Aspen or Park City?

Neither town has a beach, and most visitors to either only swim in hotel pools and hot tubs. What differs is the summer dip. Around Aspen it means cold alpine lakes, small reservoirs or rafting the Roaring Fork, while Park City has Jordanelle Reservoir down the valley, with sandy swimming areas and room to paddleboard.

Both towns eat far better than their size suggests, thanks to wealthy ski crowds, and both lack street food and a cheap middle ground. Aspen leans towards chef-led dining rooms, sushi, Italian food and long wine lists, and the June Food & Wine Classic is its big event. In the quiet seasons, though, many kitchens close.

Park City's menus are more mountain American, with elk, bison and trout along Main Street and craft beer and whiskey on the après-ski decks. Cheaper meals come from the chains at Kimball Junction, and for more variety, Salt Lake City's restaurants are an easy drive away.

Both are old silver-mining towns, and in either one an afternoon covers the heritage. Aspen's is red-brick Victorian, with the Wheeler Opera House and the painted miners' cottages of the West End. It also has a contemporary art museum and Herbert Bayer's modernist Aspen Institute campus.

Park City's history shows in the wooden storefronts climbing Main Street and the mine headframes on the slopes above. The Park City Museum tells the mining story well, and the Utah Olympic Park covers the 2002 Winter Games.

Aspen has the livelier nights. In the peak winter weeks around Christmas, New Year and the X Games, hotel bars and a few small clubs stay busy late with a well-dressed, high-spending crowd. In summer the evenings move out to drinks on patios.

Park City's saloons and cocktail bars on Main Street are friendly and can get rowdy on ski weekends, but they close well before the small hours. Anyone wanting a bigger night drives to Salt Lake City. Both towns go quiet in spring and autumn.

The mountains are the reason to visit either town, and both are superb. Aspen offers more variety and more dramatic scenery: four ski mountains, from gentle Buttermilk to steep Highlands, and in summer the Maroon Bells, wilderness routes over high passes and summits above 4,000m.

Park City has Utah's dry powder, two big ski areas rising straight from town, and Alta, Snowbird, Brighton and Solitude within an hour. In summer it is the better base for mountain biking, with hundreds of kilometres of singletrack starting from the streets.

Park City has the more rewarding day trips, mainly because Salt Lake City is less than an hour away, with Temple Square, the State Capitol and proper museums. Ogden's railroad-era street, the Heber Valley steam railway and the canyon road past Sundance fill other days.

From Aspen the outings are to small mountain towns: Glenwood Springs, Carbondale, Redstone and Marble, plus the Ashcroft ghost town. Leadville lies over Independence Pass, which closes in winter and shortens the list.

Park City is well ahead for children once they are off the slopes. The Olympic Park has coasters, ziplines and freestyle shows, summer brings alpine slides and climbing walls to the resort bases, and Salt Lake City's zoo and aquarium are within an hour.

Aspen matches it for skiing, with gentle terrain and kids' areas at Buttermilk and Snowmass, and in summer there are lift rides, ropes courses and nature programmes. Beyond that, much of the town is aimed at well-off adults. Both have well-run ski schools, free buses and safe streets, and in both the altitude can tire young children for the first day or two.

Aspen is the easier of the two without a car. Its downtown is flat and compact, the gondola leaves from its southern edge, free buses reach all four mountains, a valley bus runs to Glenwood Springs, and the local airport is minutes away.

Park City's free buses also work well, but Main Street is steep, the airport is a shuttle ride away, and the other ski areas over the ridge are far easier to reach by car. Beyond its own valley, Aspen is the more cut off, behind mountain passes that winter storms can close.

Aspen is the place for luxury shopping. Its few pedestrian blocks hold international designer boutiques, jewellers, leather and fur, and commercial galleries, and window-shopping is part of an evening out.

Park City's Main Street is more about Western wear, cowboy boots, outdoor gear and galleries, with outlets and chain stores at Kimball Junction. Neither town offers much in local crafts or markets.

Aspen is the bigger bill of the two. Lodging, lift tickets, ski school, meals and drinks are priced for a very wealthy crowd even by ski-town standards, and staying down the valley in Glenwood Springs or Carbondale saves only so much.

Park City is expensive too, at the top of the North American resort market, and its Christmas and New Year weeks are steeper still. It eases more in summer and autumn, when prices fall considerably. In both towns the free buses help keep the cost of getting around down.

In summer, Aspen is well ahead. The Aspen Music Festival fills about eight weeks with orchestral, chamber and opera performances in the Benedict Music Tent, and people picnic and listen for free on the lawn outside. Jazz festivals and the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet add to the summer, and a downtown club books bands in ski season.

Park City's offer is smaller. The 1920s Egyptian Theatre has comedy and plays, the Eccles Center hosts touring shows, and the Utah Symphony gives outdoor concerts at Deer Valley. For opera or ballet, you have to go to Salt Lake City.

Both towns rely on resort spas and hot tubs rather than a bathing tradition, and both are most restful outside the peak ski weeks. The difference is in the hot springs. Aspen has the big mineral pools and cave vapour baths of Glenwood Springs about an hour away, plus Conundrum Hot Springs at the end of a long hike. Park City has the Homestead Crater in Midway, a warm spring inside a limestone dome where you can swim or snorkel.