Aspen or South Lake Tahoe?

Aspen has no beaches to speak of. There are small reservoirs and alpine lakes that stay cold even in July and a raft trip down the Roaring Fork, and for a proper swim you use a hotel pool.

South Lake Tahoe has real sand right on the edge of town. Pope, Baldwin and Kiva beaches sit under Jeffrey pines, Nevada Beach and Zephyr Cove are just over the state line, and the boulder coves of Sand Harbor are further round the east shore. The water is cold, so swimming is mainly for July and August, but a day on a lake beach is something Aspen cannot offer.

Aspen eats much better for its size. The downtown grid has chef-led dining rooms, steak and sushi counters and serious wine lists, plus après-ski terraces at the base of Aspen Mountain and the Food & Wine Classic every June. The weak points are a lack of cheap places to eat and many kitchens closing in spring and autumn.

South Lake Tahoe is resort eating: casino steakhouses and buffets, taquerias and pizza along Highway 50, and a few dining rooms with lake views. Local craft beer is the best of it, and a cabin kitchen is often the most reliable meal.

Neither is a place for sightseeing, but Aspen gives you a little more for an afternoon's walk. It has the red-brick silver-boom downtown with the Wheeler Opera House, the painted miners' cottages of the West End, the Aspen Art Museum and Herbert Bayer's modernist Aspen Institute campus. South Lake Tahoe's history is by the water rather than in a town centre: the Tallac estates and Vikingsholm at the head of Emerald Bay, with motels and casino towers between them.

Aspen's nights are the glossier of the two. Après-ski moves from the slopeside decks into downtown bars and hotel lounges, and the weeks around Christmas, New Year and the X Games run late with a well-dressed crowd. It is only a few streets, but you can walk between bars.

South Lake Tahoe is split at the state line. The California side means brewpubs and an early night, while the casino towers at Stateline keep bars and gaming floors open all night with little choice of where to go. Both towns go quiet in spring and autumn.

Both are first-rate mountain bases, so the difference is in the kind of mountains. Aspen is higher and narrower, with four linked ski mountains, steep expert terrain at Highlands, backcountry huts, and summer routes past the Maroon Bells to passes and summits above 4,000m.

South Lake Tahoe is built around the lake. It has Emerald Bay, kayaking and paddleboarding on calm morning water, the granite lake basins of the Desolation Wilderness and the Tahoe Rim Trail. Heavenly's gondola rises from Stateline, but Kirkwood and Sierra-at-Tahoe are a drive away rather than a free shuttle ride.

South Lake Tahoe has more within reach. You can reach Virginia City's boardwalks and saloons, Carson City and Genoa, Coloma, where gold was found in 1848, and the Amador wine country, as well as the loop round the lake to Truckee. Reno and Sacramento are there if you want somewhere bigger.

Aspen's list is shorter and smaller: Glenwood Springs, Carbondale, Redstone, Marble and the Ashcroft ghost town. Leadville is out of reach once Independence Pass closes in winter.

Both work well for families who come for the outdoors, and neither has a zoo, aquarium or theme park for a bad-weather day. Aspen is strongest in winter, with gentle slopes and ski schools at Buttermilk and Snowmass, free buses and a small, safe town, though the altitude can tire young children for the first day or two.

South Lake Tahoe is stronger in summer, with shallow sandy beaches, bike paths through the pines and salmon running at Taylor Creek in autumn. Against that, you drive more, and the casino strip is not a place for children to linger.

Aspen is far easier without a car. The downtown is a flat grid with the gondola at its edge, free buses run to all four mountains, a summer shuttle goes to the Maroon Bells, and the airport is minutes away.

In South Lake Tahoe only the area around Stateline and the gondola base is walkable. Beaches, trailheads, Emerald Bay and the other ski areas are spread out, so a car is close to essential, and in summer weekend traffic crawls on Highway 50. Winter storms can close roads into either town.

Aspen has a surprising run of international luxury boutiques, high-end ski wear, jewellers, Western leather and commercial art galleries. Window-shopping in the pedestrian malls is part of an evening out, though it suits luxury buyers rather than browsers.

South Lake Tahoe's shopping is purely practical: gear and rental shops, the supermarket run for the cabin, souvenirs around the gondola base and a few galleries of lake photography.

Both are expensive at peak times, but Aspen is in a class of its own. Lodging, lift tickets, ski school and meals are priced for a very wealthy clientele, and staying down the valley in Glenwood Springs or Carbondale still does not make it cheap.

South Lake Tahoe has real ways to save. Casino hotels on the Nevada side discount heavily midweek and in spring and autumn, a cabin with a kitchen cuts food costs, and the beaches and trails cost nothing.

Aspen has a serious music season. For about eight weeks each summer the Aspen Music Festival fills the Benedict Music Tent with orchestral, chamber and opera performances, and you can listen free from the lawn outside. Ballet and jazz add to the summer, and the Wheeler Opera House has shows all year.

South Lake Tahoe's live entertainment comes mostly from the casino showrooms, which book touring rock, country and comedy acts. In summer there is Shakespeare on the beach at Sand Harbor and concerts at the Tallac estates, but there is no classical season.

Aspen is the more restful of the two outside ski season. It has clear air, riverside paths, yoga in the parks and resort spas with altitude-recovery programmes. Glenwood Springs' mineral pools and cave vapour baths are an hour away, and Conundrum Hot Springs is the reward for a long hike.

In South Lake Tahoe the spas are mostly in casino hotels and ski lodges. The calm comes from quiet mornings by the lake and cabins in the pines, and for a soak there is Grover Hot Springs or the Carson Valley resorts, both under an hour away.