Albuquerque or Beaver Creek?

Neither has water worth travelling for. One sits on a desert plateau, the other high in the Rockies, and both are far from any coast. In Albuquerque, swimming means a hotel or public pool, or a drive to a reservoir such as Cochiti Lake. Beaver Creek has heated outdoor pools with mountain views and a tiny sandy patch at Nottingham Lake in Avon, where the water is chilly snowmelt.

Albuquerque has a cuisine of its own, which Beaver Creek does not. Red and green chile, carne adovada, posole and stuffed sopaipillas come from family places in the South and North Valleys and along Route 66. In late summer the smell of roasting chile drifts across the city.

Beaver Creek is stronger at the formal end, with elk, lamb and trout in polished dining rooms and sleigh rides to on-mountain lodges for dinner, but the menus repeat one another. Its cheaper everyday food is down the valley in Avon and Edwards.

The gap here is wide. Albuquerque has three centuries of history to show. There is the adobe plaza and 1793 church of Old Town, the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center run by the state's nineteen Pueblos, the National Hispanic Cultural Center, the nuclear science museum and thousands of rock carvings at Petroglyph National Monument. Together they fill a couple of rewarding days.

Beaver Creek was built as a ski resort around 1980 and has no historic quarter or museum. Its stone and timber plaza, with art set outdoors, takes about an hour to see, and for real history you drive to the old mining towns.

Neither is a place to go out, but Albuquerque at least gives you a choice. Downtown's bars and dance clubs on Central Avenue fill at weekends and can turn rowdy late, Nob Hill has cocktail bars and taprooms, and brewery patios make the most of warm evenings from spring to autumn.

At Beaver Creek the evening is après-ski by a fire pit on the plaza, then dinner and an early night, with only a few hotel lounges open later. Anyone wanting more drives to Vail.

Albuquerque has real mountain country at its edge. You can take the tramway or the steep La Luz Trail up the Sandias, walk the cottonwood bosque along the Rio Grande, where cranes spend the winter, or explore the volcanic cones to the west. It is best in spring and autumn, before and after the desert heat.

Beaver Creek, though, is built on the mountain itself. Its slopes rise to about 3,500m, with groomed runs, glades and few crowds, and Vail's terrain is next door. In summer the lifts carry hikers and bikers towards the Holy Cross Wilderness and the Gore Range, and there is fly-fishing and rafting on the Eagle and Colorado Rivers.

Albuquerque has the stronger day out in Santa Fe, an hour north and also reachable by train. Around it, by car, is a wide spread of heritage: Acoma's Sky City on its mesa, the cliff dwellings of Bandelier, the pilgrimage church at Chimayo and the mining villages of the Turquoise Trail.

From Beaver Creek the outings are other mountain towns: Vail's pedestrian village, Victorian Leadville, gold-rush Breckenridge and the spa town of Glenwood Springs. They are pleasant, but similar to one another and to the resort itself.

Both work well with children, in very different ways. Albuquerque is a city vacation for families, with the BioPark's zoo, aquarium and garden, the Explora science centre, the dinosaur halls, rockets at the nuclear museum and balloons rising at dawn during the October Fiesta. The catch is that everything means time in the car.

Beaver Creek is built for a family ski week. It has a large ski school, children's terrain, an ice rink and a car-free plaza where older children can roam, plus ropes courses and climbing in summer. It has little to offer on a wet or freezing day, and the altitude can tire small children.

Albuquerque is a spread-out, low-rise city where only Old Town is truly walkable, and a single bus line along Central Avenue links the centre with Nob Hill. The mountains, the petroglyphs and the day trips all need a rental car, though the airport is close to the centre and driving is easy.

Beaver Creek is far easier once you arrive. The village is pedestrian, escalators link its levels, many lodgings are ski-in ski-out, and free shuttles run to the base at Avon, with valley buses on to Vail. Getting there is the harder part: Denver is around two hours away over passes that winter storms can close.

Albuquerque has something distinctive to buy: silver and turquoise jewellery, Pueblo pottery, Navajo weaving and kachina carvings. These are sold around Old Town and the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, and are best bought from the artists themselves or from reputable dealers. Nob Hill adds a stretch of vintage shops and boutiques.

Beaver Creek's plaza has a small, pricey cluster of shops selling ski wear, luxury outerwear and western boots, along with galleries of bronze sculpture and landscape painting. It is good for browsing on a rest day, but neither place has a real fashion street.

Albuquerque is not cheap. Mid-range rooms cost about what they do in a European capital, and tax and tip add to every bill. But its sights and trails cost little or nothing, and the main extra is the rental car. Avoid Balloon Fiesta week if you can, as rooms become scarce and expensive.

Beaver Creek is in another bracket altogether, among the most expensive vacations in North America. Lodging, lift tickets, ski school and mountain dining are all priced to match. Staying in Avon or Edwards, or coming in summer, brings the bill down only a little.

Both have more on stage than their size suggests, but the shape differs. Albuquerque's season runs all year. Popejoy Hall hosts touring Broadway shows and the philharmonic, the Pueblo Deco KiMo Theatre stages film, theatre and concerts, and the city has a deep flamenco tradition with its own festival. Native dances are performed on weekends at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center.

Beaver Creek's offer is seasonal. The Vilar Performing Arts Center has touring shows in winter and summer, but the high point is summer in the valley. That is when Bravo! Vail brings leading orchestras to Vail's open-air amphitheatre, alongside a dance festival and a jazz series.

Albuquerque relies on hotel and resort spas, some of them on Pueblo lands with mountain views, and on drives to the mineral pools of Jemez Springs or the bathhouses around Santa Fe. The dry air and slow pace help, but rest is a side benefit rather than the reason to come.

Beaver Creek is much better for unwinding. Its resort spas are among the largest in the Rockies, with outdoor hot tubs in the snow and treatments for tired ski legs, and the car-free village is quiet in the evenings. The huge outdoor hot spring pool at Glenwood Springs, used since the 1880s, is about an hour away.