Breckenridge or Kansas City?

Neither city is a place to swim, and both are about as far from a coast as you can get. What differs is the water. In Breckenridge, Lake Dillon and the alpine lakes stay snowmelt-cold even in summer, so swimming means the indoor pools at the recreation centre or a hot tub. Kansas City's hot summers are warm enough for locals to swim at sandy lake beaches in county parks on the edge of the metro area.

Kansas City has food worth travelling for. Its hickory-smoked barbecue and burnt ends come from decades-old counters near the stockyards, petrol-station joints and smart dining rooms alike. Beyond the smoke, the River Market has Vietnamese and Ethiopian counters, and the Westside has long-standing Mexican cooking.

Breckenridge feeds hungry skiers well enough. There are steakhouses, wood-fired pizza and dishes using elk, trout and bison, and green chile breakfast burritos are the local habit. But there is no food tradition behind it, and some kitchens close between seasons. Both cities brew good local beer.

The gap is wide. Kansas City has real museums: the Nelson-Atkins and its Chinese collection, the National WWI Museum under the Liberty Memorial, and the Negro Leagues and jazz museums at 18th and Vine. Union Station's Beaux-Arts hall adds some grand architecture, and the main list takes two or three days.

Breckenridge's culture is its setting. It has one of Colorado's largest historic districts from the 1859 gold rush, with painted false-fronted storefronts, miners' cabins and a mine where you can pan for gold. That makes a good afternoon, not a programme of sightseeing.

Kansas City has more nights out to choose from. There are sports bars in the Power and Light District, a scruffier student strip in Westport, and calmer cocktail and craft-beer bars in the Crossroads and River Market. You will need a car or a ride between them, and the city goes quiet early on weeknights.

Breckenridge does one thing well: après-ski straight off the lifts, then brewpubs and old Victorian saloons that keep going past midnight on a winter Saturday. In spring and autumn the town is silent after dinner, and the altitude makes every drink stronger.

This is Breckenridge's great strength. The ski area covers five peaks of the Tenmile Range above town, and Keystone, Copper Mountain and Arapahoe Basin are close by. In summer, trails climb from the edge of town through aspen and wildflower meadows, and Quandary Peak, one of Colorado's 4,000m summits, is just to the south.

Kansas City offers rolling prairie, the Missouri and Kansas rivers, and big city parks such as Swope Park and Loose Park's rose garden. Creek trails and reservoirs make for easy walks, but for real hiking country you have to drive several hours to the Ozarks.

Breckenridge has the better outings. Leadville, over Hoosier Pass, is a weathered silver-boom town with a national mining museum. Georgetown has a narrow-gauge railway, Vail's Alpine-style village is under an hour away, and Denver is about two hours away, though winter weather can make any drive much longer.

From Kansas City, a car reaches Truman's home and presidential library in Independence, the university main street in Lawrence, the antebellum river town of Weston, and the Pony Express museum in St Joseph. They make pleasant half days rather than memorable ones, and public transport to them is almost non-existent.

Both work well with children, but in very different ways. Breckenridge is about the mountain: ski schools that take young children, gentle beginner slopes and the free gondola, then an alpine coaster and climbing walls in summer. The cold, the ski gear and altitude sickness in the first days can make it hard work.

Kansas City is a city of attractions. There are Worlds of Fun and its water park, a large zoo, Science City inside Union Station, and an aquarium and Legoland Discovery Centre at Crown Center, with baseball at Kauffman Stadium for an easy evening. Expect to spend a lot of time driving between them.

Once you arrive, Breckenridge is far easier. The historic centre is compact, the gondola and town buses are free, and county buses run to Frisco, Keystone and Copper Mountain, so a week without a car is realistic. Getting there is the hard part: about two hours by shuttle or car from Denver's airport over I-70, longer in snow.

Kansas City is built for driving. Highways are quick and parking is easy, but buses are infrequent and the sights are far apart. The Main Street streetcar from the River Market to Crown Center and beyond is the one line most visitors use, and staying near it makes a car-free day or two possible.

Kansas City offers more. The Country Club Plaza, a 1920s district of Spanish-style tiled towers, has upmarket and chain stores. The Crossroads adds independent galleries and design shops, and 39th Street and Westport have record and thrift shops.

Breckenridge's Main Street is good for ski gear, technical clothing and galleries selling Western landscapes, and it makes a nice browse on a snowy evening. Beyond that it is souvenirs at resort prices, and keen shoppers drive to the Silverthorne outlets.

Kansas City is much cheaper. Hotels cost less than in the coastal cities, a barbecue lunch is good value, and the Nelson-Atkins does not charge for general entry. Car hire, sales tax, tips and family tickets still add up.

Breckenridge in ski season costs as much as a ski vacation anywhere, and the Christmas and spring-break weeks are the most expensive of all. Summer and the shoulder months are far cheaper, the trails are free, and so is local transport.

Kansas City has a musical identity of its own. The swinging, blues-based jazz of Count Basie and Charlie Parker still plays most nights in small clubs around 18th and Vine, often with late jam sessions. For formal evenings, the Kauffman Center is home to the symphony, the Lyric Opera and the ballet, and Starlight Theatre stages musicals outdoors in summer.

Breckenridge's best music comes in July and August, when a festival orchestra and a national orchestra academy play at the open-sided Riverwalk Center by the Blue River. In winter there is little beyond bar bands.

Neither city has a real bathing tradition, but Breckenridge is the more restorative of the two. Resort spas and a nightly soak in an outdoor hot tub in the falling snow are part of the stay, and natural hot springs are about an hour away. Early starts and the thin air can still leave you tired rather than rested.

Kansas City offers hotel and day spas, and the old mineral-water resort of Excelsior Springs is about forty minutes north. Its real calm comes from the city's unhurried pace: a slow morning in Loose Park or the Nelson-Atkins sculpture park.