Beaver Creek or Santa Fe?

Neither has a beach. The swimming alternatives also differ only in detail. Beaver Creek has the tiny sandy area at Nottingham Lake in Avon, where the snowmelt water stays chilly, and heated outdoor hotel pools with mountain views. Santa Fe has the reservoir at Abiquiu Lake about an hour north and floats on the Rio Grande, which are outings in their own right rather than a quick dip.

Beaver Creek eats well but predictably. It serves elk, trout and Colorado lamb in polished dining rooms, with some dinners reached by chairlift or snowcat sleigh. For something plainer, there are taquerias and brewpubs down the valley in Avon.

Santa Fe has what the resort lacks, a cuisine of its own. Red or green chile, blue corn, posole and sopaipillas give every meal a sense of place, and the Railyard farmers' market is worth a morning. Its fine dining is also unusually strong for a small city. Neither town offers much variety beyond its speciality.

Here the gap is wide. Beaver Creek is a ski resort built around 1980. Its stone-and-timber village and plaza art are attractive, but they take an hour at most. Santa Fe was founded as a Spanish colonial capital in 1610, and the Palace of the Governors, the San Miguel Chapel and the Loretto Chapel's spiral staircase are all a short walk from the Plaza.

Add the folk art and Native American collections on Museum Hill, the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum and the galleries of Canyon Road, and Santa Fe fills two or three full days of sightseeing. Beaver Creek fills one short stroll.

Neither is a late-night town, but Santa Fe gives you a little more to do after dinner. In Beaver Creek the evening peaks with après-ski by a fire pit on the plaza and ends soon after dinner, and Vail is the nearest option for a livelier night. Santa Fe has rooftop bars facing the sunset over the Jemez Mountains, breweries around the Railyard and livelier summer evenings on the Plaza, although for clubs you have to drive to Albuquerque.

Both towns sit at the foot of serious mountains, and Beaver Creek has the edge because the mountain is the whole point. Its slopes climb to about 3,500m and link to Bachelor Gulch, Arrowhead and Vail's huge terrain. In summer the lifts give access to the Holy Cross Wilderness, the Gore Range and gold-medal fly-fishing on the Eagle River.

Santa Fe offers a wider range of landscapes rather than more mountain sport. The Sangre de Cristo foothills and the Pecos Wilderness are close, but what sets it apart is the desert: mesas, the grassy volcanic crater of Valles Caldera and the red cliffs around Abiquiu. Its small ski area is a useful extra in winter, not a destination in its own right.

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

Santa Fe has a longer and more varied list. Taos Pueblo, a World Heritage Site, the High Road villages of Chimayo and Truchas, the cliff dwellings at Bandelier and the O'Keeffe country around Abiquiu each show a different side of the region. The Rail Runner also reaches Albuquerque's Old Town without a car.

Beaver Creek is built around families. It has a large ski school, children's terrain, an ice rink and covered escalators, and older children can roam the car-free plaza safely. In summer a hilltop adventure area adds ropes courses, climbing and mini golf.

Santa Fe has a children's museum, the toys and miniatures in the folk art collection and the climbing ladders at Bandelier. Even so, gallery browsing and long dinners test younger children's patience, so it works best for older children who like hiking and history. Altitude tires small children at first in both places, and more so at Beaver Creek's greater height.

The two are much alike: easy on foot at the centre, and a car is needed for anything further. In Beaver Creek, the easy part is the resort. Outdoor escalators, ski-in ski-out lodging and free shuttles to the hillside lodges and Avon do the work, and Eagle airport is about half an hour away.

Santa Fe's walkable core is a real historic town, with the Plaza, Canyon Road and the Railyard within about twenty minutes of each other on foot. Beyond that, local buses are infrequent, so you will want a hire car for the pueblos and back roads. Unlike the resort, it has no winter mountain passes between you and the nearest big city.

Beaver Creek's shops are a small upmarket cluster around the plaza: technical ski wear, western boots and galleries selling bronze sculpture. They are fine for browsing on a rest day, and that is about it.

Santa Fe makes shopping a reason to visit. Native American artists sell silver, turquoise and pottery under the portal of the Palace of the Governors, galleries line Canyon Road and the Railyard, and summer brings Indian Market and the Spanish Market. Neither town does mainstream fashion or department stores.

The two are far apart on cost, and Beaver Creek is the heavier bill by some distance. Luxury slopeside hotels and condos, lift tickets, equipment rental and ski school all add up, and mountain dining is priced to match. Staying down the valley in Avon or Edwards, or coming in summer, helps only a little.

Santa Fe is still expensive for a town of its size, and hotels around the Plaza charge resort prices. Even so, there is room to save. Rooms along Cerrillos Road cost less, and hiking, the Plaza and much of the gallery browsing are free. The hire car you will need is the main extra cost.

The difference comes down to summer. Beaver Creek's best evenings are borrowed from Vail, twenty minutes down the road, where the Bravo! Vail festival brings major American orchestras and the dance festival and a jazz series fill out the season. Back in the village, a small theatre hosts visiting acts all year, from concerts to comedy and family shows, but there is no resident company and no opera.

Santa Fe's summer has something you would plan a trip around. A night at the Santa Fe Opera, with its adventurous repertoire and desert setting, is the main event, and chamber music and flamenco add to it. In winter both towns are quiet, but Santa Fe still has more going on, with touring shows at the Lensic and choirs singing in the old churches.

Both make slowing down easy, but in different styles. Beaver Creek relies on its big resort spas, with outdoor hot tubs in the snow and a quiet, car-free village, and the Glenwood Springs pools are about an hour west. Santa Fe has onsen-style soaking tubs among the pines in the foothills, many yoga studios and healers for a town its size, and the varied mineral springs of Ojo Caliente about an hour north.