Aspen or Beaver Creek?

Neither town is a place for swimming, as both sit high in the Rockies, far from any coast. The differences are small. Aspen has cold alpine lakes and reservoirs, plus rafting on the Roaring Fork. Beaver Creek has a tiny sandy patch at Nottingham Lake in Avon, and a heated outdoor hotel pool with a mountain view is the more realistic swim at either.

Aspen offers more range. A town of a few thousand supports chef-led dining rooms, sushi and steak counters, Italian kitchens and serious wine lists, and the Food & Wine Classic in June brings chefs and winemakers to town. In summer there is also a Saturday farmers' market. The catch is that many kitchens close in spring and autumn.

Beaver Creek is resort dining: elk, Colorado lamb and trout served in similar refined dining rooms. Its one distinctive outing is dinner at an on-mountain lodge reached by chairlift or snowcat sleigh. For cheaper, everyday food you go down to the taquerias and brewpubs of Avon and Edwards, or over to Vail.

Aspen has a past to walk through. Its silver-boom downtown keeps red-brick Victorian blocks around the Wheeler Opera House, the West End is lined with painted miners' cottages, and Herbert Bayer's modernist Aspen Institute campus and the Aspen Art Museum add design interest. Ashcroft ghost town lies just up the valley.

Beaver Creek was built as a ski resort around 1980, so its stone and timber village and the outdoor art around the plaza take about an hour to see. For any real history you need to drive to the old mining towns.

Aspen has a genuine night scene in winter. Après-ski moves from the slopeside decks into downtown bars and lounges, and over Christmas, New Year and the X Games a few small clubs stay busy late with a well-dressed, free-spending crowd. Summer evenings are gentler, with drinks on patios.

Beaver Creek was designed to be quiet. A cocktail by a fire pit on the plaza, dinner and a hotel lounge is the usual night out, and there is almost nothing open late. Anyone wanting more drives to Vail.

Both are first-rate mountain bases, and the difference is in the terrain. Aspen gives you four separate ski mountains, from gentle Buttermilk to steep Highlands, with backcountry huts for overnight tours. In summer the Maroon Bells, Independence Pass and summits above 4,000m are close at hand.

Beaver Creek's strength is long groomed runs on famously uncrowded slopes, linked to Bachelor Gulch and Arrowhead, with Vail's vast terrain close by. In summer you can head into the Holy Cross Wilderness and the Gore Range, and the Eagle and Colorado Rivers have gold-medal fly-fishing.

Beaver Creek is better placed for outings. Vail's pedestrian village is about twenty minutes away. Leadville lies over Tennessee Pass and Breckenridge's gold-rush centre about an hour east, with Glenwood Springs about an hour west. None of these is a major sight, but the choice holds up through the winter.

From Aspen, the outings are smaller towns down the valley: Carbondale, Redstone's coke ovens, Marble's quarry village and Glenwood Springs. Leadville is reachable only in summer, because Independence Pass closes in winter and the list then gets noticeably shorter.

Beaver Creek is the more child-friendly of the two. It has covered escalators from the car parks and an outdoor ice rink, cookies are handed out as the lifts close, and older children can roam the car-free plaza safely. In summer the hilltop adventure area adds ropes courses, climbing and mini golf.

Aspen also works well for a family ski trip, thanks to the ski schools at Buttermilk and Snowmass, and in summer there are alpine coasters and nature programmes. Much of the town, though, is aimed at well-off adults. At either place, small children can feel the altitude for the first day or two, and there is no zoo or aquarium for a bad-weather day.

Aspen is easier without a car. The downtown is a flat grid you can walk end to end in minutes, the gondola leaves from its edge, and free buses reach all four ski mountains. In summer a shuttle runs to the Maroon Bells, and the airport is only a few minutes from town.

Beaver Creek is easy within the resort, with ski-in ski-out lodging, escalators and shuttles to Avon. Beyond it, though, the airport at Eagle is about half an hour away, and supermarket runs and day trips are much simpler by car. Mountain passes and winter storms can cut off the roads to both.

Aspen is the better place to shop. Its pedestrian malls hold international luxury labels you would not expect in a mountain town, along with ski wear, jewellers and commercial galleries, and window-shopping is part of an evening out.

Beaver Creek has only a small group of upmarket stores around the plaza, selling outerwear, western boots and gallery bronzes, and it makes a pleasant browse on a rest day. For outlets and everyday shopping, people head down to Avon and Edwards.

There is no cheap option here, as both are among the most expensive places in North America for a vacation. The ways to save differ slightly. Aspen visitors often stay in Glenwood Springs or Carbondale and take the valley bus up, while at Beaver Creek the usual tactics are lodging in Avon or Edwards and buying lift passes early. Summer is easier on the budget at both.

Aspen has the stronger summer. The Aspen Music Festival runs for about eight weeks with orchestral, chamber and opera performances in the Benedict Music Tent, where people listen free on the lawn outside. Aspen Santa Fe Ballet and jazz festivals fill other evenings, and the Wheeler Opera House has shows all year.

Beaver Creek has its own small venue, the Vilar Performing Arts Center, with touring shows. Its biggest summer events, Bravo! Vail and the Vail Dance Festival, take place twenty minutes away in Vail rather than in the village itself.

Both are calm, comfortable places to unwind, and both are an hour from the mineral pools of Glenwood Springs. The style differs. Beaver Creek centres on some of the largest resort spas in the Rockies, with outdoor hot tubs in the snow, and the car-free village stays quiet even in high season.

Aspen's calm is more outdoors: yoga in the parks, riverside paths and the long hike to Conundrum Hot Springs in the wilderness. In peak ski season, though, its busy streets make it less restful.