Beaver Creek or Phoenix?

Neither city has a coast, and swimming is a small part of the trip in both, but the water feels very different. In Beaver Creek it's a heated hotel pool or a steaming hot tub with a mountain view. The only open water is little Nottingham Lake in Avon, which stays cold from snowmelt.

Phoenix swims warm. Resort pools with slides and lazy rivers fill the hot months, Saguaro Lake and Canyon Lake have small beaches below desert cliffs, and tubing down the lower Salt River is a local summer outing.

Phoenix gives a food lover more to discover. Its own cooking comes from the Sonoran borderlands: carne asada, paper-thin flour tortillas and bacon-wrapped hot dogs from evening carts, with wood-fired pizza and Roosevelt Row's independent kitchens adding range. The catch is that good meals are spread across the city and usually mean a drive.

In Beaver Creek you'll eat well, but in one register. Elk, trout and Colorado lamb come with long wine lists, and the memorable part is the setting, such as a sleigh ride up to an on-mountain lodge for dinner. For everyday meals, people go down to the taquerias and brewpubs of Avon.

Phoenix wins easily, although its culture is in museums rather than old streets. The Heard Museum's Native American collection alone justifies a day, and the Musical Instrument Museum, Taliesin West and the Hohokam site at Pueblo Grande add depth.

Beaver Creek is a ski village from around 1980. Its stone-and-timber plaza and outdoor sculpture are pleasant to walk past, but that's all there is. For any history you need to drive to the mining towns of the Rockies.

If you want a night out, go to Phoenix. You can choose the clubs and rooftop bars of Old Town Scottsdale, the student bars of Mill Avenue in Tempe, or the cocktail and craft beer bars around downtown and Roosevelt Row. Because the districts are far apart, you pick one for the evening and take a ride home.

Beaver Creek's evenings are built around après-ski: a drink by a fire pit on the plaza, then dinner, then bed. It was designed that way, and anyone who wants more has to drive over to Vail.

Beaver Creek is the stronger outdoor destination because it works in both seasons. In winter there's dependable snow on big, quiet ski terrain. In summer the lifts take hikers and bikers into spruce and aspen, the Holy Cross Wilderness and the Gore Range are close by, and the Eagle and Colorado Rivers offer fly-fishing and whitewater.

Phoenix's desert is impressive in its own right, with saguaro forest in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, steep climbs up Camelback Mountain, and South Mountain right next to the suburbs. Its limit is the calendar: from late spring to early autumn the heat confines hiking to early mornings.

Phoenix has the more varied list. To the north are the hillside mining town of Jerome, Prescott's saloon street, the cliff dwelling at Montezuma Castle and the red rock around Sedona. To the south is Tucson, with its adobe barrios and Mission San Xavier del Bac.

Beaver Creek's outings are good but similar to one another: Vail's pedestrian village, the old silver town of Leadville, gold-rush Breckenridge and spa town Glenwood Springs. After a couple of them, the mountain towns start to blur together.

Both work well for children, in different ways. Beaver Creek is a self-contained ski village with a well-organised ski school, an ice rink, warm cookies when the lifts close and a car-free plaza where older children can roam. On a stormy day, though, there's nothing indoors to fall back on.

Phoenix covers the indoor gaps with its zoo, aquarium, science centre and children's museum, and it adds water parks and spring training baseball. The price is long drives between them and summer heat that keeps small children inside.

Once you've arrived, Beaver Creek is much easier. The core is pedestrian, escalators link the levels, free shuttles run to the lodges and to Avon, and many guests ski from their door. You'll want a car for day trips and supermarket runs, and Denver is a mountain drive away.

Phoenix needs a car for almost everything. The light rail covers only the corridor from the airport through downtown to Tempe, and the hiking areas, Scottsdale and the museums are spread across a vast grid.

Phoenix gives shoppers far more. Scottsdale's luxury mall and the open-air centre near the Biltmore carry the big brands, and the city's distinctive buy is Navajo and Zuni silver and turquoise, Hopi katsina carvings and rugs from reputable galleries and museum shops.

Beaver Creek's plaza has a handful of upmarket stores selling ski wear, western boots and bronze sculpture. It's fine for an hour on a rest day, but the choice is narrow.

Phoenix is far easier on the wallet. Prices are ordinary for an American city, resort rooms drop sharply in summer, Sonoran food is cheap and the trails cost nothing. Your main extra cost is the rental car.

Beaver Creek is among the most expensive places to vacation on the continent. Luxury lodging, lift tickets, ski school and mountain dining all add up. Staying in Avon or coming in summer helps a little, but it never makes the trip cheap.

Phoenix has the steadier programme. The symphony, Arizona Opera, Ballet Arizona and touring Broadway shows at Wright's round ASU Gammage give it a full season from autumn to spring.

Beaver Creek peaks in summer instead, when Bravo! Vail brings major orchestras to an open-air amphitheatre and the Vail Dance Festival follows. The village's intimate Vilar Center runs touring shows the rest of the year. For a classical-music fan, the two seasons complement each other neatly.

Both are resort-spa destinations, but they make for different kinds of rest. In Beaver Creek you soak in outdoor hot tubs in the snow after skiing, in a village that goes quiet at night, and the historic mineral pools of Glenwood Springs are an easy outing.

Phoenix offers sun instead: a winter week by a desert resort pool below Camelback Mountain, with treatments based on sage, clay and agave. It has no hot springs or public baths, though, and outside the resort grounds you're back in a sprawling car city.