Colorado Springs or Steamboat Springs?

Neither city is a place for swimming, and both are a long way inland. What differs is how you get into the water. From Colorado Springs, a water day usually means driving out to raft the Arkansas River. In Steamboat you can tube the Yampa right through town in summer, or brave the cold reservoirs at Steamboat Lake and Stagecoach in July and August.

Colorado Springs gives you more choice. Southwestern cooking with green chile, craft breweries with food trucks outside, and a reliable range of Mexican and Asian kitchens are spread across three pleasant areas: Tejon Street downtown, Old Colorado City and Manitou Springs. The century-old grand hotel at the foot of Cheyenne Mountain covers formal dining.

Steamboat's eating is resort fare, concentrated on Lincoln Avenue and at the ski base. It leans towards steakhouses and Colorado lamb and beef, reflecting the ranching valley. That is satisfying after a day outdoors, but there is little variety beyond it and nothing like the Southwestern side that Colorado Springs has.

Colorado Springs has much more to see, even though the sights are spread out. There is the Cadet Chapel with its aluminium spires at the Air Force Academy, the Olympic and Paralympic Museum, the Southwestern collection at the Fine Arts Center and the Gold Rush story told in the old courthouse.

Steamboat's equivalent of that courthouse museum is the Tread of Pioneers Museum in a Victorian house, which covers the homesteaders and the Norwegian who brought skiing to the town. Add a look at historic Howelsen Hill and the western storefronts on Lincoln Avenue, and you have seen it all in an afternoon.

Colorado Springs has a little more going on after dark. Its sports bars, cocktail bars and few dance spots on Tejon Street fill at weekends with students and young soldiers from the bases.

Steamboat's evenings depend on the season. In winter, après-ski starts at the gondola base as the lifts close, then moves to the saloons and brewpubs of Lincoln Avenue. Outside the peak weeks the town goes quiet early. Neither place has a real club scene.

Both are first-rate outdoor bases, but in different ways. Colorado Springs is a place for hiking, climbing and biking among red rock. You can go up Pikes Peak on foot, by car or on the cog railway, climb the sandstone fins of Garden of the Gods or take on the Manitou Incline. The dry climate keeps the trails usable for much of the year.

Steamboat is a true mountain resort. The ski mountain and its Champagne Powder start at the edge of town, Rabbit Ears Pass offers backcountry terrain, and in summer the same hills turn into trails that lead towards the alpine lakes of the Mount Zirkel Wilderness. Fly fishing on the Yampa and sightings of elk and moose are things Colorado Springs does not offer in the same way.

Colorado Springs is much the better base for excursions. Denver's major museums are a little over an hour north, the gold-mining towns of Cripple Creek and Victor are about an hour up scenic roads, and the Royal Gorge is a similar distance south-west.

Steamboat is remote. The nearest places are small ranching towns, Vail and Grand Lake take around two hours of mountain driving, and Denver is about three hours away. Most outings from Steamboat head into the hills rather than to another town.

Both suit families who like being outdoors, and Colorado Springs has a slight edge because it offers more kinds of outing. Children can hand-feed giraffes at the mountainside zoo, tour the caves at Cave of the Winds, ride the cog railway or explore the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. Each of these means time in the car, though, and there is no big theme park or aquarium.

Steamboat is smaller and simpler to manage. It has a strong ski school with gentle slopes, pools with slides and a climbing wall at Old Town Hot Springs, tubing on the Yampa and the summer rodeo. There is no zoo, aquarium, theme park or science museum to fall back on, so the trip works best for a family happy to ski, swim and walk. In both places the altitude and strong sun call for some care with young children in the first day or so.

Colorado Springs is built around the car. Its sights are scattered along the foothills, the buses are infrequent, and only downtown, Old Colorado City and Manitou Springs are pleasant to walk around.

Steamboat is easier on foot. A town bus runs between flat Lincoln Avenue and the ski base, and many skiers can walk to the gondola from where they stay. You will still want a car for the hot springs, the falls and the passes, with proper tyres in winter.

Colorado Springs has more shops to browse, although neither city has any luxury or design shopping. Old Colorado City and Manitou Springs sell rock and gem specimens, gallery art and Western wear, and there are outlet stores and malls on the edge of town for everyday needs.

In Steamboat, shopping comes down to an hour on Lincoln Avenue. The main draw is boots, hats and saddle-blanket goods from the long-established family outfitter there, plus ski and gear shops at the mountain base.

Colorado Springs is much easier on the budget. Rooms in chain hotels and motels along the interstate are reasonably priced, and the canyon parks and trails are free, although car hire is an extra cost you can hardly avoid.

Steamboat charges resort prices for lodging, lift access, equipment hire and meals, and it is at its most expensive over Christmas, New Year and the spring school breaks. Summer is gentler, and spring and late autumn are cheaper again, but some places close then.

The two are broadly level, but their seasons differ. Colorado Springs has a year-round programme: the Philharmonic plays a season at the Pikes Peak Center, the Fine Arts Center stages plays and musicals, and touring bands fill the outdoor amphitheatre in summer.

Steamboat's music is concentrated in the warm months. The long-running Strings Music Festival presents chamber music, jazz and bluegrass in its pavilion, and there are free outdoor concerts and student theatre and dance at Perry-Mansfield, founded in 1913. In winter there is very little.

Steamboat is clearly the better place to unwind, because hot water is part of the town's identity. Locals use the spring-fed pools of Old Town Hot Springs all year, and about 11km up a mountain road the rock-lined pools of Strawberry Park sit in a wooded creek valley. They are at their best on a snowy evening.

Colorado Springs has its own spring history in Manitou Springs, where you can drink carbonated water from the public fountains and soak in a small spa. Beyond that it offers grand-hotel spa treatments, and the true hot-spring pools are more than two hours' drive away.