Aspen or Steamboat Springs?

Neither town has a beach, and the water in both stays cold even in midsummer, so the comparison is about how you get wet. Aspen's answer is a raft trip down the Roaring Fork, an alpine lake, or a hotel pool. In Steamboat the summer ritual is a lazy tube down the Yampa right through town, and the hardy can swim in Steamboat Lake or Stagecoach reservoir in July and August.

The real gap is ambition. Aspen cooks for a wealthy winter crowd, so a few downtown blocks hold sushi, Italian and steak alongside serious chef-led tables, and drinks on the slopeside terraces at closing time are an occasion in themselves. What it lacks is a cheap, casual middle, and many kitchens close in the quiet spring and autumn weeks.

Steamboat aims lower and tastes more of its valley. Menus along Lincoln Avenue and at the ski base lean on Yampa Valley ranching, with Colorado lamb and beef, steakhouses and a few local breweries. Its casual Mexican places and pizza also make an easy, relaxed dinner simpler to find than in Aspen. It feeds you well after a day outside, but there is little to go looking for.

Neither town has major museums, but Aspen gives you more to look at. Its silver-boom downtown keeps red-brick Victorian blocks around the Wheeler Opera House, and the West End has painted miners' cottages. There is also the Aspen Art Museum's timber-latticed building and Herbert Bayer's modernist Aspen Institute campus, with the ghost town of Ashcroft up the valley.

Steamboat's story is ranching and skiing. You can see it in the old western storefronts on Lincoln Avenue, the Tread of Pioneers Museum and Howelsen Hill, one of North America's oldest ski areas. An hour covers it.

In ski season, Aspen has the livelier nights. Après-ski moves from the slopeside decks into downtown lounges, and at Christmas, New Year and the X Games the hotel bars and a few small clubs stay busy late with a well-dressed crowd.

Steamboat's evenings start early at the gondola-base bars and end in a handful of saloons and brewpubs on Lincoln Avenue. There is no club scene, and the town is usually asleep before midnight. Both go quiet in spring and autumn.

Both are first-rate mountain bases, and Aspen has a little more range. It has four ski mountains in one valley, from gentle Buttermilk to the steep expert terrain at Highlands and the sheer size of Snowmass. In summer the Maroon Bells, wilderness routes up to summits above 4,000m and the drive over Independence Pass give it the edge.

Steamboat's strengths are different: light, dry Champagne Powder and tree skiing through aspen glades, night skiing on Howelsen Hill, and snowmobile country on Rabbit Ears Pass. In summer there are the Mount Zirkel Wilderness lakes and Fish Creek Falls, and elk and moose are a common sight.

The road down the Roaring Fork valley gives Aspen the edge. About an hour away is Glenwood Springs with its railway-era centre, and you pass the ranching and arts town of Carbondale on the way. Up the Crystal River are the heritage villages of Redstone and Marble. In summer, Independence Pass opens the way to Leadville's Victorian main street, though the pass closes in winter.

Steamboat stands much more alone. Hayden, Oak Creek and Yampa are small ranching towns, good for a coffee stop at most. Vail and Grand Lake are about two hours of mountain driving away, so a day out here usually means heading into the hills.

Both work for outdoor families with children, and Steamboat is slightly more relaxed about it. Howelsen Hill gives children a quiet in-town slope for first turns, the Old Town Hot Springs complex adds slides and a climbing wall, and summer brings tubing on the Yampa and the rodeo. Steamboat also sits about 350m lower, which can make the first days easier on small children.

Aspen has excellent ski schools at Buttermilk and Snowmass, plus summer alpine coasters and ropes courses. Much of the town, though, is geared to well-off adults.

Aspen is the easier town to manage without a car. The flat downtown grid ends at the gondola, and free buses run out to Highlands, Buttermilk and Snowmass. A separate valley bus line goes down to Glenwood Springs, a summer shuttle takes you to the Maroon Bells, and the airport is only a few minutes away.

Steamboat is split between the old downtown and the ski base a few kilometres east, with the town bus running between them. Strawberry Park, Fish Creek Falls, the lakes and the passes all lie up roads that no bus serves, so a car with good winter tyres is close to essential. Most visitors fly into Hayden or drive over the mountains from Denver.

Aspen's few blocks hold an unexpected run of international luxury labels, high-end ski wear, jewellers, fur and commercial art galleries, and browsing the pedestrian malls is part of an evening out.

Steamboat's shopping is more homespun. Lincoln Avenue sells boots, hats and saddle-blanket goods, led by a family outfitter trading since the early twentieth century, along with a few galleries and gear shops. It is pleasant, but it only fills an hour.

Aspen's prices are set for a very wealthy crowd, from lodging and lift tickets to ski school and dinner. Many careful spenders sleep down the valley in Glenwood Springs or Carbondale and travel in for the day.

Steamboat still charges resort prices, especially around Christmas, New Year and the spring school breaks, but the bills come in lower. Self-catering condos, the town buses and plenty of free trails help. In both towns, summer and the shoulder seasons are the cheaper times to go.

For classical music, Aspen is in another league. For about eight weeks each summer the Aspen Music Festival puts on orchestral, chamber and opera performances in the Benedict Music Tent, and people picnic on the lawn outside to listen for free. Jazz festivals and the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet fill out the season, and the Wheeler Opera House has concerts, comedy and film all year.

Steamboat's summer centres on the Strings Music Festival, which mixes chamber music with jazz, bluegrass and touring acts in its pavilion, along with free outdoor concerts. Perry-Mansfield, a performing-arts school founded in 1913, stages student theatre and dance. Outside the warm months there is little beyond a community orchestra and bands in the bars.

Steamboat is named after its springs, and soaking is part of daily life there. Locals use the pools at Old Town Hot Springs all year, and Strawberry Park's rock-lined pools in a wooded creek are a short drive up the road, especially lovely on a snowy evening.

Aspen offers calm of a different kind: resort-hotel spas, altitude-recovery treatments and yoga in the parks. For hot water you either drive an hour to Glenwood Springs or make the long hike to Conundrum Hot Springs.