Albuquerque or Fort Collins?

Neither city is a place for a beach, and both leave swimming to lakes and reservoirs. Fort Collins has the handier option, with a designated swim beach at Horsetooth Reservoir just west of town, while in Albuquerque a cool-off usually means a hotel pool or a drive out to Cochiti Lake.

Albuquerque eats better, because it has a cuisine of its own. Carne adovada, blue corn enchiladas, posole and sopaipillas with honey, served red, green or "Christmas" in family places in the valleys and along Route 66, give every meal a sense of place, and the late-summer chile roasting fills the city with smoke.

Fort Collins is really a drinking town. Its long-established breweries and dense spread of taprooms are the draw, but the food is gastropubs, tacos and farm-to-table kitchens of the kind any college town has. Albuquerque has good breweries too, but Fort Collins is the beer destination, and Albuquerque is the one for eating.

Albuquerque has far more to see. The adobe plaza and San Felipe de Neri church in Old Town, the Pueblo-run cultural centre, the National Hispanic Cultural Center and the nuclear science museum tell three centuries of overlapping stories, and the petroglyphs and Route 66 neon add more.

Fort Collins offers a pleasant red-brick Old Town, a discovery museum and a Victorian house museum. That is an agreeable afternoon's wandering rather than a reason to come, and one day covers it.

Evenings are low-key in both, and the difference is in the crowd. Albuquerque splits between a downtown strip of bars and dance clubs that can turn rowdy at weekends and calmer cocktail bars and taprooms in Nob Hill. Fort Collins keeps everything within a few blocks of its main square, with pubs, rooftop patios and student-heavy sports bars that are friendly but thin out when the university is on break.

Both cities have mountains on the doorstep, but Fort Collins has more within reach. Horsetooth Mountain and Lory State Park start just west of town, the wild and scenic Cache la Poudre offers whitewater and fly fishing, and Rocky Mountain National Park brings alpine lakes and trails above the treeline.

Albuquerque's landscape is drier and more dramatic in its own way. The tramway lifts you to the Sandia crest above 3,000m, the bosque along the Rio Grande draws wintering cranes, and volcanic escarpments lie west of the river. It is a striking desert setting, but there is less variety close at hand.

Albuquerque's day trips are more memorable. Santa Fe alone justifies a day, reachable by commuter train as well as by car, and Acoma's mesa-top Sky City, the cliff dwellings at Bandelier and the Turquoise Trail mining villages carry real historical weight.

From Fort Collins the options are closer together but tamer. Boulder under the Flatirons, Denver's museums, Estes Park and Cheyenne's frontier museum make pleasant outings, but none matches Santa Fe or Acoma.

Albuquerque has more for children to do, and it suits school-age children who can manage a long day out. The nuclear science museum, with rockets and aircraft standing outside, adds to the obvious outings, restaurants are easy-going about children and hotel rooms tend to be roomy. The catch is logistics: almost every outing means driving across a spread-out city, and the summer sun at 1,600m is fierce, so hats, water and early starts matter.

Fort Collins is smaller and gentler, better suited to toddlers than to older children. Small children can meet animals at the city farm in Lee Martinez Park, play in the children's garden at Gardens on Spring Creek or ride the flat riverside cycle paths. In summer there is gentle tubing on the river. A few days use it up, though, and it has fewer big attractions for a longer stay.

Fort Collins is much easier without a car. Its flat, compact Old Town, the rapid-bus line, bike-share and long off-street trails let you reach breweries, campus and parks by bike, though the foothills and canyon still need wheels.

Albuquerque is laid out for driving. Apart from Old Town and the bus along Central Avenue, almost everything from the petroglyphs to the tramway means renting a car, which is at least easy to drive and park.

Albuquerque has something you can only buy in this part of the world. Silver and turquoise jewellery, Pueblo pottery and Navajo weaving around Old Town's plaza and the Pueblo cultural centre make shopping part of the trip, provided you buy from the artists or reputable dealers. Fort Collins offers likeable browsing in Old Town's bookshops, outdoor stores and Colorado-made gifts, but no craft tradition to seek out.

Costs are much the same in both, and in both a hire car is the biggest extra and tax and tip push up every meal. Where they differ is in when prices jump. In Albuquerque the Balloon Fiesta week in October fills rooms and sends rates soaring, while in Fort Collins it is university graduation and football weekends.

Both have regional-scale stages, with touring Broadway and a local orchestra at Popejoy Hall in Albuquerque and at the Lincoln Center in Fort Collins. Albuquerque has more distinctive performance, with a deep flamenco tradition, weekend Pueblo dances and the Santa Fe opera an evening's drive away. Fort Collins leans on its university arts centre, bluegrass and indie bands in Old Town and free outdoor concerts on summer evenings.

Neither is a spa destination, and both offer calm, unhurried days rather than a bathing culture. Albuquerque has the better excursion, with the mineral pools of Jemez Springs and the bathhouses around Santa Fe within reach, plus resort spas on Pueblo lands. From Fort Collins the nearest soak is close to two hours away, so relaxing there means shaded river paths and yoga rather than hot water.