Boulder or Sedona?

Neither town is anywhere near a coast, so this is about cooling off rather than beaches. Boulder offers the small sandy swim area at Boulder Reservoir and tubing on the creek in summer.

Sedona's Oak Creek is the better swim. Slide Rock has a natural sandstone chute to ride down, and Grasshopper Point and Red Rock Crossing have deep pools below red cliffs. The water is cold and the spots fill up on hot weekends, but it is the more memorable dip.

Both towns lean towards healthy, vegetarian-friendly cooking, but Boulder has more to offer. It has seasonal Front Range menus, good bakeries and coffee roasters, the farmers' market by the creek, a long list of brewery taprooms, and tea in the hand-carved Dushanbe Teahouse.

In Sedona the setting matters more than the cooking: Southwestern plates on resort terraces facing the rock at sunset, and the choice runs out sooner. Its real bonus is the Verde Valley wine country just down the road. Neither town has street food, and for more variety Boulder also has Denver nearby.

Neither is a sightseeing town, and a day covers either one. Boulder has a little more to show: the 1898 Chautauqua colony under the Flatirons, the university campus of sandstone walls and red-tile roofs, I.M. Pei's atmospheric research laboratory on the mesa and a few small museums.

Sedona's highlight is the Chapel of the Holy Cross, built into a butte, along with its Western and Native American galleries. Its most interesting history lies outside town, at the Sinagua cliff dwellings of Palatki and Honanki and the V Bar V petroglyphs.

Boulder has a real night out, if a modest one. There are taprooms, cocktail bars and pubs around Pearl Street, loud student bars on University Hill during term, and Denver forty minutes away for clubs.

Sedona has very little nightlife. A brewpub, a wine bar or a resort lounge after dinner is about all there is, and the best evening entertainment is the starry sky.

This is the main reason to visit either town, and they are about equal in appeal, but the landscapes are very different. Boulder is mountain country. The Flatirons rise behind town, a ring of open space holds well over 200km of trails, Eldorado Canyon offers world-class climbing, and cyclists come for the roads at altitude. Rocky Mountain National Park, with its tundra and elk, is about an hour away.

Sedona is red-rock desert, with buttes and spires such as Cathedral Rock and Bell Rock, Devil's Bridge, the shaded West Fork of Oak Creek, and slickrock trails for mountain bikers. The Grand Canyon's South Rim is about two hours away. Pick Boulder for peaks, pine forest and climbing, and Sedona for sculpted sandstone and wide desert views.

The day trips are fairly evenly matched, with Sedona's a little more unusual. From Boulder the big draw is Denver by express bus, with its art museum and restored Union Station. After that come smaller places such as Golden, Fort Collins and the old silver towns of Georgetown and Idaho Springs.

Sedona has no big city nearby, but its loop of outings has plenty of character: Jerome on its hillside, the Verde Canyon Railroad and wine tasting in Cottonwood. There are also ancient sites such as Montezuma Castle and Tuzigoot, with Flagstaff and Walnut Canyon to the north. In both places nearly everything needs a car, except Boulder's bus to Denver.

Boulder is the easier base for a family. Children can walk or cycle the creek path, tube the creek, swim at the reservoir beach and watch the street performers on Pearl Street. On a rainy day there are the planetarium, the natural history museum and the atmospheric research centre, and Denver's zoo and aquarium are close.

Sedona works for a few days with children who like the outdoors, thanks to Slide Rock, short trails and jeep tours. But much of what it offers is aimed at couples, the summer heat and exposed trails need care, and every outing is a drive.

Boulder is far easier to manage without a car. Downtown, the university and Chautauqua are all within a walk or a short bike ride of each other, linked by off-street paths along the creek, with bike share, local buses and an express bus to Denver. You still need a car for the national park and the trailheads outside town.

In Sedona a car is close to essential. The town stretches along two highways from the junction known as the Y, and only Uptown is walkable. A shuttle covers some trailheads, and weekend traffic and full trailhead parking are part of a visit. Most visitors drive up from Phoenix.

Neither is a shopping destination, but they sell quite different things. Boulder's Pearl Street Mall has independent bookshops, toy shops and boutiques on brick-paved blocks, and its shops for climbing, running and cycling gear are a real strength. Sedona's shopping is about art and the spiritual side: galleries around the courtyards of Tlaquepaque, Native American jewellery, pottery and rugs, and crystal shops, while Uptown is mostly souvenirs.

Both are expensive, and neither is much cheaper than the other. Boulder is a wealthy town with few hotel rooms, and prices are highest on graduation and football weekends and in summer. Sedona's cost comes from its resorts and boutique lodges, plus the jeep tours, balloon flights and spa treatments that tempt visitors.

In both, the trails cost next to nothing, and Boulder's reasonably priced buses help a little. The way to save is the same in each: stay elsewhere and drive in, from Denver for Boulder or from Cottonwood or Flagstaff for Sedona.

Boulder has far more live music than its size suggests. Downtown venues book touring rock, bluegrass and roots acts most nights. In summer the Colorado Music Festival plays in the 1898 Chautauqua Auditorium and there is outdoor Shakespeare on campus, and Red Rocks Amphitheatre is about 45 minutes away.

Sedona has occasional chamber concerts, local theatre, its long-running film festival in late winter and acoustic sets in the resorts. Anyone who travels for live performance will find much more on in Boulder.

Both towns attract the health-minded, but Sedona is the true retreat destination. It has resort spas set against the canyon walls, yoga, breathwork and alternative therapies all around, and the sunrise walks to the vortexes that many visitors come for.

In Boulder, wellness is more a part of everyday life. There are yoga studios, meditation with roots in the town's Buddhist-inspired university, and massage is easy to find, but there are fewer places to be pampered. Neither has a real bathing culture, though from Boulder the hot springs at Idaho Springs are about an hour's drive.