Aspen or Stowe?

Neither town is a place for a beach, but Stowe at least gives you somewhere to swim in summer. There are rocky swimming holes along the mountain streams, and the state-park beaches on Waterbury Reservoir and Lake Elmore have small sandy shores, with water that warms to about 22°C in July and August.

Aspen's alpine lakes, reservoirs and the Roaring Fork River stay cold even in high summer. Rafting is the closest you will get to the water, and a hotel pool is the realistic place to swim.

The two towns eat about equally well for their size, but in different ways. Aspen's food is aimed at wealthy winter visitors: chef-led dining rooms, steak and sushi counters, serious wine lists, après-ski terraces at the foot of Aspen Mountain and the Food & Wine Classic every June. There is little in the cheap and cheerful middle.

Stowe's food comes from the Vermont farms and breweries around it: hazy IPAs that beer lovers travel for, farm cheddar, maple syrup and cider doughnuts. Alongside the farm-to-table rooms, its taverns, pizza places and pubs make an ordinary dinner out easier to find. In both towns, many kitchens close in the quiet weeks.

Neither has major museums, but Aspen gives you the fuller afternoon. Its silver-boom past survives in the red-brick blocks around the Wheeler Opera House and the miners' cottages of the West End. You can add the Aspen Art Museum, Herbert Bayer's modernist Aspen Institute campus and the ghost town of Ashcroft up Castle Creek.

Stowe's appeal is the postcard scene, with a white steeple below the mountain and covered bridges along the valley. Beyond that there is a small ski museum and the curiosity of the von Trapp family's estate.

Aspen offers a real night out, at least in ski season. Après-ski moves from the slopeside decks into downtown lounges, and around Christmas, New Year and the X Games the hotel bars and a few small clubs stay busy late with a well-dressed crowd. Summer evenings there are more about drinks on patios.

Stowe has no clubs at all. Its evenings mean base-lodge bars, brewery taprooms and the occasional band on winter weekends, and very little happens after midnight. For anything more, people drive to Burlington.

Both are outdoor towns first and foremost, but Aspen works on a larger scale. It has four ski mountains, from gentle Buttermilk to Highlands' expert terrain and the huge area at Snowmass, all set high in the Rockies. In summer there are wilderness routes to summits above 4,000m, the Maroon Bells and the drive over Independence Pass.

Stowe's Mount Mansfield, the highest peak in Vermont, is a more modest 1,339m, and its snow is the cold and sometimes icy snow of the northeast. In return it has an extensive cross-country network, the Long Trail and the boulder-strewn pass of Smugglers' Notch. Its early-October foliage is the season visitors remember most.

Stowe has the better range of outings. Burlington, a relaxed lakeside college city, is under an hour away, and the Shelburne Museum just south of it, with its historic buildings and lake steamboat, is worth the day on its own. Montpelier's gold-domed statehouse and the cider mills of Waterbury are closer still.

From Aspen the options are mostly small mountain towns: Glenwood Springs, Carbondale, and the old quarry village of Marble. Leadville's Victorian main street is a summer-only trip, because the pass over to it closes in winter.

Both are good for an active family and much the same for a ski trip. Buttermilk and Snowmass in Aspen and Spruce Peak in Stowe all have gentle slopes and large ski schools. Aspen is easier day to day, as free buses run between the mountains and summer lifts lead to alpine coasters and ropes courses. The altitude can leave young children tired for the first day or two, though.

Stowe has a resort built almost entirely around children on the far side of Smugglers' Notch, plus sugarhouses, farm animals and a flat path for pushchairs. Everything there involves the car.

Aspen is much easier without a car. Its downtown is a flat grid you can walk in minutes, the gondola leaves from the edge of town, free buses reach all four ski areas, and the airport is a few minutes away.

Stowe stretches about 11km along one valley road. The free shuttle runs only in ski season, and the riverside path only really helps in the warmer months. Trailheads, lakes, neighbouring towns and the airport in Burlington all need a car, and in winter you also need snow tyres.

Aspen is a surprising place to shop for a mountain town. Its pedestrian malls hold international designer boutiques, high-end ski wear, jewellers, Western leather and fur, and commercial galleries, and browsing them is part of an evening out.

Stowe's shops sell what Vermont makes: pottery, woodwork, wool, maple syrup and cheddar, alongside outdoor gear. That makes it the better place for small gifts, but there is nothing in the way of fashion or luxury.

Both are expensive, but Aspen is in a class of its own. In ski season its rooms, lift tickets, meals and drinks are all priced for a very wealthy clientele, and even staying down the valley in Glenwood Springs only softens the cost.

In Stowe a careful budget can still work. There are motels along the valley road, brewery food and free trails, and prices drop sharply in spring and November. The costly times are the Christmas weeks, school vacations and October foliage season.

Aspen's summer music is the real difference here. For about eight weeks the Music Festival brings leading soloists and orchestras to the Benedict Music Tent, and people picnic on the lawn outside to listen for free. Jazz and the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet add to the summer, and the Wheeler Opera House runs a programme all year.

Stowe has a performing arts centre at Spruce Peak for touring acts, community theatre in the village, and hillside summer concerts linked to the von Trapp legacy. For orchestras, you would need to go to Burlington.

The two are about level here, but the experience is different. Aspen has natural hot water within reach: the big mineral pools and cave vapour baths of Glenwood Springs are about an hour away, and Conundrum Hot Springs rewards a long hike. The town itself has hotel spas and yoga in the parks, but it is far from restful in peak ski weeks.

Stowe has no springs. What it offers is the classic couples' spa weekend: resort saunas, steam rooms and heated outdoor pools under falling snow, then a quiet inn and a wood fire.