Boulder or Park City?

Neither town has a coast, so in both places swimming means a reservoir in high summer. Boulder adds a more playful option in floating down Boulder Creek on an inner tube, along with the small sandy swim area at its reservoir. Park City sends people down the valley to Jordanelle to paddleboard in cool water, and most visitors end up in hotel pools and hot tubs instead.

You eat about equally well in both towns. What changes is the style. Boulder cooks seasonal, health-conscious food with plenty of vegetarian and vegan dishes, and its Saturday farmers' market by the creek and the carved Tajik teahouse give it a sense of place.

Park City serves richer mountain food, such as elk, bison and trout, in polished rooms on Main Street, and après-ski with whiskey on the slopeside decks is the main ritual. Each town sends anyone wanting more variety down to its nearest city.

Boulder has a little more to see. The Chautauqua cottages below the Flatirons, the sandstone and red-tile campus and Pei's research laboratory, with its free weather exhibits, fill a pleasant day.

Park City's heritage is its silver-mining past. You see it in the wooden storefronts on Main Street, the headframes on the slopes and the town museum with its old basement jail. The Olympic Park adds a ski museum, but an afternoon covers it all.

Boulder has more nights out. Pearl Street has taprooms and cocktail bars, and the student bars on University Hill are lively during term, though early starts at the trailhead keep most evenings short.

Park City's nightlife follows the ski season. Après-ski moves on to a short run of saloons on Main Street that can get rowdy on winter weekends, while summer evenings are very quiet. For a real night out, Boulder has Denver nearby and Park City has Salt Lake City.

Both towns are serious mountain bases, but they suit different sports. Boulder is a place for hikers, climbers and road cyclists, with the Flatirons trails starting at Chautauqua, the walls of Eldorado Canyon ten minutes away and Rocky Mountain National Park about an hour's drive away.

Park City belongs to skiers in winter and mountain bikers in summer. Its two ski areas rise straight from the streets, Utah powder falls all winter, and Alta and Snowbird are over the ridge. When the snow goes, the lifts carry bikes up to hundreds of kilometres of singletrack, something Boulder's trail network does not offer.

Boulder is the better base for day trips. Denver is easy to reach by express bus, and with a car you can also visit Golden, Fort Collins and the Victorian mining towns of Georgetown and Idaho Springs.

From Park City, Salt Lake City and Temple Square are the main outing. Closer in are the Heber Valley steam railway and the Swiss-style chalets of Midway, but beyond those most of what is within reach is scenery rather than towns.

Park City is built more around children. The ski schools take beginners well, the Olympic Park has ziplines, ropes courses and freestyle skiers landing in a splash pool, and in summer the resort bases add slides and climbing walls.

Boulder is still relaxed and safe, with gentle trails, the creek path, the planetarium and street performers on Pearl Street, but it has fewer organised activities. Both towns are at high altitude, which tires young children at first.

Both towns are easy to get around without a car, but in different ways. Boulder is a cycling town, with off-street paths and underpasses along the creek linking downtown, the campus and Chautauqua.

Park City relies on its free buses, which link Old Town with both ski bases and Kimball Junction, and on its steep but walkable Main Street. In both places the trailheads and ski areas further out are much easier to reach by car.

Neither town is a shopping destination, but the shops are different. The Pearl Street Mall has independent bookshops, toy shops and galleries, and Boulder's climbing and running shops are unusually good.

Park City's Main Street offers resort browsing, with Western wear, cowboy boots, jewellers and ski fashion, and there is an outlet centre at Kimball Junction. Serious shoppers head for the nearest city from either town.

Neither town is cheap, but Boulder costs noticeably less. Its main attraction, the open-space trails, is free, and the buses are reasonably priced.

In Park City, a ski week means paying top resort prices for slopeside rooms, lift tickets and ski school, and the Christmas and New Year weeks cost even more. Summer and autumn are much easier on the budget, and staying in the Heber Valley also helps.

Boulder has the stronger music scene. Small rooms downtown and on the Hill book roots, rock and bluegrass acts most nights, and in summer there are orchestral concerts in the 1898 Chautauqua Auditorium and Shakespeare outdoors. Red Rocks Amphitheatre is also within reach.

Park City's offering is mostly seasonal. The 1920s Egyptian Theatre stages comedy and plays all year, and the Utah Symphony plays on the lawns at Deer Valley in summer, but outside summer there is little on.

Boulder unwinds through yoga, meditation and slow mornings with coffee and a walk, and its Buddhist-inspired university gives that side of town real roots. For bathing there is only the modest spring-fed pool at Eldorado Springs, and the nearest proper hot springs are an hour away at Idaho Springs.

Park City's version is the lodge spa, with massages for tired skiing legs and outdoor hot tubs in the snow. Its standout is the Homestead Crater in Midway, about 25 minutes away, a warm geothermal pool inside a limestone dome, which puts real soaking much closer to hand than it is from Boulder.