Boulder or Whitefish?

Neither town is anywhere near the sea, but Whitefish has the better summer swimming. City Beach sits on Whitefish Lake right at the edge of town, with a sandy strip and a swimming dock. Flathead Lake, about 40 minutes south, adds clear water and pebbly state-park shores, though the swimming season lasts only from midsummer to late August.

In Boulder, cooling off means the small sandy swim area at Boulder Reservoir or floating Boulder Creek on an inner tube. Both are fun for an afternoon, but neither is a lakeside summer like the one Whitefish offers.

Boulder offers more choice and more care. Expect farm-to-table menus built on Front Range produce, strong vegetarian and vegan cooking, good bakeries, and a Saturday farmers' market by the creek. Tea at the hand-carved Dushanbe Teahouse is a meal you won't find anywhere else, and Denver is close by when you want more variety.

Whitefish keeps to hearty mountain food: bison burgers, Montana beef, trout and wood-fired pizza along Central Avenue, with huckleberries in everything in late summer. It is satisfying after a hike, but over a week you will keep going back to the same few places.

Neither town is a sightseeing destination, but Boulder gives you a full day's worth. There is the 1898 Chautauqua colony, with its wooden cottages beneath the Flatirons, the sandstone-and-red-tile university campus, and the Pei-designed atmospheric research laboratory with its free exhibits. A few small museums complete the list.

Whitefish has the timber Great Northern depot and its railway and logging museum, and that is about all. You can see it in an hour.

Boulder has more going on after dark. There are taprooms and cocktail bars around Pearl Street, and the student bars on University Hill are lively during term. For clubs, Denver is about 40 minutes away. Even so, Boulder evenings end early, because many people are on a trail at dawn.

A night out in Whitefish means a wooden saloon with pool tables or a brewery taproom on Central Avenue. In winter, the après-ski crowd comes down from the mountain into town. It is friendly and sometimes rowdy, there are no clubs, and the city that Boulder can lean on is missing.

Both towns are outstanding outdoors, but the experience is different. Boulder's landscape starts at the edge of town. More than 200km of open-space trails run up from Chautauqua Park to Green Mountain and Bear Peak. Eldorado Canyon, ten minutes away, is world-class rock climbing, and the canyon roads draw serious cyclists. Rocky Mountain National Park is about an hour's drive, and the dry, sunny climate keeps most of this usable in most seasons.

Whitefish feels wilder. Glacier National Park has jagged peaks, turquoise lakes, the Highline Trail, and grizzlies and mountain goats. Big Mountain is a full ski area above town. The drawback is timing: the high country is reliably open only from July to September.

Boulder has the stronger set of outings, thanks largely to Denver, a short express-bus ride away, with its big art museum, domed capitol and restored Union Station. With a car, the Victorian silver-mining towns of Georgetown and Idaho Springs make a good half-day, and Fort Collins is easy to reach.

From Whitefish, the town trips are modest: the Conrad Mansion in Kalispell, the galleries of Bigfork, and the cherry orchards on Flathead Lake's east shore. Most days out here go into the park rather than to other towns.

Boulder is easier with children, especially if the weather turns or interest in hiking fades. The university's planetarium and natural history museum and the free weather exhibits fill a rainy day. Street performers on Pearl Street entertain in the evenings, and Denver's zoo and aquarium are close. On hikes, bring water and hats for the altitude and strong sun.

Whitefish works well for active families. In summer there are a zip line, an alpine slide and a chairlift on the mountain, and in winter a ski school. Short, flat trails such as the Trail of the Cedars suit small legs. Children who don't want to be outdoors will run out of things to do faster, and the drives into Glacier can be long.

Boulder is easier to get around without a car. Downtown, the university and Chautauqua are all within a walk or short bike ride, an excellent network of off-street bike paths follows the creek, and an express bus runs to Denver and its airport connections. For trailheads outside town and the national park, you will still want to hire a car.

In Whitefish, the centre is only a few walkable blocks. It does have the unusual advantage of a long-distance train stopping at the depot, and in ski season a free shuttle runs to the mountain. For Glacier, Flathead Lake or nearly anywhere else, a car is close to essential.

Boulder's Pearl Street Mall gives you four pedestrian blocks of independent bookshops, galleries and boutiques, and there is a mall district at Twenty Ninth Street. Its outdoor-gear shops for climbing, running and cycling are unusually good.

Whitefish's Central Avenue is a pleasant afternoon of western wear, boots, wildlife art and Montana-made gifts such as huckleberry jam, but the range is smaller. For bigger stores you have to drive to Kalispell.

Both are expensive American mountain towns, and the cost difference is small. What differs is how you save. In Boulder, the trails cost almost nothing and buses are cheap, so staying in Denver and driving or riding in is the usual way to cut costs.

In Whitefish, most visitors also pay for a hire car. Visiting in late spring or autumn, or sleeping in Kalispell or Columbia Falls, makes the trip noticeably cheaper.

Boulder is much better for live performance. Small rooms downtown and on the Hill book rock, bluegrass and roots acts most nights. In summer, the Colorado Music Festival fills the 1898 Chautauqua Auditorium, and the Shakespeare festival performs outdoors on campus. Red Rocks Amphitheatre, about 45 minutes away, is worth the trip on its own.

Whitefish has a community arts centre, a summer theatre company, and the valley symphony playing in Kalispell, plus free outdoor concerts in summer. It is enough for an evening or two, but not a calendar to plan a trip around.

Boulder is the more restorative stay. Yoga and meditation are part of everyday life, with real contemplative roots, and massage, acupuncture and day spas are easy to find. For soaking, there is the modest spring-fed pool at Eldorado Springs and proper hot springs at Idaho Springs about an hour away.

In Whitefish, relaxation comes from the place itself: quiet lake mornings and slow evenings, plus spas in the lodges and resorts. Montana's hot springs pools are a couple of hours' drive away.