Aspen or Mammoth Lakes?

Neither town is a place to swim, but in July and August Mammoth Lakes at least gives you somewhere to get into the water. Horseshoe Lake in the Lakes Basin is the usual cold dip, and Crowley Lake, lower down, warms a little more. Hot Creek is not an option, because bathing there is banned.

In Aspen the alpine lakes and reservoirs stay cold and the Roaring Fork is for rafting, so a hotel pool is the realistic swim.

Aspen eats like a much bigger and richer place. It has chef-led dining rooms, sushi and steak counters, wine lists aimed at wealthy skiers, slopeside après-ski terraces and the Food & Wine Classic each June. Its weak spot is the lack of anything cheap and casual.

Mammoth Lakes serves ski-town fuel: hearty breakfasts, burgers, pizza, tacos and steakhouses, with craft beer brewed in town and a few more ambitious kitchens around the Village. It is satisfying after a day outside but rarely a reason to book. Both towns cut back on restaurants in the quiet spring and autumn weeks.

Aspen has a small but real townscape to walk. The silver boom left red-brick Victorian blocks and the Wheeler Opera House, and the West End has painted miners' cottages. Add the Aspen Art Museum and Herbert Bayer's modernist Aspen Institute campus, with the Ashcroft ghost town up the valley.

Mammoth Lakes grew from a mining camp into a resort of modern lodges and condominiums, and a log-cabin history museum is nearly all there is to see. The region's heritage lies along the highway, an hour or more away.

Both are après-ski towns, but Aspen takes the evening further. In ski season the slopeside decks empty into downtown bars, lounges and a few small clubs. Over Christmas, New Year and the X Games, a well-dressed crowd stays out late.

Mammoth Lakes has the Village bars, pubs and brewery taprooms, which are lively on ski-season long weekends. There are no clubs, though, and most nights wind down before midnight because people are up early for the slopes or trails. Summer is quieter in both towns, and Aspen's patio drinks are about as busy as it gets.

Mountains are the whole point of each town, and at roughly the same 2,400m the difference lies in character rather than quality. Aspen spreads its skiing across four separate mountains joined by free shuttle buses: gentle Buttermilk, the steep expert terrain of Highlands, sprawling Snowmass, and Aspen Mountain, whose gondola rises from the edge of downtown. Huts allow overnight backcountry tours, and in summer the Elk Mountains give you the Maroon Bells, Independence Pass and summits above 4,000m.

Mammoth Lakes puts its skiing on one enormous mountain, with a season that often runs into early summer. After the snow melts, the same mountain becomes a lift-served bike park. Around it lies a drier, volcanic landscape: the granite-ringed Lakes Basin, Devils Postpile, Rainbow Falls and the tufa towers of Mono Lake. Once Tioga Pass opens, the Yosemite high country is about an hour away.

From Aspen, day trips are short hops to small valley towns. From Mammoth Lakes there are fewer places to go, but they carry more history. Down the valley from Aspen lie Carbondale and Glenwood Springs, with its railway-era centre, and up the Crystal River are Redstone and Marble. In summer, Independence Pass opens the drive to Leadville's old mining main street, but in winter the pass closes and the list gets shorter.

The highway below the Sierra leads from Mammoth Lakes to Bodie, a gold-rush ghost town left in arrested decay, and to Manzanar, the Second World War internment camp. Each is over an hour's drive away. Lee Vining and June Lake make shorter outings, and here too the passes shut in winter.

Both work well for an active family vacation. Neither has a zoo, aquarium or theme park, and in both the altitude can tire young children for the first day or two. Aspen splits beginners between Buttermilk and Snowmass, with free buses linking them. In summer it adds alpine coasters, ropes courses and downtown fountains.

Mammoth Lakes leans more on simple outdoor pleasures: snow tubing in winter, and rowing boats, trout fishing and lakeside picnics in summer. Condominiums with kitchens make family stays easier.

Aspen is much easier to manage without a car. Its flat downtown grid is walkable in minutes and the gondola leaves from its edge. Free buses run to all four ski mountains, other buses reach Glenwood Springs and the Maroon Bells, and the airport is a few minutes away.

Mammoth Lakes is spread along a few main roads, with only the pedestrian Village compact enough to walk. Winter shuttles and the Village gondola cover a ski trip, and a summer trolley and shuttle reach the Lakes Basin and Reds Meadow. Beyond those, the Eastern Sierra really needs a car, sometimes with snow chains.

For anyone with a taste for luxury, Aspen is a genuine place to shop. In a few pedestrian blocks it packs international designer boutiques, high-end ski wear, jewellers, Western leather and fur, and commercial art galleries. Window-shopping there makes a pleasant part of an evening out.

Shops in Mammoth Lakes are about gear: ski, snowboard, climbing and fly-fishing specialists, rental outlets, landscape photography galleries and Village souvenirs. Neither town suits someone hoping to browse markets or local crafts.

Aspen is clearly the dearer of the two. In ski season, rooms and condos cost more than in most big cities, and lift tickets, ski school, meals and drinks are all priced for a very wealthy clientele. Summer eases things a little, and many visitors stay down the valley in Glenwood Springs or Carbondale, but it never becomes a cheap trip.

Mammoth Lakes also charges heavily in the peak ski weeks, and its lift tickets are among the costliest anywhere. Even so, it leaves more room to save. Days on the trails and lakes cost little, rooms get cheaper in spring and autumn, and staying in a condominium and cooking for yourself is the usual way to keep costs down.

Aspen has a proper summer music season. For about eight weeks the Aspen Music Festival puts on orchestral, chamber and opera performances in the Benedict Music Tent, where you can picnic on the lawn and listen for free. The Aspen Santa Fe Ballet and jazz festivals add more, and the Wheeler Opera House has something on all year.

Mammoth Lakes offers a smaller, homelier version. There is a community theatre company on the college campus, plus a summer jazz festival, a chamber series and concerts in a meadow. These make a pleasant evening, but they are not a reason to travel.

The two are evenly matched for unwinding, with resort spas, clear air and slow off-season days, but the soaking is quite different. Aspen has no hot springs in town. The big mineral pools and cave vapour baths of Glenwood Springs are about an hour away, and reaching Conundrum Hot Springs takes a long wilderness hike.

Mammoth Lakes sits on volcanic ground, and its simple, undeveloped pools are a short dirt-road drive out into the sagebrush, with the Sierra across the valley. They get busy at sunset.