Breckenridge or Colorado Springs?

Neither place is a swimming destination, and they are about equally poor for it. In Breckenridge swimming means indoor pools and hot tubs, since Lake Dillon and the snowmelt lakes are too cold. Colorado Springs adds hotel and public pools and summer dips in city lakes, but the more memorable time on the water there is rafting on the Arkansas River.

Neither is a place to travel for food, and they are broadly level, but they feed you in different ways. Breckenridge offers resort dining on one Main Street: steakhouses, sushi and a few chef-led kitchens cooking elk, trout and bison, with local beer and whiskey alongside. Tables are hard to get in peak weeks.

Colorado Springs is more casual and more spread out. You get brewery taprooms with food trucks, green chile, barbecue and Mexican cooking across downtown, Old Colorado City and Manitou Springs, with the Broadmoor's dining rooms at the formal end.

Breckenridge's culture is the town itself. Its gold-rush historic district, one of the largest in Colorado, is a grid of painted Victorian storefronts and miners' cabins. Add a mine tour where you can pan for gold and the old dredge remains in the Blue River valley, and you have a pleasant afternoon, but there is no museum or gallery of note.

Colorado Springs has a little more to see, though its sights are few and far apart. The aluminium spires of the Air Force Academy's Cadet Chapel, the Olympic and Paralympic Museum, the Southwestern collection at the Fine Arts Center and the Pioneers Museum in the old courthouse fill a day or so. After that, most visitors head back outdoors.

Evenings are equally low-key in both places, but the crowds differ. In Breckenridge, après-ski starts at the base of the lifts in ski boots and on winter Saturdays carries on in Victorian saloons and a couple of dance bars, then dies away in the shoulder seasons. In Colorado Springs the action is on Tejon Street downtown, where students and young soldiers fill the sports and cocktail bars at weekends, and the many brewery taprooms close early.

Both are superb outdoor bases, but they suit different seasons and activities. Breckenridge is the place for snow: skiing above the treeline on the Tenmile Range, Nordic trails, and in summer, Quandary Peak and aspen meadows straight from town.

Colorado Springs has Pikes Peak, which you can hike, drive or reach by cog railway, plus climbing on the red sandstone fins of Garden of the Gods and the Manitou Incline. Its drier, lower trails stay usable for much of the year, though skiing means a two-hour drive.

Colorado Springs has the wider and easier choice. Denver's museums are a little over an hour away, Manitou Springs is next door, and the mining towns of Cripple Creek and Victor and the Royal Gorge Bridge are each about an hour's drive.

From Breckenridge, the best outings are Leadville over Hoosier Pass and the old mining towns of Georgetown and Idaho Springs. Beyond those, most destinations are other ski resorts, Denver is around two hours away, and winter roads can make any drive much longer.

Colorado Springs gives children more variety: a mountainside zoo, Cave of the Winds, the Manitou Cliff Dwellings, a small Christmas-themed park and easy paths among the red rocks. The catch is the time spent in the car between them.

Breckenridge is excellent for families who come to ski, with ski schools, wide beginner slopes and a summer alpine coaster. Away from the mountain there is little for children to do, and the altitude and winter gear make life with small children harder work.

Here the two are far apart. Once you reach Breckenridge you can get by without a car: the historic centre is compact, the gondola to the slopes is free, and free buses run around town and to Frisco, Keystone and Copper Mountain. The hard part is the drive from Denver airport, which takes about two hours and can stretch in snow.

Colorado Springs is built around the car. Its sights are spread along the foothills and the buses are sparse, so apart from strolling downtown, Old Colorado City or Manitou Springs, you will need to hire one.

Shopping is modest in both, and they are level for it, but the shops are different. Breckenridge packs ski and outdoor gear, Western landscape galleries and souvenirs into Main Street at resort prices, with the Silverthorne outlets a short drive north. In Colorado Springs the shops with the most character are the rock and gem stores, Western wear and craft shops of Old Colorado City and Manitou Springs, while the rest is malls and big-box retail along the highways.

Breckenridge in ski season costs as much as ski resorts anywhere. Slopeside condos, lift tickets, rental gear and lessons add up fast, and the Christmas, New Year and spring-break weeks are the dearest of all. A summer visit, buying lift access in advance or staying in Frisco or Silverthorne brings the bill down a good deal.

Colorado Springs is much easier on the wallet. The chain hotels along the interstate are reasonably priced, and Garden of the Gods and the canyon parks are free to enter. The one cost you can hardly avoid is car hire.

The two are about level, and neither offers much reason to travel for performances, but their calendars differ. Breckenridge's highlight is summer, when a festival orchestra and a national orchestra academy play the open-sided Riverwalk Center by the Blue River. Colorado Springs spreads its programme across the year, with the Philharmonic at the Pikes Peak Center, the Fine Arts Center's theatre company and touring bands at the summer amphitheatre.

Colorado Springs is the more restful of the two. Manitou Springs grew up as a health resort, and you can still drink the carbonated spring water from public fountains or soak in outdoor tubs facing the mountains, with the Broadmoor's resort spa for a fuller treatment.

In Breckenridge, wellness mostly means a condo hot tub in the snow or a hotel massage after a hard day on the slopes. The early starts and thin air leave many visitors tired rather than relaxed.