Aspen or Palm Springs?

Neither town has a beach, so this does not help you choose. What differs is what you get instead: in Aspen, cold alpine lakes, reservoirs and rafting on the Roaring Fork, and in Palm Springs, the pool that nearly every place to stay is built around and that is warm enough to use for much of the year.

Aspen eats more ambitiously, with chef-led dining rooms, steak and sushi counters, serious wine lists, après-ski terraces at the foot of Aspen Mountain and the Food & Wine Classic each June. Palm Springs is more casual, with long patio brunches, poolside cocktails and mid-range American places along Palm Canyon Drive.

What Palm Springs has that Aspen lacks is cheaper and more local food down the valley: date shakes from the Indio groves, and Mexican taquerias and panaderias. Both have a narrow range, and both see kitchens close or cut back in the off season, which is spring and autumn in Aspen and high summer in the desert.

Palm Springs has more to see, and most of it is buildings rather than museums. Frey's angular houses, Neutra's Kaufmann House and the folded roofs of Twin Palms and Vista Las Palmas fill a full day by bike or car. The Agua Caliente Cultural Museum adds the story of the Cahuilla people.

Aspen's heritage is red brick from the silver-mining years, with the Wheeler Opera House and the West End's miners' cottages. The Aspen Art Museum and Bayer's Aspen Institute campus show its modern side. Together they fill an afternoon rather than a day.

Both scenes are small, and they differ mostly in style. Aspen's nightlife belongs to ski season: après-ski on the slopeside decks, then hotel bars and a few clubs with a well-dressed, high-spending crowd around Christmas and the X Games. Palm Springs centres on the LGBTQ bars of Arenas Road, with drag nights, retro cocktail lounges and hotel pool parties on spring weekends.

Each goes quiet in its off season: Aspen in spring and autumn, Palm Springs in the summer heat.

Both sit below big mountains, but Aspen is the true outdoor destination. In winter there are four ski mountains plus hut-to-hut backcountry touring. In summer there are the Maroon Bells, wilderness routes to passes and summits above 4,000m, mountain biking, rafting and fly-fishing, all starting close to town.

Palm Springs has real landscape too: the tramway up to the pine forest on Mount San Jacinto, the palm oases of the Indian Canyons, and the boulders and night skies of Joshua Tree. Heat limits its outdoor season, though, and from June to September hiking is confined to dawn or the cool upper mountain.

Palm Springs has the more varied list, though neither is strong here. By car you can reach the pine village of Idyllwild, the old Western film set at Pioneertown, Salvation Mountain by the Salton Sea and the wineries of Temecula.

From Aspen the outings are small mountain towns: Glenwood Springs, Carbondale, Redstone and Marble, plus Leadville over Independence Pass. The pass closes in winter, so the choice gets shorter in the busiest season.

Aspen is the easier choice with children, especially for skiing. Buttermilk and Snowmass have gentle slopes, good ski schools and areas just for kids, and in summer the mountains have alpine coasters and ropes courses. The altitude can tire young children for the first day or two.

Palm Springs has The Living Desert, the tramway and the Air Museum, but many of its boutique hotels are adults-only, and from late spring the midday heat rules out outdoor plans. Families there do better in the large resorts further down the valley.

Aspen is far easier without a car. Its flat downtown grid is quick to walk, the gondola leaves from its southern edge, and free buses run to all four ski areas and, in summer, to the Maroon Bells.

In Palm Springs only the downtown strip works on foot. The tramway, the canyons, Joshua Tree and the rest of the valley all need a hire car, because the buses are slow and infrequent. Both towns have an airport a few minutes away, though winter storms can close Aspen's roads in and out.

Aspen has a little more polish in a smaller space. Its few downtown blocks hold international luxury labels, high-end ski wear, jewellers and commercial art galleries, which suits buyers of designer goods.

Palm Springs suits a different kind of shopper: someone hunting mid-century furniture, lighting and vintage clothes in the Uptown Design District, or browsing the Village Fest street fair. El Paseo and the Cabazon outlets are a short drive away for mainstream shopping.

Neither town is cheap, but Aspen is far more expensive. Lodging, lift tickets, ski school and meals are priced for a very wealthy clientele, and staying in Glenwood Springs only softens the cost.

Palm Springs is expensive from winter into spring, but rates drop sharply in summer and simple motels exist all year, so a careful traveller can make it work. Allow for a hire car there, which in Aspen you can mostly do without.

Aspen has the stronger programme. It centres on the Aspen Music Festival's eight summer weeks of orchestral, chamber and opera performances in the Benedict Music Tent, where you can listen for free from the lawn. The Aspen Santa Fe Ballet and the Wheeler Opera House add more.

Palm Springs offers drag cabaret and piano bars in town, touring shows at the McCallum Theatre and concerts at the tribal casinos. Its biggest musical events, Coachella and Stagecoach, are festivals out in Indio each April rather than evening concerts in town.

Palm Springs is built for switching off. The Agua Caliente bathhouse sits over the spring the town grew up around, the motels of Desert Hot Springs fill their pools with hot mineral water, and the whole day moves at the pace of the pool.

Aspen offers clear air, riverside paths, yoga in the parks and hotel spas. Its hot springs are farther away, though: an hour's drive to Glenwood Springs or a long hike up to Conundrum. In peak ski season the busy streets also make it less restful.