Sun Valley or Whitefish?

Neither town has a coast, but Whitefish makes lake swimming part of ordinary summer life. City Beach on Whitefish Lake is a walk from town, with sand, a swimming dock and paddleboards, and the clear, pebbly shores of Flathead Lake are forty minutes away.

Sun Valley's nearest real lake shore is Redfish Lake under the Sawtooths, about an hour's drive, and the water there stays cold even in August. Around town, swimming means river eddies on the Big Wood or, more reliably, the heated pools.

Both eat like resort towns with one main street of restaurants, and neither offers street food or much variety over a week. The difference is in flavour. Ketchum has a few more ambitious kitchens cooking trout, lamb and elk for a wealthy crowd, plus a summer farmers' market. Whitefish is more ranch-country and casual, with bison burgers, craft breweries, a local distilling tradition and huckleberries in everything from pie to cocktails in late summer.

Neither is a place for sightseeing, and an afternoon covers either. Sun Valley's story is the more unusual one: America's first destination ski resort, built by the Union Pacific in 1936 with the first chairlifts, plus the lodge's film-star corridors and Hemingway's grave in the Ketchum cemetery. Whitefish's history is about railways and logging, told in a small museum inside the timber Great Northern depot.

Whitefish has the livelier evenings of the two. Its Central Avenue saloons and brewery taprooms mix ski bums, ranchers and visitors around pool tables, the après crowd drifts down from the mountain in winter, and summer brings patio evenings.

Sun Valley's going out is mostly après-ski in Ketchum's wine bars and hotel lounges, with a couple of loud western bars. Outside the ski season and midsummer, it is usually quiet soon after dinner. Neither town has clubs.

Both are outstanding, but for different seasons. Sun Valley is the skier's town. Bald Mountain drops steep, long and unbroken into Ketchum, with Nordic trails and backcountry touring nearby and dry winter snow. In summer it has dense singletrack, Silver Creek fly fishing and the Sawtooths an hour north.

Whitefish's draw is Glacier National Park, forty minutes east, with some of the finest day hiking on the continent, turquoise lakes and grizzlies and mountain goats. Big Mountain gives it a full ski area too. Its best country, though, is reliably open only from July to September.

Whitefish has more towns within easy reach. Kalispell's Victorian Conrad Mansion is twenty minutes away, and Bigfork's galleries, the cherry orchards along Flathead Lake and the mission church at St Ignatius make gentle outings.

From Sun Valley there is less to choose from: Hailey's small main street, the log-cabin outpost of Stanley, and Shoshone Falls two hours south. In both places, most days out end up in the mountains.

Both are safe, quiet small towns that suit outdoor families, and neither has a zoo or theme park for rainy days. Sun Valley's separate beginner hill keeps children's ski lessons away from the main mountain, and summer adds an ice rink and horse rides. Whitefish's mountain turns into a summer playground with a zip line and alpine slide, and City Beach and short, flat Glacier trails suit younger children, though park drives can be long.

Sun Valley is easier without a car, at least within the resort. A free bus runs between Ketchum, the village and the lift bases all through the season, Ketchum's grid is flat and small, and a paved path runs down the valley, so many ski weeks are spent car-free.

Whitefish has a walkable downtown and the unusual bonus of a long-distance train stopping at its depot. Its free ski shuttle runs only in winter, though, and reaching Glacier, Flathead Lake or the trailheads needs a car. Sun Valley needs one too for anything beyond the valley.

Both offer a few blocks of browsing rather than a shopping trip. Ketchum is more upmarket, with fine and western art galleries, evening gallery walks and boutiques selling cashmere and home decor to second-home owners. Central Avenue in Whitefish is homelier, with boot shops, wildlife art and huckleberry jam, and Kalispell's big stores are nearby for anything practical.

Whitefish is the less punishing of the two, though neither is a bargain. In Sun Valley the expense sits in the basics all year round: lodging is pitched at a moneyed crowd, with very few modest rooms anywhere in the valley, and dinners and lift tickets cost just as much. The saving is that a ski week can be done without paying for a car, and the quiet shoulder months take a little off the bill.

In Whitefish the cost depends more on the season. Rooms and rentals are scarce and expensive in July, August and the ski weeks, then get noticeably cheaper in late spring and autumn, and a meal costs about what it would in any American resort. The extra cost here is the hire car, which is hard to do without.

Sun Valley has the bigger summer calendar. A full professional orchestra plays several weeks of free concerts in the pavilion by the lodge, with picnics on the lawn, and figure skaters perform on the outdoor rink. For the rest of the year there is little.

Whitefish spreads smaller offerings across the year: a community arts centre, a summer theatre company in the valley, the regional symphony in Kalispell and free outdoor concerts. None of it matches Sun Valley's festival weeks.

Sun Valley is better set up for unwinding. Full resort spas and outdoor heated pools are good under falling snow, and the undeveloped hot springs beside the creek up Warm Springs give a wilder soak.

Whitefish offers lodge spas, yoga studios in town and calm lakeside mornings, but it has no thermal water within easy reach. Its rest comes mostly from the lake and the long days outside.