Aspen or Dallas?

Neither city is a place for a beach, and in both you will mostly swim in a pool. Aspen's water is snowmelt. Its alpine lakes and reservoirs stay cold even in July, so a raft on the Roaring Fork is the best way to get wet.

Dallas is the opposite. Lewisville and Grapevine lakes are warm all summer and have sandy, if plain, park beaches, and Arlington has water parks. The Gulf coast is four hours' drive away.

Dallas has more to eat and more ways to eat it. There is brisket sold by weight, Tex-Mex with frozen margaritas, taco trucks in Oak Cliff, and whole suburbs of Vietnamese, Korean and South Asian cooking, though you will drive between them.

Aspen eats well for a small town. It has chef-led dining rooms, sushi and steak, and après-ski terraces at the base of Aspen Mountain. But nearly everything is upmarket, there is no cheap middle, and many kitchens close in spring and autumn.

Dallas has a sight that people cross the country to see: the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. The Dallas Museum of Art and the Nasher Sculpture Center are a few blocks away in the Arts District, and Fair Park has its Art Deco halls. Two days fill easily.

In Aspen, culture is a walk rather than a list of sights. You pass the red-brick silver-boom blocks around the Wheeler Opera House, the West End's miners' cottages, Herbert Bayer's Aspen Institute campus and the Aspen Art Museum. It has more historic streets to wander than central Dallas, with its towers, but an afternoon covers it.

In Aspen, the night out follows the ski calendar. In the peak weeks, après-ski moves from the slopeside decks into downtown lounges, hotel bars and a few small clubs. The crowd is well-dressed and spends freely, and you can walk everywhere. Summer evenings are drinks on patios, and in spring and autumn the town goes quiet.

Dallas gives you a bigger night out, and it runs all year. Each district has its own character: dive bars and late crowds in Deep Ellum, polished patio bars on McKinney Avenue, rooftops in Lower Greenville. Last orders are at 2am, and you take a ride-hail from one area to the next.

This is Aspen's whole case. In winter it has four ski mountains linked by free shuttles and a gondola from the edge of downtown. In summer, trails lead from town to the Maroon Bells and to high passes below summits above 4,000m. Rafting, fly-fishing and the gold aspen groves of late September fill the rest.

Dallas sits in flat, pleasant prairie country. It has the White Rock Lake loop, the Katy Trail, the Great Trinity Forest and the limestone escarpments of Cedar Ridge Preserve. They are good for a morning run or a paddle but not a reason to come, and the summer heat pushes everything into the early morning.

Dallas has one excellent day out: Fort Worth, a very different city with the Stockyards and the Kimbell Art Museum, reachable by commuter train. Grapevine's wineries, the courthouse squares of McKinney and Denton, and Waco add more, mostly by car.

From Aspen, the trips are to small mountain towns. There are Glenwood Springs, Carbondale, the quarry village of Marble and the ghost town of Ashcroft, plus Leadville over Independence Pass in summer. They make pleasant drives, but none matches Fort Worth, and the pass closes in winter.

Aspen suits one kind of family trip: skiing. Buttermilk and Snowmass have gentle slopes, good ski schools and kids' areas, and in summer the lifts lead to alpine coasters and ropes courses. The town is small, safe and easy to get around. But there is no zoo or theme park, and the altitude can tire young children for the first day or two.

Families who want a full week of things to do will find more around Dallas. Arlington has Six Flags and a water park side by side, there are big zoos in Dallas and Fort Worth, and the Perot Museum and the Dallas World Aquarium fill rainy days. The catch is the long car journeys, and the heat that makes outdoor sightseeing hard from June to September.

Aspen is far easier to get around. You can walk the flat downtown grid in minutes, the gondola leaves from its edge, and free buses reach all four ski mountains, with a summer shuttle to the Maroon Bells. Leaving the valley is harder, because the roads cross mountain passes that storms can close.

Dallas assumes you have a car. DART light rail serves both airports, downtown, Deep Ellum and Fair Park, and the M-Line streetcar runs through Uptown. But most sights lie miles apart along freeways, and summer heat makes walking hard.

Both cities lean towards luxury, but Dallas has much more of it. There are NorthPark Center, Highland Park Village with its Spanish-style buildings, the Galleria and the legacy of Neiman Marcus, which was founded here. You can also buy Western boots and hats, from everyday pairs to custom-made, and browse independent boutiques in Bishop Arts.

Aspen fits designer boutiques, ski wear, jewellers and art galleries into a few pedestrian blocks, so shopping is an evening stroll rather than a drive. Beyond that there is little, unless you are shopping high-end.

In Aspen the high cost goes well beyond the room. Lift tickets, ski school, restaurant meals and drinks are all priced for a very wealthy crowd, so a family ski week adds up quickly. Summer and the quieter spring and autumn weeks cost less, and the free valley buses mean you need not pay for transport.

Dallas costs far less overall, though some things still add up. Most visitors pay for a hire car or a lot of ride-hails, and tax and tip go on top of every sit-down meal and bar bill. Stay in Uptown or downtown, or eat at the steakhouses and cocktail bars, and the prices come close to those of big cities.

Aspen's stage life belongs mostly to summer. For about eight weeks the Aspen Music Festival fills the Benedict Music Tent with orchestral, chamber and opera concerts, and many people picnic on the lawn outside and listen for free. Jazz and the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet add to the season, and the Wheeler Opera House has concerts, comedy and film all year. In winter, though, the choice is thin, and the town has no resident opera or theatre company of note.

Three resident companies share the Arts District in Dallas. The Dallas Symphony plays in I. M. Pei's Meyerson, the Dallas Opera performs at the Winspear, which also hosts touring Broadway shows, and the Dallas Theater Center is based at the Wyly. So whatever the month, you can usually book a concert, an opera or a play. After dark, Deep Ellum's clubs keep up the district's blues and jazz roots alongside rock, hip-hop and touring bands, and Texas dancehall music is easy to find.

Aspen is the more restful place, at least outside the peak ski weeks. It has clear mountain air, riverside paths, yoga in the parks and resort spas offering altitude-recovery treatments. The mineral pools and cave vapour baths of Glenwood Springs are an hour away, and Conundrum Hot Springs is the reward for a long hike.

Dallas moves at a brisk, car-bound pace, so rest means hotel spas, day-spa chains and the pool. The exception is a large Korean-style bathhouse in the north of the city, where people spend the whole day lounging.