Colorado Springs or Sun Valley?

Neither place is for a beach trip, but Sun Valley has a slight edge in summer. Redfish Lake under the Sawtooths has a real sandy shore, though the water stays cold, and the resort's heated outdoor pools are reliable all year.

Colorado Springs only has public pools, hotel pools and city reservoirs. Most visitors who want to be on the water go rafting on the Arkansas River instead.

The two eat at about the same level, but in different ways. In Colorado Springs the food is casual and Southwestern: green chile, barbecue, food trucks outside craft breweries, and the most pleasant streets to eat on are around Tejon Street and in Old Colorado City. Local beer is the best of it.

Ketchum has fewer places, but a few kitchens aim higher, cooking Idaho trout, lamb and elk for a wealthy crowd. It has almost nothing cheap, and some restaurants cut back in spring and autumn.

Colorado Springs has a handful of sights to fill a day off the trails. The aluminium spires of the Air Force Academy's Cadet Chapel, the Olympic and Paralympic Museum, the Southwestern collection at the Fine Arts Center and the Gold Rush story told in the old courthouse are all worth seeing.

Sun Valley's interest lies in a few stories. It was America's first destination ski resort and had the first chairlifts, the Lodge corridors are lined with photos of film stars, and Hemingway's grave is in Ketchum. An afternoon covers it.

Neither is a place for a big night out, but Colorado Springs gives you more. A few blocks of Tejon Street have cocktail bars, sports bars and some dance floors, which fill at weekends with students and young soldiers. Even so, many taprooms close well before midnight.

In Sun Valley, evenings mean après-ski in a few Ketchum saloons and hotel lounges, with a band on a busy winter weekend. Outside the ski season and midsummer, things wind down soon after dinner.

Both are first-rate outdoor bases, and the difference is the kind of terrain. Colorado Springs has red sandstone fins for climbing in Garden of the Gods and Red Rock Canyon, the 4,300m summit of Pikes Peak to hike or ride up, and the punishing Manitou Incline. Its dry, sunny weather keeps the trails open for much of the year.

Sun Valley is a ski town first. Steep runs come straight down into Ketchum, and in summer the same hills are laced with singletrack. It also has two things Colorado Springs lacks: fly fishing on Silver Creek and the alpine lakes of the Sawtooths an hour away.

Colorado Springs has far more places to visit for a day. Denver is a little over an hour north, the old mining towns of Cripple Creek and Victor are up a scenic mountain road, and the Royal Gorge Bridge is about an hour south-west, so you could fill a week of outings.

Around Sun Valley, the country is mostly empty wilderness. The few outings are Hailey's small main street, the log cabins of Stanley and Shoshone Falls, two hours south. Most days out from here are spent in the mountains.

Colorado Springs gives families much more to do. Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, Cave of the Winds, the cliff dwellings and a small Christmas-themed amusement park give you a different outing for each day. The drawback is the time spent driving between them.

Sun Valley is quiet and easy with children, and its beginners' hill and well-run ski school are made for young skiers. Beyond that, nothing is built for children, rainy days are hard to fill, and teenagers who don't ski may get bored.

Sun Valley is the easier place to be without a car, at least inside the resort. Ketchum is small and flat, a free bus runs between the town, the village and the lift bases, and a paved bike path follows the valley. The Sawtooths and the hot springs still need a car.

Colorado Springs is spread along the foothills, and its buses are thin. Downtown, Old Colorado City and Manitou Springs are each pleasant on foot, but almost every outing between them means driving.

Shopping is modest in both, and the difference is price and taste. Old Colorado City and Manitou Springs have rock and gem shops, Western wear and local crafts in old storefronts, and there are outlets and big-box stores along the highways.

Ketchum's few blocks are more upmarket, with fine and western art galleries, cashmere and home-decor boutiques and serious fly-fishing shops. They are good to browse, but expensive.

Colorado Springs is the cheaper of the two by a wide margin, though it is priced like an ordinary American city rather than a bargain. The cost to plan for is a hire car, since the sights are strung along the foothills and the buses reach few of them. Meals cost the usual American amount once the tip is added, and only the grand old resort below Cheyenne Mountain sits at the top end.

Sun Valley is at its most expensive in exactly the seasons people come for, peak ski weeks and midsummer, and there is little in the valley at the lower end. Sleeping further down the valley or coming in the quiet spring and autumn months softens the bill, and inside the resort you can do without a car. For a family or a stay of a week or more, the gap with Colorado Springs adds up quickly, and lift access widens it further in winter.

Both have a modest programme, but they spread it differently across the year. Colorado Springs has a little all year round: the Philharmonic plays a season at the Pikes Peak Center, the Fine Arts Center stages plays and musicals, and touring bands play the amphitheatre in summer.

Sun Valley saves almost everything for summer, but that season is worth knowing about. A professional orchestra gives free concerts in the pavilion by the lodge while people picnic on the lawn, and star skaters perform on the outdoor rink.

Sun Valley is the more restful choice. It has full resort spas, steaming outdoor pools that are best when the snow is falling, and rough natural hot springs beside the creek up Warm Springs valley, all inside a town that goes quiet once the lifts close.

Colorado Springs has a real spa history: Manitou Springs was founded around its carbonated springs, and you can still drink from its public fountains. Today, though, that means one small soaking spa and the Broadmoor's resort spa, and the well-known Colorado hot springs are more than two hours away.