Branson or Denver?

Neither city has a coast, but Branson has a real summer swimming season and Denver barely has one. Table Rock Lake warms well in summer, the water is clear, and you can swim from brought-in sand at public swim areas or from a rented pontoon in a quiet cove.

Denver's options are the sandy reservoir beaches at Cherry Creek and Chatfield state parks, on the edge of the city. The mountain lakes stay cold even in July, so most visitors cool off in a hotel or public pool.

Denver eats far better. It has a serious brewing culture, with taprooms in old RiNo warehouses, Southwestern cooking built on green chile and breakfast burritos, chef-run places in Highland and LoHi, and a long stretch of Vietnamese and Mexican kitchens on Federal Boulevard.

Branson serves large portions of comfort food for coach parties: buffets, fried chicken, catfish, and set meals at dinner theatres, with national chains along Highway 76. Its best local tastes are Ozark ones, such as skillet cooking, fudge and fresh trout, but they are snacks on the way to a show rather than a reason to visit.

Denver has the more substantial sights. The Civic Center area alone gives you the gold-domed Capitol, the Denver Art Museum with its Native American collection, and the Clyfford Still Museum. Add the brick warehouses of LoDo, Larimer Square and the Beaux-Arts Union Station, and you have two or three good days.

Branson's sights are entertainment rather than heritage: wax museums, a museum shaped like the bow of an ocean liner, and a small old downtown. Its real cultural interest is Ozark folk crafts, shown by blacksmiths and glassblowers at the 1880s-themed park, and the varied collection of the Ralph Foster Museum.

This is where the two differ most. Denver has a relaxed but genuine night out: sports crowds in LoDo, cocktail bars and taprooms in RiNo, dive bars on East Colfax and neighbourhood bars on South Broadway, with a small dance-music club scene on top.

In Branson the evening is the show itself. When the theatres empty, families and older couples head back to their rooms, and apart from a few brewpubs near the lakefront and some hotel lounges, nothing stays open late.

Both are good places to be outdoors, but Denver's landscape is on another scale. The Rockies start with the red sandstone of Red Rocks and the Golden foothills, rise to summits over 4,000m, and include the tundra and elk of Rocky Mountain National Park, with ski resorts along I-70 in winter.

Branson's Ozarks are gentler and more about water: bass fishing and paddleboarding on Table Rock Lake, trout below the dam, glade walks in Hercules Glades and show caves to explore. Here the high season is spring dogwood blossom and red autumn hillsides rather than snow and high peaks.

Denver has more places to go and more variety. Boulder sits under the Flatirons, Georgetown has a mining-era railway, Manitou Springs is an old spa town and Estes Park is the gateway to the national park, all within about two hours.

Branson's shorter list has two highlights: the steep Victorian streets of Eureka Springs and the woodland art museum Crystal Bridges in Bentonville. Springfield's Civil War battlefield fills out a couple of days. Both cities need a car for these outings.

Branson is built around families and shows it at every turn. The Ozark-themed park with roller coasters, water parks, the Table Rock showboat, zip lines, caves and dinner shows with horses and stunts all sit within a short drive, and almost every show is suitable for children.

Denver is a good family city in a different way. City Park pairs the zoo with a natural history museum full of dinosaurs, there is a cluster of attractions by the South Platte, and scenic railways and mining towns appeal to older children. Families coming from sea level need to take the altitude and strong sun seriously.

Denver is easier, at least in the centre. The flat downtown links LoDo, Union Station and the Civic Center museums on foot, a free shuttle runs along the 16th Street Mall, and a train comes in from the airport. You still need a car for the mountains.

Branson is a car town from start to finish. Attractions stretch over hilly kilometres of Highway 76, pavements are patchy and the strip crawls on show nights. Only the lakefront shopping district and the small old downtown can be explored on foot.

Denver offers more choice and more character. Cherry Creek pairs an upscale mall with streets of boutiques and galleries, South Broadway is good for vintage clothes and records, and the city is especially good for outdoor gear and Western boots and hats.

Branson's shopping centres on the chain stores at Branson Landing and the outlet malls on the strip. Its distinctive buys are Ozark crafts such as blown glass, quilts and ironwork, often made in front of you.

Branson is the cheaper place to stay. Motels, condos and lake cabins are plentiful and buffet meals are modest, but show tickets, park entry and boat hire add up over a week, and show-and-hotel packages only partly offset that.

Denver has big-city hotel prices, especially during conventions and ski season, and car hire adds to the bill. On the other hand, its biggest attractions, the parks, trails and mountain views, cost nothing, which Branson's paid entertainment cannot match.

Both cities are strong for live performance, but in very different ways. Branson puts on shows all day in dozens of theatres: country and bluegrass family acts, gospel quartets, tribute shows and biblical spectacles with live animals. It is polished and plentiful, but the range is narrow.

Denver is more varied, with less of it. Summer concerts at Red Rocks between the sandstone monoliths are the highlight, while the Denver Center for the Performing Arts covers theatre, touring musicals, symphony, opera and ballet, and Five Points keeps its jazz tradition alive.

Denver is somewhat better for unwinding. Historic mineral pools and steam caves at Idaho Springs are under an hour away, there are larger hot-spring resorts deeper in the mountains, and the city's sunny parks and yoga studios suit an easy pace.

Branson has no hot springs. Peace there means a lodge spa on Table Rock Lake or a cabin on a wooded cove, well away from the neon and traffic of the strip.