Boulder or Dallas?

Neither city is anywhere near the sea, so neither works for a beach vacation. Both offer summer swimming in reservoirs instead.

Boulder has a small sandy area at Boulder Reservoir, and locals float the creek on inner tubes. Dallas has larger, plainer lake beaches at Lewisville and Grapevine, with brown water but long warm months, and water parks in Arlington.

Dallas eats with more weight and range. Brisket sold by weight, Tex-Mex, steakhouses and taco trucks in Oak Cliff make up the core, and the suburbs add Vietnamese, Korean and South Asian food, though reaching most of it takes a car.

Boulder is smaller and more wholesome: farm-to-table menus, plenty of vegetarian food, bakeries, taprooms and the Saturday farmers' market by the creek. It is pleasant, but without a cooking style of its own or much ethnic choice.

Dallas has a sight that draws visitors from around the world, the Sixth Floor Museum overlooking Dealey Plaza. It also has an Arts District with the Dallas Museum of Art and the Nasher Sculpture Center, and the Art Deco halls of Fair Park, enough for two full days.

Boulder offers atmosphere more than landmarks: the 1898 Chautauqua colony, the sandstone and red-tile university campus, and I.M. Pei's atmospheric research laboratory on the mesa. One day covers it.

A night out in Dallas has a choice of characters. There are scruffy late bars in Deep Ellum, polished patio and cocktail bars in Uptown, and rooftops on Lower Greenville, with a firm 2am finish and ride-hails between districts.

Boulder goes to bed earlier. Taprooms and cocktail bars around Pearl Street, and student bars on University Hill during term, make for a sociable evening, but there are hardly any clubs, and plenty of people are up at dawn for the trails.

This is the clearest gap between the two. Boulder sits under the Flatirons, with over 200km of trails through protected open space, climbing in Eldorado Canyon, canyon roads for cyclists and the alpine lakes and elk of Rocky Mountain National Park about an hour away.

Dallas offers gentler, flatter country: the Katy Trail, the loop around White Rock Lake, the Great Trinity Forest and limestone walks at Cedar Ridge. These are good for a morning, but summer heat limits even that.

Both cities have one big neighbour and then a thinner list. Dallas has the better first choice in Fort Worth, with the Stockyards' cattle-town past and the Kimbell in Louis Kahn's building, reached by commuter train. Beyond it come courthouse towns and Grapevine's tasting rooms.

From Boulder the variety is greater in kind. Denver is the city outing by express bus, while Golden, Fort Collins and the old silver-mining towns of Georgetown and Idaho Springs take you into mountain country, by car.

Dallas has the big-ticket days children remember: Six Flags and a water park in Arlington, two large zoos, the Perot Museum and the rainforest aquarium. The trade-off is long car journeys and summer heat.

Boulder is smaller in scale but easy and relaxed. Families can spend days on creek tubing, the reservoir beach, gentle trails from the Chautauqua meadow and the university planetarium, while the zoo and aquarium are back in Denver.

Boulder is far easier on foot and by bike. Downtown, the university and Chautauqua sit close together, linked by off-street paths along the creek, though the trailheads and parks beyond town need a hire car.

Dallas is built around the freeway. DART light rail serves the airports, downtown, Deep Ellum and Fair Park, and the streetcar runs along McKinney Avenue, but most days still mean driving or ride-hailing.

Dallas is the place to shop. NorthPark Center, the European fashion houses of Highland Park Village and the city's Neiman Marcus heritage cater to a taste for luxury, and Western boots and hats are a genuine local speciality.

Boulder keeps to four brick blocks of the Pearl Street Mall, with bookshops, galleries and boutiques. Its real strength is outdoor gear, with climbing, running and cycling shops well beyond what a town its size would usually have.

Dallas stretches a budget further. Hotels by the freeways and in the suburbs are reasonable, barbecue and tacos make cheap, good meals, and many museums cost little, although a hire car eats into the savings.

Boulder is expensive to sleep in, with limited rooms in a wealthy town and affluent prices for dinner and beer. What makes up for it is that the trails, its main attraction, are essentially free.

Dallas has the full institutional set in its Arts District: a symphony in Pei's Meyerson hall, opera and Broadway tours at the Winspear, and a resident theatre company. On top of that, Deep Ellum has clubs with a blues and jazz past.

Boulder's music is more seasonal and folksy, with bluegrass and roots acts in small rooms and the summer orchestral and Shakespeare festivals at Chautauqua and on campus. Red Rocks Amphitheatre, within reach, is a draw on its own.

Boulder suits a restful stay better. Yoga and meditation studios, a contemplative Buddhist-inspired university and an unhurried morning rhythm set the tone, though for real hot springs you have to go to Idaho Springs.

Dallas is brisk and car-bound, so relaxing there means hotel spas, day-spa chains or a day at the Korean-style bathhouse in the north of the city.