Beaver Creek or Flagstaff?

Neither place is for swimmers, and there is little to choose between them. Beaver Creek has the tiny, chilly swimming area at Nottingham Lake down in Avon and heated hotel pools with mountain views.

Flagstaff's option is more of an outing: the cold creek pools and natural rock slide of Oak Creek Canyon on the road to Sedona, which are fun on a hot day but crowded at weekends.

Both eat at about the same level, but in opposite styles. Beaver Creek is refined resort dining: elk, Colorado lamb and trout with long wine lists, and dinners at on-mountain lodges reached by sleigh or chairlift. Cheaper taquerias and diners are down in Avon and Edwards.

Flagstaff is casual and cheap by comparison, built around craft breweries in downtown and the Southside, with Mexican and New Mexican cooking, green chile and Navajo frybread. Go to Beaver Creek for a special dinner and to Flagstaff for a beer on a patio.

Flagstaff has far more to see. Lowell Observatory, where Pluto was found, and the Museum of Northern Arizona's Hopi, Navajo and Zuni collections are worth a day on their own. The Riordan Mansion and the railroad-era downtown add to them.

Beaver Creek is a ski village built around 1980. Its stone and timber plaza and outdoor sculpture are pleasant, but the nearest real history is in mining towns a drive away.

Neither is a party town, but Flagstaff has more going on after dark. Brewery taprooms, cocktail bars and old Route 66 saloons sit within a short walk of each other downtown, and university students fill them on term-time weekends.

Beaver Creek's evening is après-ski by a fire pit, dinner and then hotel lounges, and the village is quiet soon after. For anything livelier you drive to Vail.

Both are first-rate mountain bases, and the difference is in the landscape. Beaver Creek is a ski mountain first, with uncrowded groomed runs and glades linked to Vail's huge terrain. In summer there are trails into the Holy Cross Wilderness and the Gore Range, plus gold-medal fly-fishing and rafting on the Eagle and Colorado Rivers.

Flagstaff's appeal is the sheer variety of the Southwest within reach: volcanic peaks, endless ponderosa forest, Sunset Crater's lava flows, Sedona's red rock and the Grand Canyon, all under famously dark skies. Its skiing is a modest extra rather than the main reason to go.

Flagstaff has the wider choice of outings. Sedona, hillside Jerome, the cliff dwellings of Montezuma Castle, Walnut Canyon and Wupatki, the Grand Canyon railway from Williams and the Hopi mesas make for very different days.

From Beaver Creek, the outings are mostly other mountain towns: Vail, silver-mining Leadville, gold-rush Breckenridge and Glenwood Springs. They are pleasant but much alike, and none matches the ancient sites around Flagstaff.

Both work well with children, in different ways. Beaver Creek is built around the family ski week: a large ski school, children's terrain, an ice rink, escalators from the car parks, the warm cookies at lift closing and a car-free plaza where older children can roam.

Flagstaff suits curious children more than young skiers, with telescope evenings at the observatory, dinosaurs at the museum and snow play in winter. Its outings mean longer drives. Altitude tires small children in both places.

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

Flagstaff has a walkable downtown, an urban trail network for cycling and a station on the long-distance railway. But the motels are spread along Route 66 and every major sight is out of town, so a car or a tour is a necessity rather than a convenience.

Luxury ski wear in a resort plaza against Native American craft from galleries and trading posts: that is the choice here, and Flagstaff's is more worth taking home. Beaver Creek has a small, expensive cluster of technical outerwear, western boots, jewellery and galleries of bronze sculpture and landscape painting. It is fine for browsing on a rest day, but the everyday shops are down the valley.

Flagstaff's speciality comes from the region: Navajo rugs, Hopi kachina carvings, pottery and silver and turquoise jewellery, sold downtown, in the museum shop and at trading posts outside town. Buy from established dealers or directly from the artists to be sure the work is genuine.

This is where the two differ most. Beaver Creek is among the costliest vacations in North America, with luxury slopeside lodging, expensive lift tickets and ski school, and dining priced to match. Summer and a room in Avon soften the bill only slightly.

Flagstaff is moderately priced by American standards. Chain motels and brewery meals keep it manageable, though summer weekends push room rates up, and a hire car and park fees add to the bill.

The two are close, with Beaver Creek slightly ahead thanks to its summer. The Vilar Performing Arts Center sits right in the village, and the valley's season peaks with Bravo! Vail's orchestras, the Vail Dance Festival and jazz in Vail's open-air amphitheatre.

Flagstaff's offer is steadier through the year but smaller in scale: the symphony and university concerts, touring bands at the restored Orpheum, community theatre and brewery gigs at weekends.

Beaver Creek is the clear choice for pampering. Its resort spas are among the largest in the Rockies, with steam rooms and outdoor hot tubs in the snow, and the Glenwood Springs hot pools are about an hour away.

Flagstaff has only a few day spas and no hot springs. Its restful side is the quiet, the pine air and the starry nights, and for proper treatments people drive down to Sedona.