Big Sky or Colorado Springs?

Neither city is a swimming destination, and both send you to a pool. The difference is the water itself. Big Sky's Gallatin River and ponds stay cold even in high summer. Colorado Springs has public pools and city lakes, which are more inviting in its hotter summers.

Eating in Big Sky means hearty resort cooking: bison, elk, trout and big breakfasts before skiing, spread across the three villages and the canyon roadhouses. A few lodge kitchens aim higher, but there is little choice, and some places cut back between seasons.

Colorado Springs gives you more variety for an ordinary week of meals. There is green chile and Southwestern cooking, Mexican and Asian places along the main roads, and food trucks outside the breweries. You also get three pleasant areas to eat in: Tejon Street downtown, Old Colorado City and Manitou Springs. It still isn't a food destination, but you won't need to drive an hour for a change of menu.

Big Sky has almost nothing here. It is a resort built from the 1970s on, and its only real heritage is the pair of log cabins at the Crail Ranch homestead.

Colorado Springs has enough to fill a few half days. The Cadet Chapel at the Air Force Academy, with its row of aluminium spires, is the most striking building. The Olympic and Paralympic Museum and the Fine Arts Center's Southwestern collection are worth a visit, and so is the Pioneers Museum in the old courthouse. Manitou's Victorian streets add some period atmosphere.

In Big Sky, the evening peaks at après-ski. Skiers in boots fill the decks at the base of the lifts, and a few canyon saloons with pool tables carry on afterwards. In spring and autumn the resort goes quiet after dark.

Colorado Springs has more of a going-out district, though only just. A few blocks of Tejon Street have cocktail bars, sports bars and some dance spots, busy at weekends with students and young soldiers. Most drinking still happens in taprooms that close early, so it's a better place for a pint than for a late night.

Big Sky has the wilder and bigger landscape. There is serious skiing off Lone Peak, trails into the Spanish Peaks and the Lee Metcalf Wilderness, fly fishing and rafting on the Gallatin, and Yellowstone's geysers and wolves about an hour away.

Colorado Springs has the more accessible outdoors. Garden of the Gods, Red Rock Canyon and North Cheyenne Cañon begin where the suburbs end, and Pikes Peak can be climbed on foot or reached by cog railway. Its dry climate keeps trails open most of the year, but the skiing is two hours away.

From Big Sky, the outings are mostly into the landscape. Bozeman, an hour away, has a Western main street and the dinosaur fossils of the Museum of the Rockies. The preserved gold-rush boardwalks of Virginia City are about two hours away.

Colorado Springs has a much wider choice of day trips. Manitou Springs is next door, and Denver's major museums are a little over an hour north. Cripple Creek and Victor show their mining past up steep mountain roads, and the Royal Gorge Bridge is about an hour away.

Big Sky is easy for active families. There are gentle beginner slopes and a ski school in winter, and zip lines, climbing walls and gondola rides in summer. However, the base sits high enough to tire small children at first, and there is nothing to fall back on when the weather turns.

Colorado Springs offers more variety for children. There is the mountainside zoo with its giraffe herd, cave tours at Cave of the Winds, the Manitou Cliff Dwellings and a long-running Christmas amusement park. The catch is the hours spent in the car between them.

Big Sky is a little easier once you've arrived. A free bus links the canyon, Meadow Village, Town Center and Mountain Village, and slopeside lodgings let you ski straight to the lifts. You'll still want a car for Yellowstone and for winter drives through the canyon.

Colorado Springs relies on the car more completely. Buses are thin and infrequent, and the sights are scattered along the foothills. Downtown, Old Colorado City and Manitou are each pleasant on foot, but you can't get between them without driving.

Shopping in Big Sky is practical: ski and fishing gear, a few Western boutiques and galleries of wildlife art. In Colorado Springs, Old Colorado City and Manitou Springs have rock and gem shops, Western wear and local crafts in old storefronts, and there are outlets and malls for basics. Neither has any luxury or design shopping.

Big Sky is expensive throughout. Slopeside lodging, lift passes, ski school and guided fishing all cost a lot, and saving money by staying in the canyon or in Bozeman means more driving. Summer is cheaper but never cheap.

Colorado Springs costs far less. Chain hotels along the interstate are reasonably priced, and the main sights, from Garden of the Gods to the canyon parks, are free. Car hire is the extra cost you can't avoid.

Big Sky's arts calendar follows the seasons. A small centre in Meadow Village has touring acts and chamber music in winter, and in summer there are free lawn concerts and a short classical festival. Between seasons there is very little.

Colorado Springs has a year-round programme. The Philharmonic plays at the Pikes Peak Center, the Fine Arts Center runs a theatre company, and touring bands play the amphitheatre in summer. You might catch a good evening, but you wouldn't plan a trip around it.

The two are level, but they relax you in different ways. In Big Sky, relaxing means a hot tub on the deck and a massage for sore ski legs, followed by a quiet, starry night. Colorado Springs has a real spa heritage: Manitou grew up as a health resort, and you can still fill a cup at its mineral fountains or soak in outdoor tubs there.