Colorado Springs or Snowbird?

Neither place is anywhere near the sea, and swimming is a minor part of a stay in either. Colorado Springs has city lakes, reservoirs and public pools, and its best water day is rafting on the Arkansas River. At Snowbird you have the resort's heated pools or a drive of about an hour to the small, cold beaches of the Heber Valley reservoirs. The nearby Great Salt Lake is somewhere you go to look at, not swim in.

Colorado Springs gives you more choice and more local flavour. Food trucks park outside craft breweries, green chile turns up on Southwestern menus, and you can eat out in three different areas: downtown on Tejon Street, the brick blocks of Old Colorado City and Manitou Springs. The Broadmoor's dining rooms cover the formal end.

At Snowbird you eat in the resort's lodges, at slopeside cafeterias or in the dining room at the top of the tram, which has the best view. The food is competent but has no local character and costs more because guests have few other options. For variety, most guests drive down to Salt Lake City a night or two each week.

Colorado Springs has a small but real set of sights. They include the aluminium spires of the Cadet Chapel at the Air Force Academy, the Olympic and Paralympic Museum, the Southwestern collection at the Fine Arts Center and the Gold Rush story in the old courthouse. They are spread out, but they can fill a rainy day.

Snowbird has almost nothing in this line. It was built as a ski resort in 1971, with concrete lodges designed to withstand avalanches, and the canyon's silver-mining past has left little to see. For museums or Temple Square, you have to drive down to Salt Lake City.

Neither is a place for a big night out, but Colorado Springs at least has somewhere to go. On weekends, the few blocks of Tejon Street fill with students and young soldiers moving between sports bars, cocktail bars and a handful of dance spots. Many brewery taprooms close well before midnight, though.

At Snowbird the evening is mostly après-ski on a lodge deck, and by mid-evening most people are heading to dinner or bed before the early first tram. For anything livelier, you face a mountain drive to Salt Lake City or Park City.

Both are true mountain destinations, and Snowbird has the slight edge because of where it sits. The tram climbs to Hidden Peak at about 3,350m above some of the deepest, driest snow in North America, and the skiing stretches through Mineral Basin to Alta. In summer the same slopes lead into the Twin Peaks and Lone Peak wilderness areas and the meadows of Albion Basin.

The outdoors around Colorado Springs is more varied. You can hike or ride up Pikes Peak to more than 4,300m, climb the sandstone fins of Garden of the Gods, tackle the Manitou Incline or mountain bike on trails that the dry climate keeps open most of the year. For skiing, though, you face a drive of about two hours.

Colorado Springs has more places to visit within an hour or so. Denver's museums are a little over an hour north, the gold-mining towns of Cripple Creek and Victor are up scenic mountain roads, and the Royal Gorge Bridge is to the south-west. Manitou Springs makes a half day right next door.

From Snowbird, the two main outings are Salt Lake City for Temple Square and the State Capitol, and Park City for its Victorian Main Street. After those, Midway, Sundance and Ogden's 25th Street make pleasant drives rather than strong reasons to go. Both places need a car for nearly every trip.

Families with younger children, or children who don't ski, will find far more to do around Colorado Springs. The zoo on its steep mountainside, the Manitou Cliff Dwellings, a small Christmas-themed amusement park in the hills and the Olympic museum for sporty older children are all short outings from town. The catch is that the distances add up to a lot of time in the car, the sun is strong at this altitude, and there is no big theme park or aquarium.

Snowbird suits teenagers and confident young skiers best, because the mountain is known for steep expert terrain and there is only a little gentle skiing near the base. The compact, car-free base makes children easy to keep track of, and in summer there is a mountain coaster, an alpine slide, a ropes course and climbing walls. Small children can tire quickly in the thin air, though, and the zoo, the aquarium and the children's museums are all down in Salt Lake City.

Snowbird is the easier place to stay without driving. The lodges, tram and lifts are a short walk apart along a car-free base, and many rooms open onto the slopes. The difficulty is the single canyon road, which clogs on powder mornings and is sometimes closed for avalanche control.

Colorado Springs is the reverse. Downtown, Old Colorado City and Manitou Springs are each easy to walk around, but the sights are spread along the foothills and buses are infrequent, so most visitors hire a car.

Colorado Springs is clearly the better place to shop, because it has two old districts that are worth browsing. The storefronts of Old Colorado City and Manitou Springs hold art galleries, Western wear, rock and gem shops and local crafts. Beyond those there are outlet stores on the north side of town and big-box retail along the highways, though you will find no luxury or design shopping.

At Snowbird there are only a few shops at the base. They sell and rent ski gear, outerwear and resort-branded clothing, so they are handy for replacing lost goggles but not for browsing. For boutiques you have to drive to Park City's main street, and for malls and outlets you go down to Salt Lake City.

Colorado Springs is clearly the cheaper place to stay. Chain hotels and motels along the interstate are reasonably priced, and Garden of the Gods, the canyon parks and most trails are free. Car hire is the cost that is hardest to avoid.

Snowbird has the high prices of a major Western ski resort, from lift tickets and rentals to slopeside rooms and meals. Staying in a Salt Lake City hotel and driving up each morning cuts the cost but means giving up life on the slopes, and summer stays are much cheaper than winter ones.

Colorado Springs has a modest local programme you can plan an evening around. The Philharmonic plays a season at the Pikes Peak Center, the Fine Arts Center stages plays and musicals, and touring bands play the outdoor amphitheatre in summer.

Snowbird offers summer concerts on the base plaza and oompah bands at its long-running Oktoberfest, and in winter the occasional band at après-ski. For symphony, opera or theatre, you have to drive to Salt Lake City.

The two are broadly level here, but the kind of relaxation is different. Colorado Springs has a spa-town history. You can fill a cup from the carbonated mineral fountains in Manitou Springs, soak in outdoor tubs facing the mountains, or book the full resort spa at the Broadmoor.

Snowbird's spa is on the roof of its main lodge, with a pool and hot tubs facing the canyon walls, and it is best at dusk after a day on the slopes. The village is quiet and car-free with dark nights, and a drive of about an hour takes you to the warm crater pool at Homestead in Midway.