Copper Mountain or Moab?

Neither place is for a beach vacation, and the swimming is quite different. At Copper Mountain the lakes are fed by snowmelt and stay cold all summer, so a swim usually means a heated lodge pool or a hot tub.

Moab's summer heat makes a dip more tempting, and people cool off in the shallow pools of Mill Creek, at Ken's Lake or from sandbars on the Colorado. The river is fast and cold, though, and needs care.

Both towns feed people after a day outdoors rather than offer a food culture of their own. Copper's food comes from mid-mountain lodges and a few pizza and pub places, and many guests cook in their condos or drive to Frisco or Breckenridge for dinner.

Moab's Main Street has a little more choice, with breweries, early-opening coffee shops and a few dinner places with Southwestern touches. Utah's alcohol rules make ordering a drink with dinner more formal than visitors may expect.

Moab offers more, though neither is a culture trip. Copper is a purpose-built village of condos and lodges, and its mining heritage belongs to the neighbouring towns.

Moab has the small Museum of Moab and a few buildings from the uranium boom. More rewarding are the Ancestral Puebloan and Fremont petroglyphs on the cliffs along Potash Road and Kane Creek, and the dinosaur trackways nearby.

Evenings end early in both places. Copper's nightlife is après-ski: bars at the foot of the lifts full of skiers in boots on winter afternoons, and then near silence once the season ends. Breckenridge is the place for a later night.

Moab's brewpubs fill up with bikers and rafters swapping stories after dark. Most visitors go to bed early for a sunrise start, and the real night-time attraction is the dark, starry desert sky.

Both are outstanding outdoor bases, but for very different landscapes. Copper Mountain is alpine: ski bowls in the Tenmile Range all winter, then the Colorado Trail, the paved path over Vail Pass and fourteen-thousand-foot peaks such as Mount Elbert in summer.

Moab is sandstone desert, with Arches a few minutes from town, Canyonlands and Dead Horse Point within the hour, and Slickrock and the Whole Enchilada for mountain bikers. Rafting, canyoneering and climbing are all close by, and at their best in spring and autumn.

Copper Mountain has much more variety for a day out. Breckenridge's Victorian main street and Leadville's silver-boom district are each about half an hour away, Vail is just over the pass, and Georgetown's narrow-gauge railway and the museums of Denver are within reach toward the plains.

From Moab, nearly every outing is to more scenery. Bluff, Monticello and Green River are small, and the most rewarding cultural trip, to Edge of the Cedars and Hovenweep, takes the whole day.

Copper Mountain is easier with children. The village core is car-free, ski school is a main part of the resort, and tubing, a mountain coaster and an indoor action-sports centre fill time off the slopes. Altitude is the drawback, and very young children need watching for the first few days.

Moab can be a great adventure for school-age children, with dinosaur tracks, short walks to Sand Dune Arch, Junior Ranger programmes and gentle raft floats. Summer heat, unfenced drops and long drives make it hard work with toddlers.

Copper Mountain is easier without a car. Walkways, lifts and a free shuttle link the resort, and free county buses run to Frisco and on to Breckenridge and Keystone, so a parked car can sit unused for days. Getting there is the hard part: about two hours from Denver airport along a winter I-70 that can be slow.

In Moab you can walk Main Street and cycle the paved path to the Arches entrance, but everything beyond needs a vehicle, often a high-clearance one for dirt tracks. Without a car you depend on outfitters' shuttles and tours.

Neither is worth a trip for shopping, though Moab's Main Street has a bit more character. Its rock shops sell geodes and fossils, and a few galleries carry Navajo jewellery and weavings alongside the bike and climbing stores. Copper sells mostly rental gear and resort-branded clothing, and visitors drive to the Silverthorne outlets or the boutiques in Breckenridge for more.

Moab is the cheaper of the two, mainly because so much of what you come for is free or close to it. Hikes cost nothing, one park pass lasts a week, and campgrounds and dispersed camping cost far less than a room, although motels charge resort prices in spring and autumn.

At Copper, lift access, rentals and slope-side lodging make a winter week expensive. Condo kitchens, lodging in Frisco or Silverthorne, and a summer visit bring the cost down.

Moab has the one memorable event: the long-running Moab Music Festival at the end of summer, with chamber concerts held partly in canyon grottoes reached by boat. Copper offers summer bands on the village plaza and acoustic sets at après-ski, and visitors who want a classical programme or theatre drive to Breckenridge.

Neither is a spa destination, but Copper is a little better set up for relaxing. Many condos have outdoor hot tubs facing the slopes, and the athletic club offers pools and massage.

Moab is restful in a different way: quiet desert evenings, the cliffs turning red at sunset and very dark skies. The days themselves are early and hot, and those who want real rest book a ranch or a cabin in the La Sals.