Beaver Creek or Palm Springs?

Neither has a beach, and swimming in both means a hotel pool. The pools feel quite different, though. In Beaver Creek it is usually a heated pool steaming in the cold, plus Nottingham Lake down in Avon for chilly summer dips.

In Palm Springs the pool is the centre of the stay. Nearly every hotel and rental house has one, and lounging beside it fills most of the year. The Pacific is about two hours away over the mountains.

Neither has a cuisine of its own, and you eat about equally well in both, but the meals feel different. Beaver Creek serves polished mountain menus of elk, lamb and trout, often at lodges reached by chairlift or sleigh. Everyday tacos and brewpubs are down the valley in Avon and Edwards.

Palm Springs is more casual: long patio brunches, poolside cocktails, date shakes from the groves around Indio, and honest Mexican bakeries in the towns further east.

Palm Springs has much more to see. Its mid-century modern houses, the tract homes in Twin Palms and Vista Las Palmas, and Albert Frey's buildings make a full day of self-guided touring. The art museum and the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum add depth.

Beaver Creek was built as a resort around 1980. It has an attractive stone-and-timber plaza with outdoor art, but no history of its own. For that you have to drive to the old mining towns.

Only Palm Springs has a real bar scene. Beaver Creek's evening starts with a drink by a fire pit on the plaza as the lifts close, moves on to dinner or a quiet hotel lounge, and is usually over soon after. For anything livelier, you drive over to Vail.

In Palm Springs you can keep going. Arenas Road has a long-established run of LGBTQ bars with patios and drag nights, Palm Canyon Drive has retro cocktail lounges, and in spring hotel pool parties carry the weekends. There are hardly any proper clubs, though, and most places close well before the small hours.

Both have mountains, but Beaver Creek is outdoors country in every season. Winter means long cruisers and steep glades, with Vail close by. Summer opens up lift-served trails, the Holy Cross Wilderness, the Gore Range, gold-medal fly-fishing and rafting on the Eagle and Colorado Rivers.

Palm Springs has drama of its own. The tramway rises from desert to pine forest on San Jacinto, the Indian Canyons hide palm oases, and Joshua Tree is about an hour away. However, its outdoor season runs only from autumn to spring before the heat takes over.

The day trips are about equal in number, but different in character. From Beaver Creek they are all mountain towns: Leadville's Victorian silver-mining street, gold-rush Breckenridge, and the old spa town of Glenwood Springs. They are pleasant but alike.

Palm Springs offers stranger outings, such as the lived-in film set of Pioneertown, the abandoned resorts and Salvation Mountain by the Salton Sea, and pine-shaded Idyllwild. Both need a car.

Beaver Creek is the easier place to bring children. It has a large ski school, gentle children's terrain, an ice rink, escalators from the car parks and a car-free plaza where older children can roam. Its weak spot is a stormy day, when there is no zoo or museum to fall back on.

Palm Springs has good single outings, including the Living Desert zoo, the Air Museum and the tramway. But many boutique hotels are adults-only, the social life is built around cocktails, and from late spring the midday heat keeps children indoors.

Once you have arrived, Beaver Creek is simpler. Free shuttles connect the village, hillside lodges and Avon, many places to stay are ski-in ski-out, and valley buses reach Vail. The catch is getting there: Denver is about two hours away over passes that winter storms can close.

Palm Springs is the opposite. The airport is right at the edge of town and the downtown strip is flat and walkable, but the canyons, tramway and Joshua Tree all need a car, and the buses are slow.

Palm Springs is the better place to shop. The Uptown Design District on North Palm Canyon Drive specialises in mid-century furniture, lighting and vintage clothing, El Paseo in Palm Desert has the luxury labels, and the Cabazon outlets are about twenty minutes west.

Beaver Creek has a small, expensive cluster of shops around the plaza selling ski wear, western boots and bronze sculpture. It is fine for browsing on a rest day.

Beaver Creek will cost you far more than Palm Springs. Most slopeside places to stay are luxury hotels or large condos, and lift passes, ski hire and ski school all come on top, so a winter week here is dearer than at almost any other ski resort on the continent. Sleeping down in Avon or Edwards, or coming in summer, trims the bill but never makes it cheap.

Palm Springs is pricey in its winter and spring season too, but simple motels and supermarket picnics keep costs under control all year. In the hottest months room rates fall sharply for anyone who can take the heat.

Both offer a similar amount of live entertainment, but at different times of year. Beaver Creek peaks in summer, when Bravo! Vail brings leading orchestras to the open-air amphitheatre and the Vail Dance Festival follows. The intimate Vilar Performing Arts Center covers both seasons.

Palm Springs' big moment is April, with Coachella and Stagecoach in Indio. Through the cooler months there is drag cabaret, piano bars and touring shows at the McCallum Theatre. In summer it goes quiet.

Palm Springs was built on wellness. The sacred Agua Caliente spring has a bathhouse downtown, and the spa motels of Desert Hot Springs fill their pools with hot mineral water straight from the ground. Days spent by the pool under the mountains complete the picture.

Beaver Creek relaxes you in a different way, with large resort spas, outdoor hot tubs in the snow and a quiet car-free village. Its nearest real hot springs are in Glenwood Springs, about an hour away.