Boulder or Deer Valley?

Neither place has a beach worth travelling for, so the difference is in the kind of summer swim on offer. Boulder lets you float Boulder Creek through town on an inner tube or swim at the small sandy area of the reservoir on its edge. Deer Valley's swimming is a drive downhill, at the state park shoreline on Jordanelle Reservoir, a boating lake that is only warm enough in high summer.

The two eat about equally well but in different styles. Boulder leans towards health-conscious, farm-to-table cooking, with plenty for vegetarians, serious bakeries and coffee roasters, the Saturday farmers' market by the creek and the hand-carved Dushanbe Teahouse. Beer means craft taprooms across the east side.

Deer Valley's food is resort food: polished lodge dining on the slopes, the base-area turkey chili that skiers treat as a ritual, and a cluster of steakhouses, sushi bars and après-ski grills along Park City's Main Street. Drinking happens mostly with dinner rather than in a café or wine culture.

Neither is a museum destination, but Boulder gives you more to look at. The wooden cottages and auditorium of the Chautauqua stand under the Flatirons, the university campus is built in a consistent sandstone-and-red-tile style, and Pei's atmospheric research laboratory has free exhibits up on the mesa. Together they fill a day.

Deer Valley's heritage lies in the restored silver-mining storefronts of Park City, its museum in the old city hall and the ski jumps of the 2002 Olympic Park. That is about an afternoon's sightseeing.

Boulder has the livelier evenings, though both towns go to bed early. Pearl Street has taprooms and cocktail bars, and University Hill fills with students during term. Denver's clubs are about 40 minutes away for a bigger night.

Deer Valley itself goes quiet once the lifts close, apart from fireside lounges in the lodges. The fun is down on Park City's Main Street, where saloons and après-ski bars are busy on winter weekends under Utah's stricter drinking rules.

Both are first-rate mountain bases, but for different seasons and sports. Boulder is a summer and shoulder-season base, with over 200km of trails starting at the edge of town in the Flatirons, world-class climbing in Eldorado Canyon and canyon roads that draw serious cyclists. Rocky Mountain National Park is about an hour away.

Deer Valley is a winter place first. It has some of North America's best-groomed skiing, Park City Mountain next door and the deep powder of Alta and Snowbird over the ridge. In summer the ski runs become linked mountain-biking and hiking trails, many of them lift-served.

Boulder has the better outings, mainly because Denver is a bigger prize and you can reach it by express bus. It offers a large art museum, Union Station and Larimer Square. With a car, the Victorian mining towns of Georgetown and Idaho Springs make a good half-day.

From Deer Valley, Salt Lake City's Temple Square and capitol are the main draw. The Swiss-styled village of Midway, the Heber steam railway and Sundance are pleasant but small, and almost every trip means driving.

Both are safe, easy places for children, and which suits you depends on whether your family skis. Deer Valley is built for skiing families, with well-run ski schools, gentle groomed runs free of snowboarders and lodges you can often ski back to. The Olympic Park adds tubing and an alpine coaster.

Boulder suits a wider range of outdoor children, with the creek path, tubing, meadow walks and the street performers on Pearl Street, plus a planetarium for a rainy hour. Neither has a zoo or a big museum; for those you go to the nearest large city.

Both are easy to get around locally and hard to leave without a car. Boulder's centre is compact enough to walk, and its off-street bike paths along the creek make cycling the natural way to get between downtown, campus and Chautauqua.

Deer Valley relies on Park City's fare-free buses linking the base areas, Main Street and the neighbouring resort. Slopeside lodging means the car can often stay parked, but the steep hillsides make walking between villages impractical.

Boulder is the better place to browse. The brick-paved Pearl Street Mall has independent bookshops, galleries, toy shops and boutiques, and there is a mall-style district at Twenty Ninth Street. Its climbing, running and cycling shops are unusually strong.

Deer Valley's shopping is Park City's Main Street, with galleries, ski shops, western boots and upmarket clothing, plus the outlet centre at Kimball Junction. It is pleasant for an hour, but the range is narrow.

Neither is cheap, but Boulder is clearly the easier of the two on the wallet. Hotels and restaurant meals there cost a lot, yet the main attraction, the open space and its trails, is almost free, and buses are inexpensive.

Deer Valley is among the most expensive places in the world to ski, with luxury slopeside lodging and lift tickets at the top of the market, and ski school and rental push the bill higher still. Summer brings some relief. In both places, staying in a nearby town and driving in cuts the cost.

Boulder offers far more live performance. Small downtown rooms and venues on the Hill book rock, bluegrass and roots acts most nights. In summer the Colorado Music Festival plays in the 1898 Chautauqua Auditorium and Shakespeare is staged outdoors on campus. Red Rocks Amphitheatre is within easy reach.

In Deer Valley, music is mostly a summer affair: picnic concerts by the Utah Symphony at the Snow Park amphitheatre, plus plays and comedy in Main Street's restored 1920s Egyptian Theatre.

Both make an unhurried, restorative stay, but the comfort is of a different kind. Boulder's is a way of life: yoga and meditation studios everywhere, a contemplative streak with real roots, and slow sunny mornings, with only the modest spring-fed pool at Eldorado Springs for bathing.

Deer Valley's is luxury: polished hotel spas, massages after skiing and hot tubs on snowy terraces. For something unusual, the warm spring inside the Homestead Crater in Midway is about half an hour away.