South Lake Tahoe or Whitefish?

South Lake Tahoe has the better beaches. Pope, Baldwin and Kiva line the shore under the pines on the town's edge, Nevada Beach and Zephyr Cove are just past the state line, and the boulder coves of Sand Harbor make a fine outing. The water is clear turquoise over white sand.

Whitefish has City Beach on Whitefish Lake, a sandy strip with a swimming dock, and Flathead Lake's pebbly state park shores to the south. In both places the water is mountain-cold and swimming really only works in July and August.

Neither town is a food destination, but they eat differently. South Lake Tahoe is casino and highway eating: steakhouses, buffets and late diners on the Nevada side, taquerias, pizza and brewpubs along Highway 50, with local craft beer as its best feature.

Whitefish has more regional character on the plate, with elk and bison burgers, Montana beef, trout and huckleberries in everything from pie to cocktails in late summer. Its restaurants cluster on Central Avenue, so dinner is a stroll rather than a drive, but after a few nights you will be back at the same handful of tables.

There is little to see indoors in either town. South Lake Tahoe has a little more for a morning, with the early 20th-century estates of the Tallac Historic Site and Vikingsholm, the Scandinavian-style mansion at the head of Emerald Bay, both tied to the lake's past as a retreat for wealthy San Franciscans. Whitefish's main sight is its timber-framed Great Northern depot, which houses a small museum of the railway and logging days.

South Lake Tahoe gives you more scope for a late night, because the casino towers at Stateline keep their bars, lounges and a club or two open into the small hours. On the California side, though, evenings are brewpubs and early beds, and there is no bar district to wander.

Whitefish has no clubs and winds down earlier, but it does have the street Tahoe lacks. Central Avenue's old saloons and taprooms, with pool tables and a crowd of ranchers and ski bums, make for a friendly evening on foot.

These are two of the finest mountain bases in the American West, but the settings differ. South Lake Tahoe is built around the lake: the view over Emerald Bay, the granite lake basins of the Desolation Wilderness minutes from town, the Tahoe Rim Trail along the ridges and the Flume Trail for mountain biking. Its high country is also open for a longer season, with golden aspens in autumn.

Whitefish's prize is Glacier National Park, wilder and more remote, with jagged peaks, glaciers and grizzlies, and the Bob Marshall Wilderness beyond. In winter Big Mountain above town is a full ski area to match Heavenly, though Tahoe has Kirkwood and Sierra-at-Tahoe close by as well.

South Lake Tahoe has more to drive to. Virginia City's boardwalks and saloons are about an hour over the mountains, Coloma, where gold was found in 1848, and the Amador wine country lie down Highway 50, and Reno and Sacramento's old town are within a couple of hours.

From Whitefish the towns are smaller and fewer: Kalispell's Conrad Mansion, Bigfork's galleries on Flathead Lake and the mission church at St Ignatius two hours south. Here the best outings head into the park rather than to other towns.

South Lake Tahoe works better for children. Summer brings sandy beaches with shallow water, bike paths through the pines and the short Taylor Creek trails, and winter brings sledding hills and snow play areas as well as ski schools. Kitchen-equipped condos make the logistics easy, though the Stateline casino strip is best walked past.

Whitefish has its own summer fun on the mountain, with a zip line and alpine slide, and the flat Trail of the Cedars in Glacier suits small legs. However, the long drives into the park tire young children, and neither town has indoor attractions for a bad-weather day.

You will want a car in both, and neither is clearly easier. Whitefish has the advantage of arrival, because the long-distance train stops at the depot on a walkable downtown, but Glacier and the lakes lie along rural highways with little transport.

South Lake Tahoe has a walkable core around Stateline and free shuttles along the highway and to the slopes. On the other hand, weekend traffic crawls round Emerald Bay in summer, and winter storms bring chain controls on the passes in.

Whitefish is the better place for an afternoon's browsing. Central Avenue and its side streets have western-wear and boot shops, galleries of wildlife art and gifts of huckleberry jam and Montana-made goods. South Lake Tahoe's shops are practical, mostly ski and outdoor gear, rentals and souvenirs around the gondola base, with a few galleries of lake photography.

Both are expensive resort towns in summer and ski season, and the ways to save differ. At South Lake Tahoe, the casino hotels on the Nevada side discount heavily midweek and in spring and autumn, although the big resorts' lift tickets are steep.

In Whitefish, rooms are scarce at peak times, so staying in Kalispell or Columbia Falls is the usual saving, and you will almost certainly be paying for a hire car. Once you are inside Glacier, the days cost little.

The stages are thin in both, and different in character. South Lake Tahoe's live entertainment comes mostly from the casino showrooms and arena, with touring rock and country acts and comedians, plus summer Shakespeare on the beach at Sand Harbor and concerts at the Tallac estates.

Whitefish is more homegrown. It has a community performing arts centre, a professional summer theatre company and the valley symphony playing in Kalispell, plus bar bands on summer nights.

South Lake Tahoe offers more for a restful stay, mainly because hot springs are close. Grover Hot Springs has a mineral pool in an alpine meadow about 45 minutes south, and the Carson Valley resorts near Genoa are half an hour over the pass. Its own spas are mostly in casino hotels and ski lodges.

Whitefish has lodge and mountain spas and yoga studios in town, but Montana's hot springs pools are a couple of hours away. What it does offer is calm: slow lakeside mornings in a town that rarely feels rushed.