Breckenridge or Stowe?

Neither town is for a beach trip, but Stowe at least offers a real summer swim. Waterbury Reservoir and Lake Elmore have small sandy shores where the water warms to about 22°C in July and August, and the mountain streams have rocky swimming holes.

Breckenridge's Lake Dillon is for sailing and paddling rather than swimming, and its snowmelt alpine lakes are icy, so swimming there means the recreation centre's indoor pools or a hot tub.

Stowe eats a little better, because it can draw on Vermont farms. Its breweries are famous for hazy IPAs, and farm cheddar, maple syrup and cider doughnuts give meals a sense of place that the farm-to-table dining rooms build on.

Breckenridge's food is solid resort cooking: steakhouses, pizza, sushi and a few chef-led kitchens using Colorado elk, lamb and trout, plus green chile breakfast burritos and its own beer and whiskey. It feeds hungry skiers well, but it has nothing like Stowe's local larder behind it.

Culture is not the point of either trip, but Breckenridge has more to walk through. Its gold-rush historic district is one of the largest in Colorado, a grid of painted Victorian storefronts and miners' cabins, with a gold-mine tour and old dredge remains adding to the story.

Stowe's offer is a New England postcard of white steeple, clapboard and covered bridges, plus the small ski museum and the von Trapp estate. Either can be done in an afternoon, though Breckenridge's mining past gives you a bit more to see.

Breckenridge is the livelier of the two after dark. On a winter Saturday its brewpubs, Victorian saloons and a couple of late dance bars run past midnight, and it has a name as one of Colorado's more sociable ski towns.

Stowe's evenings rarely go beyond base-lodge bars, taprooms and a few Mountain Road taverns with the odd band, and they go quiet outside peak ski weeks. For a proper night out, people drive to Burlington.

Both are true mountain destinations, and Breckenridge's mountains are bigger. Its ski area covers five peaks of the Tenmile Range above the treeline, with several other major resorts close by, and in summer the hiking and biking trails start at the edge of town. The drawback is the altitude of almost 3,000m.

Stowe's Mount Mansfield is a far lower peak, with colder and sometimes icy eastern snow, but it has the Long Trail, the boulder-strewn pass of Smugglers' Notch and an October foliage season Breckenridge cannot match.

Breckenridge has slightly better outings. Leadville's silver-boom streets and national mining museum, the old railway town of Georgetown and the hot springs at Idaho Springs all make full days out, and Denver's museums are within reach when I-70 allows.

From Stowe the best trip is the Shelburne Museum near Burlington, with its historic buildings and lake steamboat, followed by Montpelier's gold-domed statehouse and the cider mills of Waterbury. They are pleasant small towns, but there are fewer good choices.

For families the two are much alike: both are built around ski schools and gentle beginner slopes, and neither has much for children beyond the mountain. Breckenridge has more laid on, with a free gondola, a summer activity park with an alpine coaster and climbing walls, and an ice rink in town, but altitude sickness can hit small children.

Stowe is lower and calmer, with a dedicated children's resort over Smugglers' Notch, sugarhouses and a flat riverside path for pushchairs. The catch is that every outing needs the car.

Getting around is far easier in Breckenridge. The compact historic centre is walkable, a free gondola runs to the slopes, and free buses link the town with Frisco, Keystone and Copper Mountain, so many visitors never drive. Getting there is the weak point: a long shuttle or car ride from Denver over I-70 that snow and weekend traffic can stretch badly.

Stowe is strung out along an 11km valley road. Apart from the winter shuttle and the summer riverside path, a car is essential for trailheads, neighbouring towns and the drive in from Burlington's airport.

Both offer small-town browsing rather than real shopping, and the difference is in what you take home. Breckenridge leans to ski gear, technical clothing and Western landscape galleries, with outlet malls a short drive away in Silverthorne. Stowe is more about crafts and food, with pottery, woodwork, wool, maple syrup and cheddar from farm stands and the summer market.

Both are expensive, but Breckenridge is harder on your wallet. In ski season its slopeside condos, lift tickets, lessons and meals cost as much as skiing anywhere, and the Christmas, New Year and spring-break weeks are steeper still. Staying in Frisco or Silverthorne and the free transport soften this.

Stowe is also costly at its luxury end and in foliage season, but its valley-road motels, brewery meals and quiet weeks in spring and November leave more room for a careful budget.

Breckenridge has the better summer music. The Riverwalk Center by the Blue River hosts a long-running festival orchestra and a national academy of young players through July and August, and a local theatre company works for much of the year.

Stowe's calendar is smaller: touring acts at the Spruce Peak arts centre, community theatre and hillside lawn concerts tied to the von Trapp legacy. For orchestral music, Breckenridge is the clear choice.

Stowe does relaxation much better. Its larger resorts have full spas with saunas, steam rooms and heated outdoor pools, and spa weekends are a common reason couples come, helped by quiet inns and wood fires.

In Breckenridge wellness mostly means a condo hot tub or a massage after skiing, and the thin air and early starts leave many people worn out. The nearest natural springs are about an hour away in Idaho Springs.