Breckenridge or Phoenix?

Neither place offers a beach vacation, so swimming is a different kind of outing in each. Around Breckenridge the water is snowmelt cold. Lake Dillon is for sailing and paddling rather than swimming, so a swim means the recreation centre's indoor pools or a hot tub in the snow.

Phoenix has warmer options. The Salt River reservoirs, such as Saguaro Lake, have small beaches under desert cliffs, and tubing down the river is a summer custom. Most visitors, though, spend the hot months by resort pools with lazy rivers and slides.

Phoenix gives you more to eat with a sense of place. Sonoran cooking from the borderlands, with carne asada, paper-thin flour tortillas and bacon-wrapped hot dogs from evening carts, has real local roots. Central Phoenix and Roosevelt Row add independent kitchens and serious wood-fired pizza, though eating well usually means driving across the city.

Breckenridge feeds skiers well, with steakhouses, Mexican kitchens and some chef-led cooking using elk, trout and bison along Main Street. It has no culinary tradition behind it, however. Its local strength is in the glass, with craft beer brewed in town and whiskey distilled there too.

Phoenix has the sights worth planning a day around. The Heard Museum's Native American collections, the large Musical Instrument Museum and Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West are each a proper outing, although they are spread far apart and there is no old centre linking them.

Breckenridge has that walkable heritage instead. Its gold-rush grid of painted Victorian storefronts and miners' cabins, a mine tour with gold panning and the old river dredges fill a pleasant afternoon. Beyond that the town has no major museums or galleries.

Phoenix offers more range after dark. You can choose between the clubs and rooftop bars of Old Town Scottsdale, student bars on Tempe's Mill Avenue, and cocktail lounges around Roosevelt Row. Each district is a separate night out with a ride-hail home.

Breckenridge's evenings revolve around après-ski: brewpubs and saloons in Victorian buildings full of people in ski boots, and on winter Saturdays a couple of dance bars open late. Outside the ski season it falls quiet after dinner, and the altitude makes every drink stronger.

Breckenridge is the more complete mountain destination. Ski terrain on five peaks rises straight from town, with Keystone, Copper Mountain and Vail close by. In summer the same slopes turn into trails through aspen and wildflowers, with Quandary Peak just south. Its only real limit is the thin air.

Phoenix's desert scenery is striking: Camelback, South Mountain and the saguaro forests of the McDowell Sonoran Preserve rise right at the city's edge, with Sedona's red rocks further out. For about half the year, though, the heat confines hiking to the hours around dawn.

Phoenix has the more varied outings. Jerome hangs on its hillside, Montezuma Castle's cliff dwelling sits on the road to Sedona's red rock country, and Tucson's adobe barrios and Mission San Xavier del Bac are within reach to the south.

From Breckenridge, the best outing is Leadville, a silver-boom town over Hoosier Pass, followed by the mining towns of Georgetown and Idaho Springs. Beyond those, most places within reach are other ski resorts, and winter snow on the passes can stretch any drive, including the one to Denver.

Both work well for children, but in different seasons and different ways. Breckenridge is built around the mountain, with ski schools for young children, wide beginner slopes and a summer activity park with an alpine coaster and climbing walls. The catch is altitude sickness and the hard work of getting small children dressed for the cold.

Phoenix spreads its attractions across the city: a zoo, an aquarium, a science centre, water parks and spring training baseball in March. Expect long car journeys between them, and keep outdoor time to early mornings from June onwards.

Once you arrive, Breckenridge is far easier. The historic centre is compact, a free gondola runs from Main Street to the slopes, and free buses reach Frisco, Keystone and Copper Mountain, so many visitors never drive. Getting there is the hard part: about two hours from Denver's airport on an I-70 that snow can clog.

Phoenix is the reverse. Arriving is simple, but the city is a vast grid of arterial roads with Scottsdale, Tempe and the trailheads far apart. Light rail is handy for a few central trips, but it covers only a small part of such a huge metro area, and the buses are slow. In practice a hire car is part of the trip.

Phoenix is the place to shop. Scottsdale's luxury mall and the open-air centre near the Biltmore have the department stores, and the distinctive buy is Navajo and Zuni silver and turquoise, Hopi carvings and pottery from reputable galleries and museum shops.

Breckenridge's Main Street is good for ski gear, technical clothing and Western landscape art, and it makes a pleasant browse on a snowy evening. For anything more, people drive to the outlets in Silverthorne.

Breckenridge is the dearer place in almost any month. In the ski season, lodging near the lifts, lift access, equipment hire and lessons add up to full ski-resort prices, and the Christmas, New Year and spring-break weeks cost the most. Summer and the quiet spring and autumn months are much cheaper, and in winter buying lift access ahead or sleeping in Frisco or Silverthorne softens the bill.

Phoenix keeps to middling American prices. Its expensive stretch runs from January to April, when golf, spring training and perfect weather fill the Scottsdale resorts, so both places are at their dearest in late winter. They part ways in summer: Breckenridge's cheaper months fall in one of its two best seasons, while Phoenix's resort rooms only drop sharply when the heat keeps most people by the pool.

Phoenix has a large city's full set of performing arts: a symphony, opera and ballet, touring Broadway shows at Wright's round ASU Gammage, and concerts at the Musical Instrument Museum. Its seasons run from autumn to spring, and summer is quiet.

Breckenridge's best moment comes exactly when Phoenix goes quiet. In July and August the open-sided Riverwalk Center by the Blue River hosts a festival orchestra and a national orchestra academy. In winter the music shrinks to bands in après bars.

Phoenix and Scottsdale are a classic American resort retreat, with spas using desert sage, clay and agave, several pools per property and golf at the foot of Camelback. You do need resort spending to get the best of it.

Breckenridge's version of rest is a condo hot tub under falling snow or a massage after skiing. For natural hot springs you have to drive to Idaho Springs or Glenwood Springs, and the town is calmest in the shoulder seasons rather than at the peak of winter.