Aspen or Scottsdale?

Neither has a beach, and both are a very long way from the sea. Aspen's alpine lakes and reservoirs stay cold even in July, so a swim means a hotel pool and the Roaring Fork is for rafting rather than bathing.

Scottsdale's water is warmer and more inviting. Saguaro Lake and Canyon Lake have small sandy coves and boats for hire, tubing down the lower Salt River is a summer habit, and resort pools are a central part of any stay.

The two eat out at a similar level, and both are strongest in polished, expensive dining aimed at visitors. Aspen eats like a ski town, with chef-led dining rooms, steak and sushi, après-ski on slopeside terraces as the lifts close, and the Food & Wine Classic each June. Many kitchens shut in spring and autumn.

Scottsdale has more regional flavour in its Sonoran-style Mexican cooking: carne asada, plate-sized flour tortillas and green chile. With the wider Phoenix area next door, it also offers more variety and far more casual, cheaper meals than Aspen can.

Scottsdale gives a sightseer more to do. Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright's desert home and studio, is worth a trip on its own. The Museum of the West, the small contemporary art museum and the galleries of Native American art add more, and the Heard Museum and the Musical Instrument Museum are just over the city line.

In Aspen, culture fills a pleasant afternoon: the red-brick silver-boom blocks around the Wheeler Opera House, the painted cottages of the West End, the Aspen Art Museum and Herbert Bayer's modernist Aspen Institute campus. The Ashcroft ghost town adds some mining history, but nothing here compares with Taliesin West.

Scottsdale has the more reliable night out. Old Town's entertainment district packs patio bars, rooftop lounges and dance clubs into a few blocks. It is loud and dressy at weekends and in spring, with quieter cocktail and wine bars around the edges.

Aspen's scene is glossier but tied to the season. Après-ski moves from the slopes into downtown bars, and hotel bars and small clubs stay busy late around Christmas, New Year and the X Games. In summer it settles into drinks on patios, and in spring and autumn much of it closes.

This is where Aspen is strongest. It sits at about 2,400m in the Elk Mountains, with four ski mountains linked by free shuttles, from gentle Buttermilk to steep Highlands, and backcountry huts beyond. Summer brings the Maroon Bells, wilderness routes to summits above 4,000m, the drive over Independence Pass, and rafting and fly-fishing on the Roaring Fork.

Scottsdale's desert is good in its own way. There are saguaro trails in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, short steep climbs up Camelback and Pinnacle Peak, the Superstition Mountains further out, and golf and balloon flights. But summer heat limits hiking to dawn, and it has no skiing or alpine scenery to match Aspen's.

Aspen's day trips are drives through the valleys to small mountain towns: Glenwood Springs about an hour down the valley, Carbondale on the way, Redstone and Marble up the Crystal River, and Leadville over Independence Pass. They make pleasant outings rather than major sights, and when the pass closes in winter the list gets shorter.

From Scottsdale the drives lead to much bigger places. Two hours up the interstate are Sedona's red rocks, with the cliff dwelling at Montezuma Castle and the hillside mining town of Jerome on the same route. Tucson and the San Xavier mission are a similar distance south, and the Grand Canyon is within reach if you stay a night.

Both work well for families, but on different kinds of trip. In Aspen the trip is usually about skiing: Buttermilk and Snowmass have gentle slopes, ski schools and kids' areas, and in summer there are alpine coasters and ropes courses at the top of the lifts. The altitude can tire young children for the first day or two.

A family stay in Scottsdale is built around resort pools with lazy rivers and slides. A miniature railway park, an aquarium, a butterfly house and the Phoenix Zoo are within a drive. The drawbacks are that everything means getting in the car, and summer afternoons are too hot for playing outside.

Aspen is far easier without a car. The flat downtown grid takes minutes to walk, the gondola leaves from its edge, free buses run to all four ski areas, a shuttle goes to the Maroon Bells, and the airport is close by. You only need a car to leave the valley.

Scottsdale is the opposite: a long city built for cars, along wide arterial roads that the regional light rail does not reach. Old Town and its free trolley cover only a small area. For resorts, trailheads and the airport you will drive or use ride-hailing, though the driving itself is easy.

Aspen packs designer boutiques, ski wear, jewellers and art galleries into a few downtown blocks, a surprising run for a town of its size, and browsing the pedestrian malls is part of an evening out. Beyond luxury goods there is little: no department stores and few affordable shops.

Scottsdale's range runs from a large luxury mall with full department stores, and open-air centres further north, to Old Town's gallery district. There, dealers sell southwestern painting and glass, Navajo and Hopi silver and turquoise, Pueblo pottery, boots and western hats. For Native American craft, the better dealers have nothing to rival them in Aspen.

Neither is cheap, but Aspen is in a different league. Rooms in ski season, lift tickets, ski school and meals are all priced for the very wealthy, and staying down the valley in Glenwood Springs only softens the cost.

Scottsdale is expensive in winter and spring as well, but it gives a careful traveller more room. Resort rates fall sharply in the summer heat, motels and business hotels line the main roads, Mexican food keeps meals affordable, and hiking in the desert is free. Allow for a hire car.

Summer is when Aspen's stage matters most, and it is a serious one. For about eight weeks the Aspen Music Festival puts on orchestral, chamber and opera performances in the Benedict Music Tent, which you can hear free from the lawn, alongside jazz and the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet. The Wheeler Opera House has something on all year.

Scottsdale's own stage is the performing arts centre in Old Town, and the Musical Instrument Museum's theatre hosts world music. Phoenix, half an hour away, has the symphony, opera and ballet, and evenings are fullest in the winter season. Even so, nothing in or near Scottsdale matches Aspen's summer festival.

Scottsdale is built for rest. Its large resort spas, many open to day guests, offer desert-inspired treatments, outdoor pools and steam rooms. The dry air and the slow rhythm of golf, long lunches and early nights do the rest.

Aspen is calm in summer and in the quiet seasons, with riverside paths, yoga in the parks and spas in the big hotels. What it has that Scottsdale lacks is hot springs: the mineral pools and cave vapour baths of Glenwood Springs are an hour away, and Conundrum is at the end of a long hike. In peak ski season the town is much less restful.