Colorado Springs or Rapid City?

Colorado Springs offers very little open-air swimming. In practice it means a hotel or public pool, because the reservoirs and city lakes take the high-altitude chill all summer. The closest thing to a day on the water is rafting on the Arkansas River, which is more of an adventure than an afternoon of lounging.

Rapid City does a little better. On a hot summer afternoon you can drive up into the pines, swim in clear lake water that warms to around 20°C and then dry off on a narrow strip of shore. It makes a pleasant break between sights, but the season is short and it is never a beach vacation.

Colorado Springs has a somewhat wider choice. There is Southwestern cooking with green chile, a strong brewery scene and the Broadmoor's formal dining rooms at the top end, and the old brick blocks of Old Colorado City and Manitou Springs are pleasant places to stroll before dinner.

Rapid City's cooking is plainer but tastes more of its region: bison steaks, chislic, and Indian tacos made on Lakota fry bread, with wineries and distillers out in the hills. In both cities you eat heartily after a day outdoors, but in neither does the food shape the trip.

Colorado Springs has more to see in town, though the sights are spread out. The aluminium spires of the Cadet Chapel, the Olympic and Paralympic Museum, the Fine Arts Center's Southwestern collection and the Pioneers Museum in the old courthouse make a few good days.

Rapid City's own sights are smaller in scale: the bronze presidents on downtown corners, the Journey Museum's story of the Lakota and the gold rush, and the Badlands fossils at the School of Mines. The monuments it is famous for are out in the hills, so they belong to its day trips.

Both towns go to bed early, but Tejon Street in Colorado Springs offers a little more range. Cocktail bars and a handful of dance spots sit among the brewpubs and fill at weekends with students and young soldiers.

Rapid City's Main Street Square is quieter still, with brewpubs and country-music bars that wind down well before midnight. The exception is early August, when the Sturgis rally keeps the whole region loud and late.

Both cities sit at the foot of fine country, but Colorado Springs has the higher, more demanding mountains. Pikes Peak rises above 4,300m, Garden of the Gods has serious rock climbing and the Manitou Incline is a famously hard staircase climb. The dry climate keeps the mountain-bike trails open for much of the year, and the ski resorts are about two hours away.

The Black Hills around Rapid City are lower and gentler but richer in wildlife and parkland. There are bison herds in Custer State Park, long guided tours in Wind Cave and Jewel Cave, and the eroded ridges of the Badlands. You see more of this landscape from scenic roads and the Mickelson Trail than from summits.

Both cities have a good ring of outings, and every one needs a car. Rapid City's are the famous ones: Mount Rushmore half an hour away, the Crazy Horse Memorial, the Wild West streets of Deadwood and the mammoth bones at Hot Springs. These are the kind of landmarks a whole road trip is planned around.

From Colorado Springs the choice is wider. Denver is a little over an hour north for a full museum day, and the steep roads to the mining towns of Cripple Creek and Victor or the Royal Gorge Bridge make good mountain days out.

Both are good with children, and in both you will spend long days in the car. Colorado Springs has a mountainside zoo where children hand-feed giraffes, the cog railway up Pikes Peak and the cave tours at Cave of the Winds, but the altitude and strong sun call for care.

Rapid City has a long tradition as a family road-trip destination. It offers a reptile park, a drive-through park with bears and wolves, the free Storybook Island, and gold panning, and in Custer State Park bison stop the traffic. Motels with pools are easy to find.

Plan on hiring a car in either city. In Colorado Springs the sights are strung along the foothills, with only a few summer shuttles around Manitou. Rapid City's buses never reach Rushmore or the parks, although seasonal tour buses cover the main sights, and its light traffic and scenic hill roads make the driving part of the pleasure.

Shopping is a minor part of a trip to either city, and the difference is mostly in what you bring home. Colorado Springs has slightly more to browse in the old storefronts of Old Colorado City and Manitou Springs, with galleries, Western wear, rock and gem shops and outdoor gear. Rapid City's specialities are Black Hills gold jewellery and Lakota quillwork, beadwork and star quilts sold downtown.

Rapid City is a little easier on the budget. Motels and casual meals are reasonably priced and sights such as the presidents' statues and Dinosaur Park are free, though rooms get much more expensive in the summer peak and above all during the motorcycle rally week. Late spring and early autumn are the cheapest times to go.

Colorado Springs is moderately priced, and Garden of the Gods and most trails cost nothing. In both cities car hire is an extra cost you cannot avoid.

Colorado Springs has the fuller programme. The Philharmonic plays a season at the Pikes Peak Center, the Fine Arts Center runs a theatre company and touring bands play the outdoor amphitheatre in summer.

Rapid City has less on, with the Black Hills Symphony Orchestra and touring shows at the civic centre. What it adds is local character: summer plays in the pines of Custer State Park and the big autumn powwow.

Colorado Springs has an old bathing tradition right on its doorstep. Manitou Springs grew up as a health resort, and you can still drink carbonated mineral water from its public fountains or sit in outdoor soaking tubs. The Broadmoor, the century-old grand hotel, has a full resort spa.

In Rapid City the equivalent is an hour away in Hot Springs, where a historic indoor pool fed by warm springs has drawn bathers since the 1890s. Otherwise, relaxing there means a quiet cabin or lodge in the hills.