer list. Santa Fe's plaza, Palace of the Governors and Canyon Road galleries are about an hour and a half away by the direct road along the river. The High Road is slower and more winding, but it is the more scenic way there, through old villages such as Truchas and Las Trampas to the sanctuary at Chimayó. Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch lead into O'Keeffe country in about an hour and a quarter, and the cliff dwellings at Bandelier make a long day at about two hours.

Neither is built around children, and at both the altitude can tire small ones for the first days. Snowbird's advantages are practical: a compact base with no cars, a ski school and, in summer, a mountain coaster, alpine slide and ropes course, although the mountain suits confident young skiers better than beginners.

Taos relies on gentle nature instead, with float trips on the Rio Grande, horse riding, walks along the gorge and a public pool. Children are welcome everywhere in this relaxed town, but every outing means time in the car.

Once you arrive at Snowbird, you can walk everywhere, because the lodges, tram and lifts sit along a car-free base, and in winter ski buses come up from the valley. The catch is the single canyon road, which clogs on powder mornings and can close for avalanche control.

Taos depends far more on a car. Only the area around the plaza is walkable, while the Pueblo, the gorge, the ski valley and the villages are spread across a wide valley. Most visitors drive about two and a half hours from Albuquerque, compared with forty minutes from the airport to Snowbird.

Snowbird's shops are there to rent skis and replace forgotten goggles, and nothing more. For browsing, you go down to Salt Lake City or across to Park City.

Taos gives you a real reason to shop if you like craft. There are galleries around the plaza and Kit Carson Road, turquoise and silver jewellery, micaceous pottery, Rio Grande weaving and carved santos, and some pieces can be bought straight from the makers at the Pueblo. Neither place has fashion shopping.

Snowbird is expensive in the way of the big ski resorts of the American West: lift tickets, slopeside rooms, rentals and resort meals all add up. The main saving is to sleep in Salt Lake City, which means giving up life on the slopes, and summer is noticeably cheaper.

Taos is easier on the budget, with simple motels and fairly priced New Mexican diners. Its historic inns and ski-valley lodging still charge resort rates, though, and the hire car is an extra you can hardly avoid. Spring and late autumn are the cheapest times to go.

Snowbird has summer concerts on the base plaza and an Oktoberfest with oompah bands on weekends in late summer and early autumn, and little else. Proper concerts and theatre mean a drive to Salt Lake City.

Taos has more worth seeing. On feast days, notably San Gerónimo in late September and around Christmas, the public may watch dances at the Pueblo, quietly and without cameras. A summer chamber music festival and a community arts centre add classical concerts, film and touring acts.

Relaxing at Snowbird centres on one large spa on top of the main lodge, with a rooftop pool and hot tubs facing the canyon walls, at its best after a day on the slopes. For mineral water, the geothermal crater at Midway is about an hour away.

Taos is the better place to slow down. The historic mineral pools at Ojo Caliente are about fifty minutes away, and primitive hot springs sit beside the Rio Grande at the bottom of the gorge. In town there are yoga studios and retreat centres, in a valley known for its silence and slow pace.