Beaver Creek or Estes Park?

Neither town has a beach. Both sit high in the Rockies beside cold snowmelt lakes, so any swimming is improvised. At Beaver Creek that means the little sandy patch at Nottingham Lake down in Avon or an outdoor heated hotel pool with a mountain view. At Estes Park the lakes are for paddling and fishing, and a swim means a hotel pool or the town's indoor aquatic centre.

Beaver Creek eats better, even if the menus resemble one another. Expect refined mountain cooking such as elk, Colorado lamb and trout with long wine lists, and dinner can mean a sleigh ride up to an on-mountain lodge. The taquerias and brewpubs of Avon and the restaurants of Vail cover everyday meals.

Estes Park's food is heartier and plainer: burgers, barbecue, bison, big breakfasts before the trail, a few breweries, and taffy and fudge on Elkhorn Avenue. Quality is uneven and many kitchens close early, so people who care about food tend to save a special meal for Boulder or Denver.

Estes Park has the one sight between them with a story known beyond Colorado. That is the Stanley Hotel, F.O. Stanley's white hotel above the valley and the inspiration for The Shining. The town adds a homesteading museum and the historic MacGregor Ranch beneath Lumpy Ridge.

Beaver Creek was built for skiing around 1980. Its handsome planned village and outdoor art take about an hour to see, and real Rockies history means driving to the mining streets of Leadville or Breckenridge.

Both go quiet early, so the difference lies in style rather than in how late things run. Beaver Creek's evening is après-ski by a fire pit on the plaza and a cocktail in a hotel lounge, and Vail is twenty minutes away if you want a few busier bars in winter. In Estes Park it is a brewery taproom or a saloon-style bar on Elkhorn Avenue after a hike, and most people are done by ten because they are up at dawn to watch wildlife.

Both have superb mountain scenery, but each suits a different kind of day. Beaver Creek is a ski mountain first, with uncrowded groomed runs and glades rising to about 3,500m and Vail's terrain next door. In summer the lifts carry hikers and bikers up towards the Gore Range, and there is rafting and fly-fishing on the Eagle and Colorado Rivers.

Estes Park is the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park, with Trail Ridge Road crossing the tundra, Bear and Emerald lakes, Longs Peak, and elk, bighorn sheep and moose seen almost daily. For hiking and wildlife it is the stronger base, but it has no ski area, so winter there means snowshoeing.

The choice of outings is equally modest, but it points in different directions. From Beaver Creek you visit other mountain towns: Vail, the Victorian silver-mining streets of Leadville, gold-rush Breckenridge and the old spa town of Glenwood Springs. They are pleasant but similar in character.

From Estes Park you head down the canyons to the plains instead, to Boulder's Pearl Street and the Flatirons, Fort Collins' Old Town and the museums of Denver. In summer you can also drive over Trail Ridge Road to Grand Lake. This puts some city life within reach, where Beaver Creek's options stay in the mountains.

Both are small, safe and easy with children, and both share the same drawbacks: altitude tires the youngest at first, and there is no zoo or museum for a rainy day. Beaver Creek is built around the family ski vacation, with a large ski school, children's terrain, an ice rink, warm cookies when the lifts close and summer ropes courses on the hilltop.

Estes Park suits families who would rather watch elk than ski. It has junior ranger activities in the park, flat walks around Sprague and Bear lakes, horse riding, mini golf, go-karts and the tramway up Prospect Mountain.

Beaver Creek is easier once you arrive. The village is pedestrian, outdoor escalators link its levels, many lodgings are ski-in ski-out, and free shuttles and valley buses reach Avon and Vail. Eagle's airport is about half an hour away, although the drive from Denver crosses passes that winter storms can close.

Estes Park has a walkable downtown and summer shuttles to the Bear Lake trailheads. Beyond that, the rest of the park, Trail Ridge Road and the towns on the plains all need a car, there is no rail link, and summer weekends bring heavy traffic and parking queues.

Neither town is worth a trip for the shopping, and each has just one short stretch to browse. Beaver Creek's plaza leans towards luxury: technical ski wear, designer outerwear, western boots, jewellery, and galleries of bronze sculpture and landscape painting. Estes Park's Elkhorn Avenue is more souvenir than style, with T-shirts, taffy, western wear, outdoor gear and wildlife photography. For anything more, you go down to Boulder or Denver.

Estes Park is the cheaper of the two by a wide margin, and the gap is widest in winter. A ski week at Beaver Creek adds lift tickets, equipment rental and ski school to the cost of slopeside luxury lodging. Estes Park in the same months is at its quietest, and a day of snowshoeing in the park comes with no lift pass to pay for.

In high summer the gap narrows. Estes Park fills up around the national park and charges resort-town rates, while Beaver Creek gets noticeably cheaper once the ski season ends, especially if you sleep down the valley in Avon or Edwards. Even so, a summer week of spa-hotel lodging and mountain dining in Beaver Creek costs more than a week of diners and simple lodges in Estes Park. One cost runs the other way: Estes Park almost requires a hire car, while Beaver Creek's free shuttles cover the resort itself.

Beaver Creek has far more on stage. The Vilar Performing Arts Center in the village runs a season of touring concerts, comedy, dance and family shows. In summer the Bravo! Vail festival brings leading orchestras to the open-air amphitheatre twenty minutes away, alongside the Vail Dance Festival and a jazz series.

Estes Park has free summer concerts in its riverside performance park, the occasional evening at the Stanley Hotel, and pipe bands and Celtic music at the Scottish-Irish Highland Festival each September. For theatre or an orchestra, you drive to Boulder or Denver.

Beaver Creek is the place to be pampered. Its resort spas are among the largest in the Rockies, with steam rooms, hot tubs out in the snow and treatments for tired ski legs. The historic mineral pools of Glenwood Springs are about an hour west.

Estes Park has only a few lodge spas and massage studios, and no hot springs. Its restfulness comes from a riverside cabin, mountain air and elk at dusk, and it is best outside the busy summer months.