Snowbird or Tucson?

Neither place is a beach destination, but the swimming differs. At Snowbird, swimming means the resort's heated pools, or cold reservoir water about an hour away in the Heber Valley in summer, and the Great Salt Lake is for looking at, not for swimming in.

In Tucson, the hotel pool is a bigger part of the day, because it is how most visitors get through the long hot season. The real sea is a four-hour drive away in Mexico, and the pools in Sabino Canyon appear only after rain.

Snowbird's eating is resort eating: lodge restaurants, slopeside cafeterias, the dining room at the top of the tram and après-ski burgers. It is competent but has no local character, and most guests drive down to Salt Lake City for variety once or twice a week.

Tucson has a cuisine of its own. Mesquite-grilled carne asada, paper-thin flour tortillas and Sonoran hot dogs from south-side carts, plus desert ingredients such as tepary beans and prickly pear, make eating one of the reasons to go. Fine dining is thin, but regional Mexican cooking is done properly here.

Snowbird has essentially nothing to see beyond its 1971 avalanche-proof concrete lodges, and the canyon's mining past has left little behind. Any museum visit means Salt Lake City.

Tucson gives two or three good days. Mission San Xavier del Bac, with its gilded painted interior, is the highlight, and the adobe streets of Barrio Viejo, the Arizona State Museum's Native American collections and the aircraft at Pima Air & Space fill out the rest.

Snowbird's evening ends with après-ski. A couple of lodge bars and a sunny deck fill up at the end of the day, and by mid-evening the base is asleep before the first tram.

Tucson has a modest but genuine night out, split between student dive bars and patios on Fourth Avenue and cocktail bars and rooftops on Congress Street, within walking distance of each other. It is liveliest at weekends during term and quieter in summer.

Both are superb for the outdoors, but Snowbird is the more remarkable. Its snow, often more than 12m in a season, its steep terrain from Hidden Peak through Mineral Basin to Alta and its long ski season are among the best in North America, and summer opens trails into the Lone Peak and Twin Peaks wilderness.

Tucson's strength is the desert: saguaro forests in the national park, canyon trails in Sabino and Catalina, and the drive up Mount Lemmon from cactus to pine. Birding and road cycling are excellent, but the summer heat confines outings to dawn or the mountain.

Tucson has the more rewarding outings. Bisbee's steep copper-mining streets, Wild West Tombstone, the artists' village of Tubac with the Tumacácori ruins nearby, the Sonoita wineries and Biosphere 2 make a varied list, though none is of the first rank.

From Snowbird, Salt Lake City's Temple Square and Park City's Victorian Main Street are the two obvious trips. After those, Midway, Sundance and Ogden's 25th Street are pleasant but minor.

Tucson has more to fill a family week, at least from October to April. The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, the zoo, the children's and science museums and the giant aircraft keep children busy, although everything needs a car and summer heat is hard on little ones.

Snowbird suits families who ski, especially teenagers and confident young skiers, and its car-free base is easy to manage. Summer adds a mountain coaster and an alpine slide, but toddlers get little from the steep mountain, and the altitude can tire them.

Snowbird is the easier of the two once you are there. Lodges, tram and lifts sit a short walk apart along a car-free base, and many rooms open straight onto the slopes. Leaving is harder. The only way in or out is one winding canyon road, which clogs on powder mornings and can close for hours for avalanche control. Ski buses come up from the valley in winter, but dinners in the city and day trips still need a car or a shuttle.

In Tucson you need a car from the first day. The Sun Link streetcar connects downtown, Fourth Avenue and the university, and buses are slow, while Saguaro National Park, the Desert Museum, San Xavier and Mount Lemmon all lie on the edges of the city or beyond them. Traffic is light and parking is easy, so the driving is simple, but you cannot avoid it.

Snowbird's few base stores sell ski gear, goggles and branded clothing, and anything more means Park City or Salt Lake City.

Tucson is a far better place to shop for things that belong to the region: Native American jewellery, Tohono O'odham baskets, pottery and Mexican folk art in the old town galleries and in Tubac. The winter gem and mineral show draws collectors from around the world, though there are no luxury streets.

Snowbird is one of the dearer ways to spend a week in the American West. Lift tickets, slopeside rooms and captive-audience meals all add up, and the main saving, sleeping in Salt Lake City, gives up the slopeside experience.

Tucson costs noticeably less. Hotels and cheap Mexican food keep daily costs down, though a hire car is a fixed extra. In both places summer is the cheaper season, which in Tucson means desert heat and at Snowbird means hiking instead of skiing.

At Snowbird, live performance amounts to summer concerts on the plaza, the long-running Oktoberfest oompah bands and the odd après-ski band.

Tucson has a real if small season from autumn to spring. The symphony, Arizona Opera and the Arizona Theatre Company perform here, the restored Fox Theatre hosts concerts, and mariachi is part of the city's identity, with its annual conference as a highlight.

Snowbird's relaxation centres on its rooftop spa, with a pool and hot tubs facing the canyon walls, best after a hard ski day. The Homestead crater in Midway, an hour away, adds a soak in warm mineral water.

Tucson is built for this kind of trip. It is one of the birthplaces of the American destination spa, with long-established wellness resorts in the Catalina foothills and towards Oracle offering desert walks, massage and meditation. Clear winter light and quiet evenings make it a natural choice for a restful sunny break.