Snowbird or Winter Park, Colorado?

Neither place is anywhere near a sea, and swimming is not a reason to choose either. What water there is differs. Snowbird offers heated resort pools and cold reservoirs in the Heber Valley about an hour away, and the Great Salt Lake is a place to look at rather than swim in. Winter Park has Grand Lake and the Granby reservoirs for boating and paddling, plus warm hot-spring pools down the valley.

Neither is a place to eat well, but the setting differs. At Snowbird you eat inside the resort, in lodge restaurants, slopeside cafeterias and the dining room at the top of the tram with its view across the range. Utah's liquor laws affect how drinks are served.

Winter Park's food is spread along a real small town: green chile, barbecue and pizza on the highway, craft breweries, and elk or trout at the better tables. Snowbird's advantage is that Salt Lake City's restaurants are only a forty-minute drive away for a night off.

Neither has much to see, and both are mountain bases first. Snowbird's heritage is mostly gone. The silver-mining past and the quarry that supplied granite for the temple have left few traces, and the 1971 concrete lodges were built to withstand avalanches.

Winter Park at least has the railway story of the Moffat Tunnel and a small homesteading museum in Fraser. For real museums, Snowbird is better placed, because Salt Lake City is much closer than Denver.

Winter Park has a bit more to offer after dark. Après-ski moves from the bars at the base to pubs and brewery taprooms along the main road, and winter weekends and spring-break weeks can be loud and cheerful.

At Snowbird the evening peaks on the base deck at the end of the ski day and is mostly over by mid-evening. A proper night out means driving the canyon road to Salt Lake City or Park City. Neither town has clubs.

Both are outstanding mountain destinations, and the difference is in the kind of mountain. Snowbird has the steeper, more serious terrain and some of the deepest powder in North America. The tram climbs to Hidden Peak, and the terrain runs through Mineral Basin to Alta. In summer there is granite climbing, and the wildflowers of Albion Basin are close.

Winter Park spreads its skiing across groomed runs and the bumps of Mary Jane, adds cross-country tracks and backcountry on Berthoud Pass, and becomes a well-known bike park in summer. The moose and high tundra of Rocky Mountain National Park are about an hour north.

Snowbird is better placed for outings. Salt Lake City, with Temple Square and the State Capitol, is forty minutes down the canyon, and Park City's Victorian Main Street is about an hour away.

From Winter Park the easy trips are Georgetown and Idaho Springs over the pass, and the lakeside boardwalk at Grand Lake. Denver is an hour and a half away when Berthoud Pass is open, and winter storms can affect any of these plans.

Winter Park is clearly the more family-friendly resort. It has a big children's ski school, gentle learning slopes at the base, and tubing, skating and sleigh rides away from the slopes. The free shuttle saves carrying gear.

Snowbird's car-free base is easy with children, and in summer it has a mountain coaster and an alpine slide. But the mountain is built for experts, so it suits teenagers better than small children. Its zoo and aquarium options are down in Salt Lake City. Both resorts are high enough for the altitude to tire young children.

Getting around is about equally easy in both, but the weak points differ. Snowbird's compact, car-free base is a pleasure on foot. Its problem is the single canyon road, which jams on powder mornings and can close for avalanche control, keeping guests indoors.

In Winter Park, lodgings are spread along several kilometres of highway, but a free shuttle connects the base, the town and Fraser. The difficult drive there is the approach from Denver over Berthoud Pass.

Shopping in both comes down to ski gear, outerwear and souvenirs, useful for forgotten goggles and little more. Winter Park adds bike and tuning shops along its main road. From Snowbird, Park City's boutique main street and Salt Lake City's malls are within easy reach, while Winter Park's nearest proper shopping is in Denver.

Winter Park is the cheaper of the two, though neither is cheap in winter. Condos and motels in Fraser undercut the base village, kitchens keep food costs down, and it is known as a more affordable choice than Colorado's glamour resorts.

Snowbird charges full Western resort prices for lift tickets, slopeside rooms and meals. The usual way to save is a hotel in Salt Lake City and a drive up each morning. Both get much cheaper in summer.

The real difference is how close each is to a city with proper stages. Salt Lake City's symphony, opera and theatre are near enough for an evening out from Snowbird. Denver is too far from Winter Park, over a mountain pass, to make a concert easy.

At the resorts themselves, live music mostly happens in summer. Snowbird has concerts on its plaza and an Oktoberfest with oompah bands into early autumn, while Winter Park puts on free concerts on the grass in its town park.

Winter Park has a slight edge for relaxing because soaking is part of almost every stay. Most condos and lodges have a hot tub, and the terraced mineral pools of Hot Sulphur Springs above the Colorado River are half an hour away.

Snowbird puts its effort into one large spa on top of the main lodge, with a rooftop pool facing the canyon walls. Its closest warm mineral soak is the limestone crater at Homestead, about an hour away.