Breckenridge or Page, Arizona?

Breckenridge has no swimming outdoors to speak of. Lake Dillon is for sailing and paddling, the alpine lakes are fed by snowmelt, and a dip usually means the recreation centre pool or a hot tub.

Page has real summer swimming on Lake Powell, with open sand at Lone Rock and red-rock coves reached by boat or kayak where you jump straight into deep water. There are no lifeguards, the beaches shift as the lake level rises and falls, and the water is too cold from late autumn to spring.

Neither town is worth travelling to for its food, but Breckenridge gives you more choice. It has steakhouses, sushi, wood-fired pizza and a few chef-led kitchens cooking elk, bison and Colorado lamb, along with a long local brewing habit and its own whiskey. Page is mostly about refuelling between outings, with diners, barbecue and chains along the strip. The Navajo taco on frybread is the one dish worth seeking out, and the town stops serving early.

Breckenridge has its gold rush and Page has its dam, and that difference shapes what each town has to show. In Breckenridge the 1859 boom is still visible in the streets: a large historic district of painted Victorian storefronts, false-fronted wooden buildings and miners' cabins, with a mine tour where you can pan for gold and the old dredge remains along the Blue River.

Page was built in the 1950s for the workers on the Glen Canyon Dam, so its history is engineering rather than old buildings. You can see it at the dam's visitor centre and in a small museum on the river explorer John Wesley Powell. The real cultural depth lies outside town, on the Navajo land all around it.

Breckenridge has a modest but real evening scene. Après-ski crowds fill the bars at the lift bases in their ski boots, there are brewpubs and saloons in Victorian buildings, and a couple of dance bars stay open past midnight on a winter Saturday. It goes quiet in spring and autumn.

Page has a brewpub and a few bars and is asleep well before midnight. The best night out there is the dark desert sky full of stars.

Both towns are superb bases for the outdoors, so the choice is between mountains and desert. Breckenridge puts you on five peaks of the Tenmile Range, with dry powder in winter, and aspen woods, wildflower meadows and Quandary Peak for summer hiking and biking. The price is a day or two getting used to the altitude of almost 3,000m.

Page is red rock and water. It has Antelope Canyon's slot canyons with Navajo guides, Horseshoe Bend, Lake Powell by boat to Rainbow Bridge, rafting from Lees Ferry, and the Vermilion Cliffs. Its trails are best in spring and autumn, when Breckenridge's high country is either still snowy or turning cold.

Breckenridge has more places within reach. You can visit silver-boom Leadville with its mining museum, Georgetown's narrow-gauge railway, the hot springs at Idaho Springs and Vail Village, and Denver is about two hours away, though winter roads can make any of these drives much longer.

Page's outings are mostly landscapes rather than towns. Lees Ferry, the cliff dwellings at Navajo National Monument, and Kanab with nearby Pipe Spring are worth the trip, but there are few of them and they are far apart.

Breckenridge is better set up for children. It has ski schools that take them young, wide beginner slopes and a free gondola. In summer the mountain becomes an activity park with an alpine coaster and climbing walls, and the town has pools and an ice rink. Altitude sickness and the work of winter layering are the main hurdles.

Page can delight children with a beach day at Lone Rock or a short Antelope Canyon tour, but nothing there is built for them. The summer sun is harsh, and the sheer, unfenced drops at Horseshoe Bend need a firm hand.

In Breckenridge you can skip the car entirely. The centre is walkable, the gondola and town buses are free, and free county buses run to Frisco, Keystone and Copper Mountain. The catch is the drive of around two hours from Denver's airport, which snow can make much longer.

In Page a car is essential. Horseshoe Bend, the marinas and the wider parks all lie outside town, there is no useful public transport, and the big airports are hours away, so most visitors arrive by road anyway.

Breckenridge is the better place to browse. Main Street has ski and outdoor gear, galleries of Western landscape art and a few boutiques, and the Silverthorne outlets are a short drive away. Page sells little beyond supplies and souvenirs, but its trading posts and roadside stalls offer Navajo silver, turquoise, rugs and pottery, often sold by the maker, which Breckenridge cannot match.

Neither town is cheap, but Page is the smaller bill. In ski season Breckenridge charges full resort rates for slope-side lodging, lift tickets, equipment hire and lessons, and the Christmas and spring-break weeks cost the most. It is much cheaper in summer, and local transport is free.

In Page, meals and fuel cost what they do in any small town. Antelope Canyon tours and boat hire add up, though, and rooms are scarce in the busy months. Camping at Lone Rock or Wahweap keeps costs down.

Breckenridge has a genuine summer music season. The Riverwalk Center by the Blue River hosts a festival orchestra, a national orchestra academy and outdoor shows, and a small theatre company stages plays and musicals for much of the year. Page has nothing comparable, only the occasional Navajo dance presentation for visitors or a local band in a bar.

Soaking in an outdoor hot tub as snow falls is the nightly ritual in Breckenridge, and several resort hotels have full spas for a massage after skiing. For natural pools you need a drive, with the large Glenwood Springs pools further west.

Page has a few hotel offerings and motel pools, and its calm comes from wide views and dark night skies rather than any treatment. With dawn starts for the canyons and long hours at the wheel, it is the more tiring stay of the two.