Beaver Creek or Rapid City?

Neither place is for a beach vacation, but Rapid City at least has real lakes to swim in. Beaver Creek's only open water is little Nottingham Lake down in Avon, which stays cold with snowmelt, so most swimming happens in a heated hotel pool with a view of the slopes. Around Rapid City, Sylvan Lake, Sheridan Lake and Pactola Reservoir sit in the pine hills within half an hour, with small sandy or gravel shores and water that warms to about 21°C in high summer.

Beaver Creek has slightly more polished cooking: elk, Colorado lamb and trout with long wine lists, and on-mountain dinners you reach by chairlift or snowcat sleigh. The menus tend to repeat one another, though, and everyday food is down in Avon and Edwards.

Rapid City's food has more local character. There is chislic in the bars, bison on the grill, Indian tacos on Lakota fry bread, and a cluster of brewpubs and more ambitious kitchens around Main Street. Beyond those, it is mostly chain restaurants. Go to Beaver Creek for a special dinner and to Rapid City for food you won't find elsewhere.

Beaver Creek was built as a ski resort around 1980 and has no past to explore. Its stone-and-timber plaza with outdoor art takes about an hour, and the nearest mining history is a drive away.

Rapid City gives a curious visitor more to do in town. Bronze presidents stand on the downtown street corners, the Journey Museum tells the story of the Black Hills from geology through Lakota life to the gold rush, and the School of Mines displays Badlands fossils. It is still modest, and the famous landmarks lie out in the hills.

Both towns go to bed early, but Rapid City has a little more going on. A night in Beaver Creek is après-ski by a fire pit, dinner and perhaps a hotel lounge, and anyone wanting more drives to Vail. Rapid City has brewpubs, sports bars and country-music bars around Main Street Square, casual and mostly finished before midnight, and in early August the Sturgis rally makes the whole region loud and late.

Both are outdoor destinations first, but Beaver Creek offers the bigger mountain experience. Its ski terrain climbs to about 3,500m with famously quiet slopes and Vail's huge area close by. In summer the lifts open up aspen and spruce trails toward the Gore Range and the Holy Cross Wilderness, with gold-medal fly-fishing and rafting on the rivers below.

Rapid City's strength is variety rather than height. It has granite spires and ponderosa forest, bison herds in Custer State Park, Wind Cave and Jewel Cave underground, the Badlands an hour east and the Mickelson Trail for cyclists. In winter it is no rival.

Beaver Creek's outings are mostly other mountain towns: Vail's Tyrolean-style village, silver-mining Leadville, Breckenridge's gold-rush centre and the old spa town of Glenwood Springs. They are pleasant but much alike.

Rapid City is the stronger base, with landmarks that people travel across the country to see. Mount Rushmore is half an hour away, and the Crazy Horse Memorial has a large museum of Native American culture. Deadwood keeps its Wild West streets, the Mammoth Site shows bones where they fell, and the Minuteman Missile silo and Wall lie out on the prairie.

Beaver Creek makes a ski week with children easy. It has a large ski school, children's terrain, an ice rink and warm cookies when the lifts close, plus ropes courses and climbing in summer. Older children can roam the car-free plaza, but there is little to do on a bad-weather day, and altitude and cold wear out the very young.

Rapid City gives children more variety. Close to town there are the reptile park, a drive-through park with bears and wolves, the concrete dinosaurs and Storybook Island. Further out are bison jams, cave tours, gold panning and the Mammoth Site. The cost is hours in the back seat.

Once you arrive, Beaver Creek is much easier. The village is pedestrian, with escalators between levels, ski-in ski-out lodging, free shuttles down to Avon and valley buses to Vail. The harder part is reaching it: Eagle airport is half an hour away, and the drive from Denver crosses passes that winter storms can close.

In Rapid City you need a car. Downtown is walkable, but the city buses do not reach Mount Rushmore, the parks or the hill towns. Driving there is easy, with light traffic and scenic roads, slowed only by tight tunnels and hairpins.

Beaver Creek sells resort luxury, while Rapid City sells regional craft. Around the Beaver Creek plaza, a small cluster of stores offers technical ski wear, upmarket outerwear, leather, jewellery and galleries of bronze sculpture and landscape painting. That is enough for a browse on a rest day, but the range is narrow. Rapid City's speciality is Black Hills gold in tri-colour grape-leaf designs, and its downtown shops sell Lakota quillwork, beadwork and star quilts, with a regional mall and big-box stores for the basics.

Cost is where these two differ most. Beaver Creek is among the most expensive vacations in North America. Slopeside lodging, lift tickets, equipment rental, ski school and mountain dining all cost a lot, and staying in Avon or going in summer only takes the edge off.

Rapid City costs less than most American tourist destinations. Motels and casual meals are reasonable, and many sights are free. Allow for the rental car, fuel and park fees, and avoid rally week in August, when rooms for miles around become very expensive.

Beaver Creek has the stronger programme, especially in summer. The Vilar Performing Arts Center in the village hosts touring concerts, comedy and dance through the year. In summer, Bravo! Vail brings leading American orchestras to the open-air amphitheatre twenty minutes away, and the Vail Dance Festival adds more evenings.

Rapid City has the Black Hills Symphony Orchestra, touring shows at the civic centre and a summer playhouse among the pines in Custer State Park. Its most distinctive performance is the large autumn powwow.

Beaver Creek is the place to unwind. Its resort spas are some of the largest in the Rockies, with steam rooms and outdoor hot tubs in the snow, and the village goes quiet after dinner. The big outdoor hot-spring pool at Glenwood Springs is an hour west.

Rapid City has only a few day spas and hotel spas. Its main attraction is the historic spring-fed indoor pool at Hot Springs, an hour south, and the rest of its calm comes from cabin stays in the hills.