Boulder or Estes Park?

Neither town is anywhere near a coast, so swimming is only a small extra in both. Boulder does better, with a summer swim area with a little sand at the reservoir and inner tubes on Boulder Creek. The lakes around Estes Park are fed by snowmelt and too cold for swimming, so they are for paddling and fishing, and swimmers there use the indoor aquatic centre or a hotel pool.

Boulder eats much better. Seasonal menus, plenty of vegetarian and vegan cooking, good bakeries and coffee roasters, the Saturday market by the creek and the hand-carved Dushanbe Teahouse give it real interest for a town of its size, even if the range of cuisines is thin.

Estes Park feeds hikers: big breakfasts, barbecue, elk and bison, and fudge on Elkhorn Avenue. Quality along the strip is uneven, and many kitchens close early or cut back outside summer. Plenty of people staying there drive down to Boulder for a good dinner.

Neither is a sightseeing destination, but Boulder has enough for a full day. There is the 1898 Chautauqua colony below the Flatirons, the sandstone and red-tile university campus, I.M. Pei's atmospheric research laboratory on its mesa with free exhibits, and a few small museums.

Estes Park has one famous building, the Stanley Hotel that inspired The Shining, where you can tour the public rooms and hear the ghost stories. Beyond that there are the local museum and the historic MacGregor Ranch, which fill a wet afternoon.

Boulder is clearly the livelier of the two, though it is still an early town. Pearl Street has taprooms, pubs and cocktail bars, and the student bars on University Hill are loud during term. For a proper club night, Denver is about 40 minutes away.

In Estes Park, a few taprooms and saloon-style bars on Elkhorn Avenue fill up after a day on the trails. There are no clubs, and the town goes quiet soon after ten.

Both are outstanding, and the difference is in what lies at the door. From Boulder you walk straight onto the Flatirons and a ring of open-space trails. Eldorado Canyon's climbing walls are ten minutes south, the canyon roads draw serious cyclists, and the Eldora ski area is up Boulder Canyon.

Estes Park sits at the gate of Rocky Mountain National Park, so alpine tundra, Longs Peak, Trail Ridge Road and lakes such as Bear and Emerald are minutes away. Elk, bighorn sheep and moose are everyday sights. There is no ski area close by, so winter there means snowshoeing.

Boulder is better placed for outings, mainly because an express bus reaches Denver in about 40 minutes. There you have the art museum, the domed capitol, Larimer Square and Union Station. Golden, Fort Collins, the national park and the old silver towns of Georgetown and Idaho Springs need a car.

From Estes Park every outing runs down the canyons and needs a car. Boulder and Fort Collins are about an hour each and Denver about an hour and a half. In summer you can cross Trail Ridge Road to Grand Lake on the far side of the park.

Both are small, safe and good for children who like being outdoors, so the choice is about style. Estes Park has elk in the streets, junior ranger activities, flat lake walks, mini golf, go-karts and the Prospect Mountain tramway. Boulder has the creek path, tubing, the reservoir swim beach, street performers on Pearl Street and a planetarium for indoor hours.

Altitude is more of an issue in Estes Park, at around 2,300m, and rainy days are harder to fill there. Boulder is also much closer to Denver's zoo, aquarium and science museum.

Boulder is far easier without a car. Downtown, the campus and Chautauqua are a walk or short ride apart on off-street bike paths along the creek, with bike share in the centre and an express bus to Denver. You still need a hire car for the national park and for trailheads outside town.

Estes Park's Elkhorn Avenue and Riverwalk are easy on foot, and summer shuttles run to the Bear Lake corridor. Beyond that a car is close to essential, there is no rail link, and traffic and parking in town are heavy on summer weekends.

Boulder has more to offer. The brick-paved Pearl Street Mall has independent bookshops, galleries, toy shops and boutiques, there is a shopping district at Twenty Ninth Street, and the climbing, running and cycling shops are unusually good. Estes Park's Elkhorn Avenue is mostly souvenirs, taffy, western wear and wildlife art, good for an hour's browsing but not a shopping trip.

Boulder costs more over the year as a whole, because its prices never really ease off. The few hotels serve a wealthy university town as well as visitors, so summer, graduation and football weekends all keep rooms dear, and there is no cheap season to wait for. Two things help: the trails start at the edge of town and charge no entry, and buses make it possible to manage without hiring a car.

Estes Park is the somewhat cheaper base, though not in summer and early autumn, when lodges and cabins near the park charge heavily. In winter and spring rooms are far cheaper, and a cabin with a kitchen cuts the food bill. Against that, you pay the national park entrance fee, and most visitors also need a hire car.

Boulder wins comfortably. Small and mid-sized rooms downtown and on the Hill book rock, bluegrass and roots acts most nights. In summer the Colorado Music Festival plays in the wooden Chautauqua Auditorium and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival stages outdoor plays on campus, and Red Rocks Amphitheatre is about 45 minutes away.

Estes Park has free summer concerts at its riverside performance park, the odd evening at the Stanley Hotel and the Scottish-Irish Highland Festival each September. For the rest of the year there is very little.

Boulder takes rest more seriously. Yoga and meditation studios are everywhere, a Buddhist-inspired university gives the town a contemplative streak, and massage and day spas are easy to find, with a spring-fed pool at Eldorado Springs in summer. What Estes Park offers is quiet: a cabin by a river, mountain air and empty evenings. It has only a few lodge spas and no hot springs, and it is most restful outside summer.