Boulder or Salt Lake City?

Neither city is anywhere near a coast, and the swimming is equally limited, though it comes in different forms. In Boulder you cool off in the small sandy area at Boulder Reservoir or by floating down Boulder Creek on an inner tube, both on the edge of town.

Salt Lake City has the stranger experience: you float effortlessly in the Great Salt Lake off Antelope Island, though the shore is muddy and brine flies gather there. For proper swimming, locals drive up to the Wasatch reservoirs such as Jordanelle and Pineview.

The two eat about equally well but in quite different styles. Boulder cooks with a health-conscious, seasonal lean, with plenty for vegetarians and vegans, good bakeries, and a Saturday market by the creek that doubles as the town's meeting place. Taprooms on the east side and lunch in the carved Dushanbe Teahouse complete the picture, though choice of cuisines is thin.

Salt Lake City has more variety, with its best cooking coming from Mexican, Pacific Islander, Peruvian and Vietnamese kitchens along State Street and across the valley. Add home-grown oddities such as fry sauce, fried scones and dirty sodas. The trade-off is drink: wine and cocktails get less attention there than in Boulder.

Salt Lake City has more to see. Temple Square alone fills a morning, with the granite temple, the domed Tabernacle and its organ and the Beehive House. The Capitol, the painted Cathedral of the Madeleine and the Natural History Museum of Utah add another day.

Boulder's appeal lies in atmosphere more than monuments: the 1898 cottages of Chautauqua under the Flatirons, the sandstone and red-tile campus, and I.M. Pei's laboratory on the mesa. A single day covers it all.

Evenings out are low-key in both cities, but the crowds differ. Boulder's nights are shaped by students and early risers: brewery taprooms and cocktail bars around Pearl Street, and the bars on University Hill, which are loud during term and much quieter in summer. There are only a couple of places that pass for clubs, so for a proper late night people take the bus to Denver, about 40 minutes away.

Salt Lake City has more for dancing, with a few clubs downtown and in the Granary District, and a long-standing gay bar scene that gives its nights more variety than Boulder's taproom-and-campus round. Utah's liquor laws restrict stronger drinks and late opening, though, so here too the night usually ends early, often over a beer in a Sugar House pub after a day in the canyons.

Both cities are first-rate outdoor bases, and the choice comes down to what you want to do. Boulder is built for climbers, cyclists and trail runners, with more than 200km of trails in its protected ring of open space, the walls of Eldorado Canyon and Rocky Mountain National Park about an hour away.

Salt Lake City is the skier's city. Alta, Snowbird, Brighton and Solitude are less than an hour up the Cottonwood Canyons, with Park City over the ridge. In summer the same canyons lead to alpine lakes, and to the west lie Antelope Island's bison and the white Bonneville Salt Flats.

Boulder has more places within reach for a day out. Denver is about forty minutes away by express bus, with its art museum, Union Station and Larimer Square, and with a car you can visit Golden, Fort Collins and the silver-mining towns of Georgetown and Idaho Springs.

Salt Lake City's best outing is Park City's Victorian Main Street, with Midway and Ogden's 25th Street as smaller extras. Utah's famous national parks such as Zion and Arches are too far for a day trip and need at least one night away.

Salt Lake City does far more for children. It has a zoo, an aquarium, a children's museum, the Clark Planetarium, Tracy Aviary and dinosaur halls, with Lagoon's roller coasters and Thanksgiving Point nearby and good ski schools in winter. The catch is that you will be driving across the valley between them.

Boulder suits outdoorsy children on a smaller scale, with the creek path, gentle trails, tubing and the street performers on Pearl Street. For a zoo or aquarium you have to go to Denver.

Boulder is easier to get around without a car. Downtown, the campus and Chautauqua are a short walk or bike ride apart, and the off-street paths along Boulder Creek run under the roads. Beyond town, though, you need to hire a car to reach the trailheads and national park.

Salt Lake City has better trains, with TRAX to the airport and FrontRunner to Ogden and Provo. However, its huge blocks and wide streets make walking slow, and the zoo, canyons and outlying towns are hard to reach without a car.

Neither city is worth the trip for shopping, and both are excellent for outdoor gear. Boulder's Pearl Street Mall is the nicer place to browse, with independent bookshops, galleries and toy shops along brick-paved blocks.

Salt Lake City has the big brands and department stores at City Creek Center, a mall with a creek running through it, plus the old streetcar barns of Trolley Square and vintage shops around 9th and 9th. It also stocks more ski equipment.

Salt Lake City is noticeably cheaper. Downtown hotels are reasonable, Temple Square costs nothing and light rail is inexpensive, although a winter ski week with lift tickets and canyon lodging pushes the bill right up.

Boulder is expensive from the moment you book a room, especially in summer and on university weekends. Restaurant meals are pricey too. Its saving grace is that the trails are free, and many visitors stay in Denver to keep costs down.

Salt Lake City has the fuller calendar. You can hear the Tabernacle Choir and the great organ at Temple Square, and the city has its own symphony at Abravanel Hall as well as an opera company, Ballet West and a year-round theatre season.

Boulder's strength is live music in small rooms: bluegrass and roots acts most nights, the Colorado Music Festival in the 1898 Chautauqua Auditorium and Shakespeare outdoors in summer. It has no opera, although Red Rocks Amphitheatre is about forty-five minutes away.

Boulder is better for a restful stay. Yoga, meditation and massage are part of daily life in town, and a contemplative streak runs through the place. Bathing is limited, though: just the spring-fed pool at Eldorado Springs and hot springs an hour away.

Salt Lake City has more memorable soaking, in the warm mineral water of the Homestead Crater's limestone dome at Midway. Otherwise relaxation there means a resort spa after a day of skiing, not a reason to come.