Beaver Creek or Denver?

Neither place is a swimming destination, and the difference is in the kind of water. Beaver Creek has only the small, chilly beach at Nottingham Lake in Avon, so most swimming happens in heated hotel pools, often outdoors with a mountain view. Denver's reservoir beaches at Cherry Creek and Chatfield on the edge of the city are bigger and make a better summer afternoon out, and the city also has its outdoor public pools.

Beaver Creek eats like a luxury resort. There is elk, trout and Colorado lamb with long wine lists, and the most memorable meal is often dinner at an on-mountain lodge reached by snowcat sleigh. The cooking is polished but the menus look alike, and the cheaper taquerias and diners are down in Avon and Edwards.

Denver gives a hungry visitor more to explore. You can drink beer in the RiNo warehouse taprooms, eat green chile smothered over breakfast burritos, and work your way along Federal Boulevard's Vietnamese and Mexican kitchens. It is more casual than grand, but it has a local character that the resort lacks.

There is little contest here. Beaver Creek is a resort built around 1980, and its stone-and-timber plaza with outdoor art takes about an hour to see. For real Rockies history you have to drive to the mining towns.

Denver has the gold-domed State Capitol, the titanium-clad Denver Art Museum with its Native American collection, the Clyfford Still Museum and the brick warehouses of LoDo. That is two or three days of sightseeing rather than a single afternoon.

In Beaver Creek, the evening is a drink by a fire pit on the plaza as the lifts close, then dinner, then bed. A handful of hotel lounges is all there is, and anyone restless drives over to Vail.

Denver is a far more sociable place after dark, though it is a city of bars rather than clubs. Taprooms and cocktail bars fill RiNo, East Colfax has dive bars that stay open late, and LoDo fills with sports crowds on game nights.

Both are mountain bases, but Beaver Creek sits in the mountains while Denver looks at them, and that gives the resort the edge. Its ski area climbs straight from the village to about 3,500m and is linked by lift to Bachelor Gulch and Arrowhead, with Vail's much larger mountain a short ride along the valley. In summer the same lifts carry you up into aspen forest, and the Holy Cross Wilderness and gold-medal fly-fishing on the Eagle River are close by.

Denver has more variety within reach, but every outing starts with a drive. Red Rocks and the Golden foothills are half an hour away, the Boulder Flatirons a little further, and the tundra and elk of Rocky Mountain National Park about two hours off. The ski resorts are also around two hours away, up the busy I-70.

Beaver Creek's outings are mostly variations on the same mountain town. You can visit Vail's Tyrolean-style village, the silver-mining streets of Leadville, gold-rush Breckenridge, or Glenwood Springs for its old spa.

Denver has more choice and more variety. Boulder is a university town under the Flatirons, Georgetown has its narrow-gauge railway, and Colorado Springs pairs an old spa town with the Air Force Academy. Fort Collins has its breweries and Estes Park leads into the national park. Both bases need a car for most of these trips.

Both work well with children, but in different ways. Beaver Creek is built for a family ski week, with a large ski school, gentle children's terrain, an ice rink, warm cookies at the end of the day and a car-free plaza where older children can roam. In summer there are ropes courses and mini golf. It has nothing to fall back on in bad weather, though, and the higher altitude tires small children faster.

Denver has the city attractions the resort lacks. City Park holds the zoo and the dinosaur halls of the Museum of Nature & Science, and the Children's Museum, aquarium and amusement park are grouped by the South Platte. Easy mountain trails and scenic railways are a short drive away.

Getting around is about equally easy in both, at different scales. In Beaver Creek, the pedestrian core, outdoor escalators, ski-in ski-out lodging and free shuttles mean you rarely need a car inside the resort. Eagle airport is about half an hour away, though, and winter storms can close the mountain passes towards Denver.

Denver's flat downtown is easy to walk, with a free shuttle along the 16th Street Mall and a train from the airport to Union Station. Once you head for the hills, both places really need a hired car.

Beaver Creek's plaza shops lean one way: luxury outerwear, technical ski clothing and galleries of bronze sculpture and landscape painting. Denver has little of this kind of upmarket retail. Still, the resort has only a handful of stores, and for anything everyday you go down to Avon or Edwards.\n\nIn Denver there is far more to explore. Cherry Creek pairs a large mall with blocks of boutiques, South Broadway has vintage clothes and records, and the flagship outdoor-gear stores are a good place to stock up before heading into the mountains. Western wear, from boots to hats, is easy to find too.

Beaver Creek is among the most expensive vacations in North America. Slopeside luxury hotels, lift tickets, ski school and mountain dining all add up, and staying in Avon or visiting in summer only softens the bill.

Denver is not cheap either, since you pay big-city hotel rates and budget for a hired car. Still, it costs far less overall, and taquerias, brewery meals and free trails leave room to economise.

Denver has the stronger stage by a wide margin. Red Rocks Amphitheatre, set between sandstone monoliths, is a reason to visit on its own, and the Denver Center for the Performing Arts houses theatre, the symphony, opera and ballet. Five Points keeps up its jazz tradition in small rooms.

Beaver Creek has the intimate Vilar Performing Arts Center for touring shows. Its best weeks come in summer, when Bravo! Vail and the Vail Dance Festival fill the amphitheatre twenty minutes away.

For unwinding, Beaver Creek has the edge. Its large resort spas, with steam rooms and hot tubs outdoors in the snow, combine with a quiet, car-free village to make rest easy. The historic Glenwood Springs pools, in use since the 1880s, are an hour west.

In Denver, wellness means hotel and day spas and yoga studios. The nearest natural bathing is in the mineral pools and steam caves of Idaho Springs, under an hour away.