Beaver Creek or Winter Park, Colorado?

Neither is a swimming destination. Both sit high in the Rockies, far from any sea, and the small difference is in how the lakes get used. Beaver Creek has a small sandy area at Nottingham Lake in Avon where families cool off on hot afternoons. Winter Park's Grand Lake and the Granby reservoirs are mostly for boating, so warm water there means a hotel pool or the hot springs pools down the valley.

Beaver Creek eats noticeably better. The kitchens aim higher, with elk, Colorado lamb and trout, long wine lists and dinners at on-mountain lodges reached by chairlift or snowcat sleigh. Avon, Edwards and Vail, all close by, add taquerias, diners and a wider choice.

Winter Park's food is fuel for a day outside: breakfast burritos before the lifts open, green chile and burgers at the lodges, and pizza, barbecue and brewery pints along the main road. Only a few dinner rooms go further. Neither has a regional cuisine, but Beaver Creek is the one where dinner can be the event of the day.

Neither has much to see, and the little there is differs in kind. Beaver Creek is a planned resort from around 1980, and its interest is the stone-and-timber architecture and outdoor art around the plaza, enough for an hour's stroll. Winter Park has a bit more real history: Denver opened the ski area in the late 1930s, and you can follow the Moffat Tunnel railway story and visit the homesteading ranch museum in Fraser. A proper museum day also comes easier from Winter Park, since Denver is closer.

Beaver Creek's evenings are sedate: a glass of wine by a fire pit on the plaza as the lifts close, a hotel lounge after dinner, then bed. For something livelier, Vail is twenty minutes away.

Winter Park is louder and more casual. The base-village bars are packed at lift close, and the pubs and brewery taprooms on the main road stay cheerful on winter weekends and in spring-break weeks. It is still a town of early risers, though, so it goes quiet by late evening.

Both are outstanding mountain bases, so the choice is about terrain and style. Beaver Creek is known for long groomed cruisers and uncrowded slopes, linked to Bachelor Gulch and Arrowhead, with Vail's huge ski area close by. Its summer adds the Holy Cross Wilderness, the Gore Range, gold-medal fly-fishing and rafting on the Eagle and Colorado rivers.

Winter Park is higher, colder and a little rougher. It has Mary Jane's bumps and tree runs, cross-country track in the valley and backcountry on Berthoud Pass, and the season runs late into spring. In summer its lift-served bike park is a reason to come in itself, and moose and elk roam the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park, about an hour north.

Both offer a short list of old mining and spa towns rather than major sights. From Beaver Creek you can visit Vail's pedestrian village, the silver town of Leadville, gold-rush Breckenridge and Glenwood Springs. Winter Park sends you over Berthoud Pass to Georgetown and Idaho Springs, with their narrow-gauge railway loop, or north to the boardwalk at Grand Lake.

The real difference is Denver. From Winter Park it is about an hour and a half when the pass is clear, so a day of museums and city neighbourhoods is realistic. From Beaver Creek it is too far for an easy day.

Both are built around family ski weeks, with large ski schools and gentle learning slopes. They share the same drawbacks: little to do indoors on a bad-weather day, and altitude that can unsettle children for the first night or two.

Beaver Creek is the more polished of the two. It has a car-free plaza where older children can roam, outdoor escalators up from the car parks, warm cookies at lift close and a hilltop adventure area in summer. Winter Park is simpler and more hands-on, with snow tubing, sleigh rides and an alpine slide, and its condos with kitchens make feeding a family easier.

In both resorts you can do a ski week without a car, though they work differently. Beaver Creek's village is compact and pedestrian, with escalators between levels, plenty of ski-in ski-out lodging and free shuttles to the Avon base. Eagle airport is about half an hour away.

Winter Park's free shuttle links the base, the town and Fraser, but the lodgings are strung along several kilometres of highway and the main street is a road rather than a place to stroll. Trailheads and outings need a car in both. Both are also reached from Denver over mountain roads that winter storms can disrupt: Berthoud Pass for Winter Park, and a longer drive for Beaver Creek.

Beaver Creek has more to browse. Around its plaza are luxury outerwear, western boots and leather, jewellery and galleries selling bronze sculpture and landscape painting. The range is narrow and the prices are high, but it fills a rest day. Winter Park's shops are for practical needs: ski rental and tuning, bike shops, outdoor clothing and souvenirs. For anything wider, Beaver Creek visitors go to Avon and Edwards, while Winter Park visitors drive to Denver.

Neither is cheap in ski season, but Winter Park is much easier on the wallet. Its prices are those of a busy Colorado resort rather than a glamour one, condos and motels in Fraser with kitchens cut the lodging and food bills, and summer trails cost nothing.

Beaver Creek is among the most expensive vacations in North America, with luxury hotels, costly lift tickets and lessons, and mountain dining priced to match. Staying in Avon or Edwards and booking passes early trims the bill a little, and summer is cheaper in both places, but there is no budget version of a Beaver Creek trip.

Beaver Creek has a real stage on its doorstep. The Vilar Performing Arts Center in the village hosts touring concerts, comedy, dance and family shows in both winter and summer. In summer, Bravo! Vail brings leading orchestras to the open-air amphitheatre in Vail, twenty minutes away, alongside the Vail Dance Festival and a jazz series.

Winter Park offers free summer concerts on the grass in the town park and bands in the après-ski bars. For a proper performance, plan an evening in Denver.

For a slow, pampered few days, Beaver Creek is the better base. Its resort spas are large, with steam rooms and outdoor hot tubs in the snow, the car-free village is quiet in the evenings, and the huge historic hot springs pool at Glenwood Springs is about an hour west.

Rest at Winter Park is plainer: a hot tub at the condo, crisp air and quiet forest, with a handful of spas for massage. Its best asset is Hot Sulphur Springs, only half an hour away, with mineral pools stepping down a hillside above the Colorado River. The base village is busy in ski season, though, so late spring and autumn are the best times to unwind.