Alta, Utah or Denver?

Neither city is a place to swim. The Great Salt Lake below Alta is too shallow and too salty for bathing, so a swim there means the lodge pool or a hot tub after the lifts close. Denver has a little more in summer: sandy reservoir beaches at Cherry Creek and Chatfield on the edge of the city, and outdoor public pools for a hot afternoon.

In Alta you eat where you sleep. Dinner is a set meal at long communal tables on half board, and lunch is in a slopeside cafeteria. It is solid fuel for skiing, but there is no restaurant street or café to explore, and Utah's liquor rules affect how drinks are served.

Denver gives you a real choice every evening. There are taprooms in the RiNo warehouses, green chile smothered over burritos, Mexican and Vietnamese cooking along Federal Boulevard, and chef-run places in Highland. It is casual rather than grand, but it is a world away from lodge dining, and Alta guests who want that variety have to drive down to Salt Lake City.

Alta's history is that of a silver-mining camp that became an early ski area. Old mine workings on the slopes are the only trace of it, and there is no museum or historic building to visit.

Denver was a gold-rush city, founded in 1858, and it has enough for two or three days. You can see the Denver Art Museum and its Native American collection, the Clyfford Still Museum, the gold-domed State Capitol and the brick warehouses of LoDo around Union Station. It is not a cultural capital, but of these two it is the only one with sights at all.

An evening in Alta is short by design. You have a drink in a lodge bar after the last run, then the village goes quiet, because everyone wants to be on the lifts first thing in the morning, and that early rhythm is part of why regulars keep coming back. There is a busier après-ski crowd at the resort next door, but a proper night out means the drive down the canyon to Salt Lake City.

In Denver, those same hours become a full evening of moving from bar to bar. You can join the sports crowd in LoDo when there is a home game, go on to a cocktail bar in RiNo, and finish somewhere older and rougher along East Colfax. There are a few places for dancing, but they are a sideline here, and most nights end well before daybreak. For a group that wants more than one drink and bed, Denver is the only real option of the two.

Both cities sit beside big mountains, but Alta is right among them. At around 2,600m at the head of Little Cottonwood Canyon, it gets some of the deepest, driest powder in North America. It has steep skiing, serious backcountry touring and, in summer, the meadows of Albion Basin and the walk to Cecret Lake straight from the village.

Denver offers more variety but less depth. Red Rocks and the foothills above Golden are within half an hour, and the Flatirons, a long list of high summits and the elk and tundra of Rocky Mountain National Park are further out. Every outing needs a drive, though, including the slow weekend traffic on I-70 to the ski resorts.

From Alta the choice is short. Salt Lake City has Temple Square and its museums, and Park City has its old silver-mining Main Street. In winter, either trip depends on the canyon road staying open.

Denver has more towns within reach, and they are more varied. Boulder sits under the Flatirons, Georgetown has Victorian mining streets and its narrow-gauge railway, and there are Manitou Springs, Fort Collins and Estes Park at the gate of Rocky Mountain National Park. Neither city puts the great Southwestern parks within a day's reach.

Alta works for a family that skis. It has a ski school, gentle runs near the base and rooms close to the lifts, but nothing for a child who does not ski. On storm days, avalanche control can keep everyone indoors.

Denver has far more to fill the days. City Park holds both the zoo and the Museum of Nature & Science with its dinosaurs, the Children's Museum and an amusement park are by the South Platte, and easy trails are a short drive away. The altitude needs care with small children in both places, and more so at Alta.

Neither is easy without a car, but the problems are different. In Alta the lodges are ski-in, ski-out and a shuttle links them, so once you arrive you barely need to move. Leaving the village is the hard part: there is a single canyon road where chains are often required and queues build on powder mornings.

Denver has a flat downtown you can walk, a train from the airport to Union Station and light rail out to the suburbs. Even so, Red Rocks, the mountains and most day trips still call for a hired car.

In Alta, shopping stops at ski rental, ski tuning and a little outdoor gear, so anyone who wants to browse goes down to Salt Lake City or Park City. Denver has the Cherry Creek mall with boutiques around it, vintage and record shops on South Broadway, and large outdoor-gear stores and Western wear, cowboy boots included. It is not a place for luxury buying, but it can easily fill an afternoon.

Neither is cheap, but Alta costs more to stay in. Its few beds are almost all in ski lodges that charge high rates in season, usually with dinner included, and there is next to no budget lodging up the canyon. The usual way to ski Alta for less is to sleep in the valley and ride the bus up.

Denver has ordinary big-city prices and more ways to save. You can stay near the light rail, eat at taquerias and breweries, and spend your days in the free parks and on the trails.

Alta has no stage of any kind, and evenings are spent in the lodge. Denver's performing arts are one of the strongest reasons to choose it. There are summer concerts at Red Rocks Amphitheatre between its sandstone monoliths, theatre, touring musicals, the Colorado Symphony, opera and ballet at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, and jazz in Five Points.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, and the facilities are modest in both. Alta's larger lodges have hot tubs, saunas and massage, and Denver has hotel spas, day spas and yoga studios.

What differs is the kind of rest each one gives. In Alta the calm comes from silence, snow-muffled storm days and early nights after skiing. From Denver you can drive in under an hour to the historic mineral pools and steam caves of Idaho Springs, or go further for an overnight stay at a larger hot-spring resort.