Beaver Creek or Dallas?

Neither is a place to swim. Beaver Creek's only beach is the small sandy strip at Nottingham Lake in Avon, which stays cold with snowmelt even in summer, so most swimming happens in a heated hotel pool with a mountain view.

Dallas has warmer water and more of it. Big reservoirs such as Lewisville and Grapevine have plain park beaches, and in the long hot summer the water parks in Arlington are the more cheerful way to cool off.

Dallas is much the better place to eat. Brisket sold by weight, Tex-Mex, steakhouses and the taco trucks of Oak Cliff give it a real regional cooking of its own. The suburbs add Vietnamese food in Richardson, Korean in Carrollton and South Asian in Irving.

Beaver Creek feeds you well but narrowly, with polished mountain menus of elk, lamb and trout. What you remember is the setting, such as a dinner reached by chairlift or snowcat sleigh. For tacos and diner breakfasts, you go down to Avon and Edwards.

Dallas has the sights, and Beaver Creek has almost none. In Dallas, the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, the Dallas Museum of Art and the Nasher Sculpture Center in the Arts District, and the Art Deco halls of Fair Park fill two full days.

Beaver Creek was built as a ski resort around 1980. Its timber-and-stone plaza with outdoor art takes about an hour to see, and for history you drive out to the old mining towns of the Rockies.

Beaver Creek winds down after dinner. Evenings mean après-ski by a fire pit on the plaza and a hotel lounge, and you go to Vail for anything later. Dallas has a proper night out spread across several districts, from the dive bars and late crowds of Deep Ellum to the polished patio bars of Uptown and McKinney Avenue, with ride-hails between them and a firm 2am close.

This is where the two differ most, and it is firmly Beaver Creek's category. Its ski area climbs to about 3,500m, with quiet slopes and links towards Vail. In summer the same lifts open up hiking and mountain biking, with the Holy Cross Wilderness nearby, rafting, and fly-fishing on the Eagle and Colorado Rivers.

Dallas has flat prairie, the Katy Trail, the loop round White Rock Lake and the Great Trinity Forest. These are pleasant for a morning ride or walk but rarely striking, and summer heat pushes them all into the early hours.

Dallas has the stronger day out in Fort Worth, a city of a different character reached by car or commuter train. It has the longhorn drive at the Stockyards and the Kimbell Art Museum in Louis Kahn's building. The courthouse squares of McKinney and Denton and the tasting rooms of Grapevine are good for further days.

Beaver Creek's outings are all mountain towns of a similar kind: the pedestrian village of Vail, Victorian Leadville and gold-rush Breckenridge, with Glenwood Springs to the west. They are pleasant, but none of them offers anything like Fort Worth's museums.

Both work well for children, in very different ways. Beaver Creek is built for a ski-school vacation. It has a large, well-run school, children's terrain, an ice rink, warm cookies when the lifts close and a car-free plaza where older children can roam, and in summer there are ropes courses and climbing.

Dallas has the slight edge thanks to attractions a resort cannot offer: Six Flags and its water park in Arlington, two large zoos, the Perot Museum and the Dallas World Aquarium, which also cover a bad-weather day. The costs are long car journeys and a summer too hot for outdoor sightseeing.

Once you are there, Beaver Creek is easier. The village is pedestrian, outdoor escalators link its levels, many lodgings are ski-in ski-out, and free shuttles run down to Avon, so the car can stay parked for days. Getting there is the hard part: Eagle airport is about half an hour away, but Denver is two hours over passes that winter storms can close.

Dallas spreads out along its freeways, and most visitors need a hire car or ride-hails. DART light rail does reach both airports, downtown, Deep Ellum and Fair Park, and the M-Line streetcar links the walkable Uptown and Arts District.

Beaver Creek has one small cluster of upmarket shops around the plaza. It is good for an hour's browse on a rest day, but nobody comes here to shop. It shares Dallas's taste for luxury labels and Western boots, but here that means a handful of shop windows at resort prices.

Dallas is where the same taste plays out on a large scale. Neiman Marcus began here, and NorthPark Center and the Spanish-style arcades of Highland Park Village gather the big fashion houses. Western wear runs from everyday boot shops to custom makers, and Bishop Arts adds independent boutiques, so you can easily fill a whole day if you don't mind driving between centres.

Neither is cheap, but Dallas costs far less. Its hotels are mid-priced for a large American city, barbecue and tacos make good inexpensive meals, and many museums are free. The hire car, plus tax and tip, are the main extra costs.

Beaver Creek is among the most expensive vacations in North America, with luxury lodging, lift tickets, ski school and mountain dining all at the top end. Coming in summer or sleeping down in Avon or Edwards softens the cost only a little.

Dallas has the fuller stage. Its Arts District holds I. M. Pei's Meyerson Symphony Center, the Winspear Opera House for the Dallas Opera and Broadway tours, and the Wyly Theatre. On top of that, the clubs of Deep Ellum have live music most nights.

Beaver Creek has the intimate Vilar Performing Arts Center and a summer peak, when Bravo! Vail brings major orchestras to the amphitheatre in Vail and the Vail Dance Festival follows. Outside those weeks it is quiet, with no resident opera or theatre company.

Beaver Creek is the more restful choice. Its large resort spas, hot tubs outdoors in the snow and quiet car-free evenings are built around recovery, and the mineral pools of Glenwood Springs, in use since the 1880s, are about an hour away.

In Dallas, relaxing means hotel spas and day-spa chains. Its one distinctive option is a large Korean-style bathhouse in the north of the city, and the brisk, car-bound pace works against a slow trip.