Boulder or Santa Fe?

Neither city is a beach destination, and in both a swimsuit is mainly for the hotel pool. Where they differ is distance. In summer, Boulder's sandy swim area at the reservoir and tubing on Boulder Creek are right in town. In Santa Fe, swimming at Abiquiu Lake or floating the Rio Grande takes about an hour's drive and needs planning as an outing.

Santa Fe has what Boulder lacks, a cuisine of its own. New Mexican cooking, with red and green chile, blue corn and posole, is reason enough to book tables in the old adobe dining rooms around the Plaza. The fine dining is also stronger than you would expect in a town this size.

Boulder eats well in a healthy way but has no cooking of its own: seasonal farm-to-table menus, plenty of vegetarian food, good bakeries and a deep craft-beer culture. Both have a fine farmers' market, beside the creek in Boulder and in the Railyard in Santa Fe, and both have little street food or international choice.

On culture, Santa Fe is far ahead. Its adobe centre, the Palace of the Governors on the Plaza, old churches such as the Loretto Chapel and the folk and Native American collections on Museum Hill fill two or three days. The O'Keeffe Museum and the galleries of Canyon Road come on top.

Boulder's sights are pleasant but few: the Chautauqua cottages under the Flatirons, the sandstone and red-tile university campus and Pei's atmospheric research laboratory on the mesa. One day covers them, and they work better as breaks between hikes than as the reason for the trip.

Neither is a late-night town, but Boulder has more going on. It has taprooms and cocktail bars around Pearl Street, loud student bars on University Hill during term, and Denver about 40 minutes away for anything bigger.

In Santa Fe a night out usually means a long dinner and then a margarita in a hotel bar or a rooftop bar facing the sunset, and the streets are quiet well before midnight. For a proper night out, the nearest city is Albuquerque, an hour's drive away.

Both sit at the foot of mountains, but Boulder's outdoors are closer to hand and better suited to an active trip. The Flatirons rise right behind town, over 200km of protected trails start from Chautauqua, Eldorado Canyon's climbing walls are ten minutes away, and cyclists come to train on the canyon roads. Rocky Mountain National Park is about an hour away.

Santa Fe offers a different landscape, but less of it starts in town. There are piñon foothills, aspen and spruce along the ski road and the Pecos Wilderness, and to the west desert mesas, Valles Caldera and the red cliffs around Abiquiu. It suits long drives and walks under big skies more than Boulder's daily routine of running, climbing and cycling.

Santa Fe has the richer surroundings. The High Road runs through Chimayo and Truchas to Taos Pueblo, and nearby are the cliff dwellings at Bandelier, the pueblo ruins at Pecos, Los Alamos and the mining villages along the Turquoise Trail. Together they make a week of outings with real history behind them.

From Boulder, Denver is the one standout, and the only place easy to reach without a car, by express bus. Golden, Fort Collins, Estes Park and the silver towns of Georgetown and Idaho Springs make pleasant half-days, but they are rarely a reason to come.

Boulder is the easier choice with children. The creek path, tubing, the swim beach at the reservoir, gentle trails from the Chautauqua meadow and the street performers on Pearl Street fill the days without much driving, and the planetarium and natural history museum are there for a rainy afternoon.

Santa Fe has a children's museum, the toys and miniatures in the folk art collection and the ladders up to Bandelier's cliff dwellings. But gallery browsing and long dinners suit older children better, most outings need a car, and at 2,100m the town sits higher than Boulder, which can tire small children at first.

Within town, Boulder is easier to get around. Off-street bike paths along the creek, bike share and local buses link downtown, the campus and Chautauqua, and an express bus runs to Denver and its airport connections.

Santa Fe's historic core is walkable, with the Plaza, Canyon Road and the Railyard all within about twenty minutes on foot. Its buses are infrequent, though, so even Museum Hill usually means a taxi. In both places the mountains need a hire car, but in Santa Fe you need one for more of the trip. The main exception is the Rail Runner train to Albuquerque.

Santa Fe is worth a trip for shopping if what you want is art and craft. Native American artists sell silver, turquoise and pottery under the portal of the Palace of the Governors, Canyon Road and the Railyard are full of galleries, and the big summer markets for Indian, Spanish and folk art draw collectors from far away.

Boulder's Pearl Street Mall is a pleasant stroll past bookshops, boutiques and toy shops, and its real strength is outdoor gear for climbing, running and cycling. Neither town offers much in fashion or luxury.

Both are expensive, and budget travellers will struggle in either. Santa Fe is a little cheaper, with lower-priced rooms out along Cerrillos Road, although the hire car it almost requires eats into the saving.

In Boulder the main cost is its small, expensive supply of hotel rooms, which is tightest on graduation and football weekends. The usual answer is to stay in Denver and travel in. In both places the trails cost almost nothing, which softens the bill.

Santa Fe has the stronger summer season. At its centre is the Santa Fe Opera, staged in an open-sided theatre above the desert as the sun sets, with a chamber music festival and a long flamenco tradition alongside it. Out of season the Lensic theatre and concerts in the churches keep a small calendar going.

Boulder's strength is live music most nights in small rooms, much of it bluegrass and roots. In summer the Colorado Music Festival plays in the wooden Chautauqua Auditorium and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival stages plays outdoors on campus. Red Rocks Amphitheatre, about three-quarters of an hour south, is a big bonus for concert-goers.

The two are close, and the difference is water. Santa Fe has dedicated places to soak: outdoor tubs among the pines on the road to the ski area, and the mineral springs at Ojo Caliente about an hour north, a bathing resort since the nineteenth century.

Boulder's calm comes from its outlook rather than from baths. Yoga and meditation studios are everywhere, and its Buddhist-inspired university gives the contemplative side real roots. For a proper soak, the nearest hot springs are at Idaho Springs, an hour away.