Bend or Boulder?

Neither is a beach town, but Bend has better water in summer. Floating the Deschutes through the Old Mill District and taking cold, clear swims at Elk Lake and Sparks Lake in August are good reasons to pack a swimsuit.

Boulder has less. There is a small sandy swim area at the reservoir and tubing on Boulder Creek, which are fine for a hot afternoon but not much more.

The two eat at much the same level, but they centre on different things. In Bend, days revolve around brewpubs with outdoor seating and food-cart pods with fire pits and beer taps, with Pacific Northwest farm-to-table cooking downtown and in the Old Mill District.

Boulder leans towards health-conscious and vegetarian cooking, with the Saturday farmers' market by the creek and tea at the Dushanbe Teahouse, as well as taprooms on the east side. Neither has much international range or fine dining, but from Boulder you can go to Denver for both.

Neither town is a sightseeing destination, but Boulder has a little more to show. The Chautauqua cottages and auditorium under the Flatirons, the sandstone and red-tile campus and I.M. Pei's atmospheric research laboratory on the mesa make a pleasant day out.

Bend's best cultural visit is the High Desert Museum, with live animals and exhibits on Indigenous and pioneer history. The town itself has the stone-schoolhouse history museum and the old mill smokestacks, and an afternoon covers them.

Boulder offers a bit more after dark. There are cocktail bars and taprooms around Pearl Street, loud student bars on University Hill during term, and Denver forty minutes away for anything bigger.

Bend's evenings are spent in brewpubs and food-cart courtyards that fill early, plus a short run of downtown bars that get busy on summer weekends. In both towns people go to bed early to be on the trail at dawn, and there are few clubs.

This is the reason to visit either town, and they are evenly matched. What differs is the landscape. Bend sits on volcanic high desert under the Three Sisters. Mount Bachelor is half an hour away, with a long ski season, and there are Cascade lakes for paddling, lava caves at Newberry and sport climbing at Smith Rock.

In Boulder the trails start in town, in a protected ring of open space below the Flatirons. Eldorado Canyon's climbing walls are ten minutes away, and the tundra and elk of Rocky Mountain National Park are about an hour's drive. In Bend you can ski and bike on the same day in the shoulder seasons, while Boulder is best for hiking and cycling straight from your door.

Boulder is far better placed for outings, mainly because Denver is a short bus ride away, with its art museum, capitol and Union Station. Golden, Fort Collins and the old silver-mining towns of Georgetown and Idaho Springs add variety.

From Bend the outings are mostly scenery. Sisters has a western-style main street, Sunriver has a nature centre and observatory, and there is a museum of the region's tribes at Warm Springs. Crater Lake and the Painted Hills are long drives, and the nearby ranching towns have little to see.

Both are safe, relaxed places where children spend their days outdoors, and neither has a zoo or theme park. Bend's highlights are active ones: floating the Deschutes, exploring the Lava River Cave by lantern, the otters and raptors at the High Desert Museum and Mount Bachelor's ski school. Almost every outing needs a car.

Boulder is easier on foot. There is the creek path, the Chautauqua meadow, street performers on Pearl Street and the campus planetarium, and Denver's zoo and aquarium are close by. Because of the altitude, bring hats and water on every hike.

Boulder is much easier to manage without a car. Downtown, the campus and Chautauqua are within walking distance of each other, off-street bike paths follow the creeks, and an express bus links the town to Denver and its airport.

Bend's walkable core is smaller, just downtown and the Old Mill District along the river, and the buses are of little use to visitors. In Bend nearly everything you came for needs a car, and most visitors fly into the small airport at Redmond or drive over the Cascade passes.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Boulder is the better place to browse. The Pearl Street Mall has four car-free blocks of bookshops, galleries, toy shops and boutiques, and Twenty Ninth Street has the mainstream stores.

Bend has chain stores in the converted mill buildings and a few streets of downtown boutiques. Both towns have excellent outdoor gear shops. Bend's small advantages are its consignment shops for used equipment and Oregon's lack of sales tax.

Neither is cheap, but Bend is easier on the wallet. Its prices rise in summer and on ski weekends, but Oregon has no sales tax, food carts serve cheaper meals, and midweek stays in spring or autumn cost less.

Boulder is one of the wealthier towns in the country. Hotel rooms are limited, rates are steep in summer and on university weekends, and many visitors stay in Denver and drive in. In both towns the trails cost almost nothing, although in Bend a hire car is close to essential.

Boulder has the fuller calendar. Small and mid-sized venues book bluegrass, roots and rock acts most nights, and in summer the Colorado Music Festival fills the 1898 Chautauqua Auditorium and the Shakespeare festival performs outdoors on campus. Red Rocks is under an hour away.

Bend's music is mostly in summer, at the riverside amphitheatre in the Old Mill District and at free concerts in the parks. For the rest of the year there is the Tower Theatre, a community symphony and local bands in the brewpubs.

Boulder is better for a restful stay, thanks to its way of life rather than its baths. There are yoga and meditation studios on every corner, a contemplative side rooted in its Buddhist-inspired university, and plenty of massage and acupuncture. Soaking is limited to the pool at Eldorado Springs and the hot springs at Idaho Springs, an hour away.

In Bend, relaxing usually means a hot tub after skiing or biking, a resort spa around Sunriver, or a walk to the primitive hot pools at Paulina Lake. The town is calm, but people come here to be active rather than to rest.