Aspen or Rapid City?

Neither town is a beach destination, but Rapid City has the better swimming. Sheridan Lake, Pactola Reservoir and Sylvan Lake lie within half an hour in the pine-covered hills, with sandy or gravel shores and water warming to about 20°C in high summer.

Aspen's alpine lakes and the Roaring Fork stay cold even in July, so rafting the river is more appealing than swimming in it, and a hotel pool is the realistic option.

Aspen eats far better. It has chef-led dining rooms, sushi and Italian places, serious wine lists and the ritual of après-ski on the terraces at the base of Aspen Mountain. Its weakness is the lack of anything cheap or local, and in spring and autumn many kitchens close.

Rapid City serves hearty Plains food instead: bison burgers, chislic and Indian tacos on Lakota fry bread, with brewpubs around Main Street. It has more regional flavour but much less range at the top end.

Both are thin on major sights, and they differ in kind. Aspen's appeal is its architecture: the red-brick Victorian blocks of the old silver-mining downtown, the Wheeler Opera House, the painted miners' cottages of the West End and Herbert Bayer's modernist Aspen Institute campus. Contemporary art hangs in the Aspen Art Museum.

Rapid City has museums that explain the land around it. The Journey Museum covers Lakota and gold-rush history, the School of Mines shows Badlands fossils, and bronze presidents stand on the downtown street corners. The famous landmarks are out in the hills.

In ski season Aspen goes out in style. Evenings start on the slopeside decks and carry on in hotel bars and small clubs that stay busy late around Christmas, New Year and the X Games. Summer means quieter drinks on patios, and in spring and autumn the town goes silent.

Rapid City's evenings are brewpubs, sports bars and country music around Main Street Square, mostly finished before midnight. The exception is early August, when the Sturgis rally fills the bars with bikers.

Both are superb bases for the outdoors, but Aspen's mountains are higher and closer. Ski runs start at the edge of downtown, the Maroon Bells are a short bus ride away, and wilderness routes climb to high passes and summits above 4,000m.

Rapid City's landscape is gentler and more varied. The Black Hills have granite spires and ponderosa forest, Custer State Park has its bison, Wind Cave and Jewel Cave run long underground tours, and the Badlands are an hour east. It rewards driving and cycling more than climbing.

Rapid City wins clearly here. Mount Rushmore is half an hour away. The Crazy Horse Memorial, gold-rush Deadwood, the Mammoth Site at Hot Springs and the Minuteman Missile silo are all within an easy day's drive.

From Aspen the outings are quieter: the railway-era centre of Glenwood Springs, the quarry village of Marble, and in summer Leadville over Independence Pass. Once the pass closes in winter, the list gets shorter.

Rapid City has been set up for family road trips for generations. There are motels with pools, campgrounds, gold panning and the concrete dinosaurs on the hilltop in Dinosaur Park. The catch is the long hours in the car between sights.

Aspen works well for a ski vacation with children, with gentle slopes and kids' areas at Buttermilk and Snowmass, and alpine coasters and ropes courses at the top of the lifts in summer. Beyond that, the town is aimed at adults, and the thin air can tire small children for the first day or two.

Aspen is easy to manage without a car. The downtown grid is flat and walkable, the gondola leaves from its edge, free buses run to every ski area and a summer shuttle goes to the Maroon Bells. Leaving the valley is harder, and winter storms can close the roads.

In Rapid City a car is essential. Downtown is walkable, but the buses do not reach Mount Rushmore or the parks. The compensation is light traffic and scenic drives such as the Needles Highway.

Aspen's few blocks hold a surprising run of international luxury boutiques for a mountain town, along with high-end ski wear, jewellers and commercial art galleries. There is almost nothing affordable or local.

Rapid City is better for regional pieces: Black Hills gold jewellery with its grape-leaf designs, Lakota quillwork, beadwork and star quilts, and Western boots and hats. Beyond those, it is malls and souvenir shops.

Aspen is one of the most expensive vacations anywhere. Rooms, lift tickets and meals in ski season are priced for a very wealthy clientele. Summer is somewhat easier, and staying in Glenwood Springs or Carbondale helps only a little.

Rapid City is far easier on the wallet, though car hire, fuel and park entry fees add up. Avoid the Sturgis rally week in August, when rooms for miles around become very expensive.

Aspen's summer belongs to the Aspen Music Festival and School. It puts on orchestral, chamber and opera performances in the Benedict Music Tent, and people listen for free on the lawn outside. The Aspen Santa Fe Ballet and jazz festivals add to the season, and the Wheeler Opera House keeps something on all year.

Rapid City offers less: the Black Hills Symphony Orchestra, touring shows at the civic centre and summer plays in the pines of Custer State Park. Its most distinctive performance is the powwow, above all the large autumn gathering at the civic centre.

For hot water, both towns send you about an hour away: Aspen to the mineral pools and cave vapour baths of Glenwood Springs, Rapid City to the historic spring-fed pool at Hot Springs. Aspen has more close at hand, with resort spas, yoga in the parks, calm riverside paths outside ski season and the hike-in Conundrum Hot Springs.

Rapid City's restful side is mostly quiet cabins and lodges in the hills, with only a few day spas in town.