Big Sky or Flagstaff?

Neither town is a place to swim, and both are hours from any coast. The difference is in what a hot summer day offers. In Big Sky the Gallatin is too fast and cold for more than a paddle, so a hotel pool is the realistic choice.

From Flagstaff you can at least drive down Oak Creek Canyon to Slide Rock and the creek pools. These are proper outdoor swims, even if the water is cold and they are crowded at weekends.

Flagstaff has a little more choice, though neither place is worth choosing for its food. Big Sky serves hearty resort cooking spread across its villages, with bison, elk, Montana beef, trout and big breakfasts before a ski day, all at high prices. A few lodge kitchens aim higher, but the range is narrow and some places cut their hours between seasons.

Flagstaff is just as casual, but its craft breweries downtown and in the Southside give an evening some focus. Around them you find diners, burger joints and Mexican and New Mexican cooking with green chile. Navajo frybread and Navajo tacos turn up here and there as occasional regional touches.

This is where the two differ most after cost. Big Sky was built as a ski resort, and its only real heritage is the pair of log cabins at Crail Ranch.

Flagstaff has a short but serious list. There is Lowell Observatory, where Pluto was discovered in 1930, the Museum of Northern Arizona with its Hopi, Navajo and Zuni collections, the Riordan Mansion and a brick railroad downtown on old Route 66. That is enough to fill a day or two between hikes.

Big Sky's evenings centre on après-ski. You drink on the sunny decks at the lifts in your boots, then perhaps have a drink in a Town Center tavern or a canyon saloon, and you are in bed early. Out of season it is almost silent.

Flagstaff has more going on after dark. Taprooms, cocktail bars and Route 66 saloons sit within a short walk of each other, and students liven up term-time weekends. Still, there are no clubs to speak of.

Both are outstanding mountain bases, and the difference is in the kind of landscape. Big Sky is the bigger ski mountain, with Lone Peak's steep high runs, wilderness trails into the Spanish Peaks, fly fishing and rafting on the Gallatin, and Yellowstone's wildlife about an hour south.

Flagstaff offers more variety than raw scale. It has volcanic peaks and lava flows, a vast ponderosa forest, the red rock of Sedona and the Grand Canyon's South Rim within easy reach, and some of the darkest night skies of any town anywhere.

Flagstaff has far more within reach. Sedona and the hillside mining town of Jerome are close. So are the cliff dwellings at Montezuma Castle, the Sinagua ruins at Walnut Canyon and Wupatki, the old railway from Williams to the Grand Canyon and the ancient Hopi mesas.

From Big Sky the choice is thinner. There is Bozeman with its Museum of the Rockies dinosaurs, small West Yellowstone, and the preserved gold-rush boardwalks of Virginia City about two hours off.

Both work well for active families, but in different ways. Big Sky is resort-style: a ski school and gentle slopes in winter, and in summer a base-area adventure park with zip lines and ropes courses, plus horse riding and bison spotting in Yellowstone.

Flagstaff suits curious children who like learning something along the way, with telescope evenings at the observatory, the museum's dinosaurs, snow play and a steam-era train to the Grand Canyon. In both places the altitude tires small children for the first day or two.

There is little to choose between them here. Big Sky is strung along about 15km of road. A free bus links the villages and many lodges let you ski straight to the lifts, but walking from one area to another is not realistic.

Flagstaff's downtown and Southside are compact enough to explore on foot or by bike on the paved urban trails, and long-distance trains stop in the centre. Still, in both places every sight beyond town needs a car or a tour.

Flagstaff has the more interesting shopping because of its Native American craft. Navajo rugs, Hopi kachina carvings, pottery and turquoise jewellery are sold in downtown galleries, the museum shop and the trading posts outside town.

Big Sky offers little more than ski and fishing gear, a few Western-styled boutiques and galleries of wildlife art. Anything else means the drive to Bozeman.

The gap is wide. Big Sky is a luxury ski resort, and lodging, lift passes, ski school, guided fishing and meals all come at a high price. Summer is cheaper, but it is still costly.

Flagstaff is moderately priced by American standards. Route 66 motels and brewery meals keep a stay reasonable, though rooms climb on summer weekends and a hire car and park fees add up.

Flagstaff has the steadier calendar, with performances all year. The symphony and the university music school play the campus concert hall, the restored Orpheum Theater downtown books touring bands, and community theatre runs throughout the year.

Big Sky packs its arts into two seasons. Touring musicians and theatre come to the small Meadow Village arts centre in winter, and in summer there are free concerts on the Town Center lawn and a short classical festival. In between there is almost nothing.

Big Sky does relaxation better, at least the comfortable kind. Its big lodges have full-service spas built around tired ski legs, and a hot tub on the deck under the stars ends most days.

Flagstaff has only a handful of day spas, so its calm comes from the pine-scented air and the slow pace of the town. For real treatments, visitors drive an hour to Sedona's resorts.