Alta, Utah or Estes Park?

Neither is a place to swim. Alta's nearest open water is the Great Salt Lake, shallow and briny, so summer swimming means a lodge pool or hot tub. Estes Park at least has water to look at: Lake Estes and the park's alpine lakes are good for paddling and fishing from the shore, though snowmelt keeps them far too cold to swim in, and the town's indoor aquatic centre is the place for a proper swim.

Estes Park gives you more choice at dinner, though neither town is worth travelling to for food. In Alta most meals are eaten where you sleep: set dinners on half board in lodge dining rooms and cafeteria lunches on the mountain. A proper meal out means driving down to Salt Lake City, if the canyon road allows.

Estes Park at least has a main street to choose from, with barbecue and burger places, elk and bison on the menus, big diner breakfasts, craft breweries and the old taffy and fudge shops on Elkhorn Avenue. Quality is uneven and many kitchens only run at full stretch in summer, but you are not tied to your hotel.

Estes Park has a little more to see, chiefly the Stanley Hotel. This white Georgian Revival hotel above the valley inspired The Shining, and its public rooms and ghost stories make a good tour. The Estes Park Museum and the MacGregor Ranch at the foot of Lumpy Ridge can fill a wet afternoon.

Alta has nothing comparable. Its silver-mining past survives only as old workings on the slopes, with no museum or historic building to visit, so sightseeing means a trip down to Salt Lake City.

Both are early-to-bed places built around dawn starts, so neither suits anyone after a night out. What differs is where the evening drink happens. In Alta it is an après-ski round in a lodge bar, and the livelier scene is at the neighbouring resort. Estes Park has a handful of brewery taprooms and saloon-style bars on Elkhorn Avenue that fill up after a day on the trails and go quiet by about ten.

Both are outstanding mountain bases, and the difference is the season. Alta is above all a winter place: some of the deepest, driest powder in North America, steep terrain, a resort reserved for skiers and serious backcountry touring. In summer, Albion Basin's wildflowers and the walk to Cecret Lake are the reward.

Estes Park is strongest from late spring to autumn. Rocky Mountain National Park is on its doorstep, with Trail Ridge Road crossing the tundra, lakes such as Bear and Emerald, Longs Peak above them and elk bugling through the autumn rut. Winter there means snowshoeing in a quiet park rather than skiing.

The two offer about the same choice of outings, and both depend on the road. From Alta, Salt Lake City with Temple Square and the State Capitol is under an hour away, and Park City's old mining Main Street is about the same. In winter, though, the canyon road can close after storms, and Utah's national parks are far to the south.

Estes Park looks down to the towns on the plains instead: Boulder with Pearl Street and the Flatirons, Fort Collins with its Old Town and breweries, and Denver for big museums. In summer the drive over Trail Ridge Road to Grand Lake adds a lakeside village on the far side of the park.

Estes Park is far easier with children. Elk wander through town, rangers run junior programmes, flat lake walks at Sprague and Bear suit small legs, and mini golf, go-karts, riding stables and the tramway up Prospect Mountain fill the gaps between hikes.

Alta only works if the family skis. It has a ski school and gentle beginner terrain near the base, but nothing else made for children, and storm days can keep everyone indoors during avalanche control. Altitude affects young children in both places, and Alta sits a few hundred metres higher.

Both are small enough to manage once you arrive, and both depend on a road for everything else. Alta's lodges sit at the lifts, many with ski-in, ski-out access, and there is a winter village shuttle plus buses and shuttles up from Salt Lake City, about 50km away. But the single canyon road jams on powder mornings and closes for avalanche control.

Estes Park has a walkable downtown along Elkhorn Avenue and free summer shuttles to the Bear Lake corridor. Even so, a car is close to essential for the park and the plains, and the drive up from Denver takes about an hour and a half.

Estes Park at least offers an hour's browsing along Elkhorn Avenue, where western wear, outdoor gear, taffy makers and galleries of wildlife photography and jewellery sit among the souvenir shops. Alta has only ski rental and tuning shops, some outdoor gear and branded souvenirs, so anyone who wants to shop has to go down to Salt Lake City or Park City.

Neither is cheap, but Estes Park gives you more ways to save. Its summer and early-autumn rates are high, but winter and spring rooms cost far less, cabins with kitchens let you cook, and the hiking and wildlife in the park cost nothing beyond the entrance fee.

Alta has few beds, nearly all in a handful of ski lodges charging season rates, often with dinner included, and almost no budget lodging up the canyon. Lift tickets are fair by American standards, but the usual way to cut costs is to sleep in the Salt Lake valley and come up each day.

Estes Park has a modest summer programme, which is more than Alta has. There are free concerts at the riverside performance park, music and ghost-story evenings at the Stanley Hotel, and the Scottish-Irish Highland Festival with its pipe bands each September. Alta has no theatre or venue at all, only occasional summer events at the neighbouring resort. For a serious concert or play, you go down to Salt Lake City from Alta, or to Boulder or Denver from Estes Park.

Both offer calm rather than pampering, and neither has hot springs or a bathing tradition. Alta's calm comes after a day's skiing: outdoor hot tubs steaming in the snow, saunas, small lodge spas and the hush of storm days. In Estes Park it means a riverside cabin, mountain air and elk at dusk, and it is best in winter and spring once the summer crowds have gone.