South Lake Tahoe or Tucson?

South Lake Tahoe has real beaches. Pope, Baldwin and Kiva sit under Jeffrey pines on the south shore, Zephyr Cove is just over the Nevada line, and the boulder coves of Sand Harbor are a short drive round the lake. The water is exceptionally clear but cold, so swimming is for July and August, and for the rest of the year the shore is for walking.

Tucson has nothing comparable. The nearest sea is the Gulf of California at Puerto Peñasco, about four hours away, so swimming means a hotel pool. The pools that form in Sabino Canyon after the rains are pleasant, but you cannot plan around them.

Tucson has a cuisine of its own, and Tahoe does not. On South 12th Avenue and in the old barrios, family kitchens serve mesquite-grilled carne asada, paper-thin flour tortillas and Sonoran hot dogs, and desert ingredients such as tepary beans and cholla buds appear on menus and at markets.

South Lake Tahoe eats like the ski resort it is: casino steakhouses and buffets, pizza and taquerias along Highway 50, and breakfast places for skiers. Its local craft beer is the best thing on offer, and many visitors end up cooking in their cabin.

Tucson has much more to see indoors and in town. Mission San Xavier del Bac, with its gilded 18th-century interior, would be worth a detour from anywhere. The adobe streets of Barrio Viejo, the Native American collections at the Arizona State Museum and the hundreds of aircraft at Pima Air & Space fill two or three days.

South Lake Tahoe's sights are a short list from its days as a summer retreat for wealthy San Franciscans: the lakeside estates at the Tallac Historic Site and Vikingsholm at Emerald Bay. Both are best seen as part of a day outdoors.

Neither city has a big night out, but Tucson offers more choice and more of it on foot. Fourth Avenue has cheap student dive bars and patios, Congress Street a few blocks away has cocktail bars and rooftops, and warm evenings outdoors are much of the appeal, at least during the university term.

South Lake Tahoe is split by the state line. The Nevada casino towers at Stateline stay open all night, while the California side has après-ski and early nights. You can stay out later than in Tucson, but there is no bar street to wander between.

South Lake Tahoe has the more spectacular setting. The deep blue lake is ringed by granite peaks, Emerald Bay is a classic western view, and the lake-strewn Desolation Wilderness starts minutes from town. Its outdoor seasons run all year: serious skiing at Heavenly, Kirkwood and Sierra-at-Tahoe, then the Flume Trail, the Tahoe Rim Trail and kayaking on calm mornings.

Tucson's landscape is completely different. Saguaro forests reach the suburbs, and the drive up Mount Lemmon climbs from cactus into pine in about an hour. The birdwatching in the sky islands and the road cycling are excellent, but in summer the heat pushes every outing to dawn.

Both cities sit in old mining country, but Tucson has more varied outings. Bisbee's steep streets of Victorian houses, Tombstone's frontier story, the artists' village of Tubac with the Tumacácori mission ruins, the Sonoita wineries and the Biosphere 2 dome give you a different kind of day each time.

From South Lake Tahoe, the choices are Virginia City's boardwalks and saloons, the gold discovery site at Coloma, the Amador vineyards, or Reno for a bigger casino town. They are good for a day of bad weather but rarely worth planning around.

Both work well for families, but in different seasons and in different ways. South Lake Tahoe is all outdoors: shallow sandy beaches and bike paths in summer, ski schools and sledding hills in winter. It has nothing for children indoors, so a snowbound day can be long.

Tucson covers that gap with the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Reid Park Zoo, a children's museum, a planetarium and the giant aircraft at Pima. It is best from October to April, because summer heat makes the outdoor sights hard going for small children.

You will want a car in both, for different reasons. In South Lake Tahoe the area around Stateline and the gondola is walkable, and free shuttles run to the slopes in winter. The obstacles are summer weekend traffic on the Emerald Bay road and winter chain controls on the passes.

Tucson is a low, wide city with a single streetcar line linking downtown, Fourth Avenue and the university. Traffic is light and parking easy, but the national park, the mission and Mount Lemmon are all well out of town.

Tucson is the better place to shop. Look for Native American jewellery, Tohono O'odham baskets and Mexican folk art in the old town galleries and down in Tubac, and vintage shops on Fourth Avenue. Each winter the gem and mineral show fills the city with dealers.

South Lake Tahoe's shops are practical: ski rental, outdoor gear, groceries for the cabin and souvenirs at the gondola base, plus a few galleries selling lake photography.

Tucson is easier on the budget. Mid-range hotels are reasonable, taquerías and hot dog stands keep meals cheap, and prices fall sharply in summer for anyone who can bear the heat. The winter gem show, the resorts and the hire car are where the costs mount.

South Lake Tahoe is expensive exactly when people want to go, with peak ski weeks, high summer and big lift tickets. Midweek casino hotel deals, the shoulder seasons and a cabin kitchen help, and the trails and beaches are free.

Tucson has a proper, if small, season: the Tucson Symphony, Arizona Opera, the Arizona Theatre Company and touring Broadway at Centennial Hall. There are also concerts at the restored Fox Theatre and a deep mariachi tradition, and most of it runs from autumn to spring.

South Lake Tahoe's entertainment comes mostly from the casino showrooms, with touring rock, comedy and tribute acts. Summer adds two things Tucson cannot match: the Shakespeare festival on the sand at Sand Harbor and evening performances at the Tallac estates.

Tucson is one of the places where the American destination spa began. Long-established resorts in the Catalina foothills and towards Oracle build whole stays around fitness, massage and meditation, with the clear winter desert light as the backdrop.

South Lake Tahoe's spas are mostly add-ons at casinos and ski lodges. Its strength is natural hot water: Grover Hot Springs in an alpine meadow and the Carson Valley springs near Genoa give you something Tucson, with no bathing tradition, does not have.