Copper Mountain or Page, Arizona?

Page has real summer swimming and Copper Mountain has none. Lake Powell warms to about 26°C at the surface in midsummer. You can drive down to the sand at Lone Rock, or take a boat into sandstone coves and jump straight off the rock into deep water. There are no lifeguards, and from late autumn to spring the water is too cold for most people.

At Copper the lakes and reservoirs are fed by snowmelt and stay cold even in July. In summer, getting wet means a lodge pool or a hot tub.

Neither place is somewhere to travel for food, and in both you eat well enough between outings. The difference is in what you eat. Copper offers mountain-lodge burgers and chilli, a few village pizza and Mexican places, and condo kitchens for cooking yourself, with Frisco and Breckenridge a short drive away for more choice.

Page's strip of diners, barbecue joints and chains is built for road-trippers. It does have one local dish worth looking for: the Navajo taco, sold at casual spots and roadside stands on the reservation.

Page has a little more to see, though neither is a cultural destination. The Glen Canyon Dam and its visitor centre explain how the town came to exist in the 1950s. A small museum covers John Wesley Powell's mapping of the Colorado, and the surrounding Navajo Nation adds a living cultural layer that shapes the canyon visits.

Copper Mountain has nothing comparable. It is a village of condos and lodges at the base of the lifts, and the region's mining-era heritage belongs to the neighbouring towns.

Copper Mountain has slightly more going on, but only in winter. The bars at the foot of the lifts fill with skiers in their boots in the afternoon, and on busy weekends there is music on the plaza. By late evening most people are back in their condos, and Breckenridge, half an hour away, is the place for a later night.

Page has a few bars and a brewpub, and the town is quiet well before midnight. Its best evening is the dark desert sky full of stars.

Both are first-rate outdoor destinations, and the difference is the kind of landscape. Copper is high alpine country at the foot of the Tenmile Range, with ski bowls above the treeline in winter. In summer the Colorado Trail, the paved path over Vail Pass and fourteen-thousand-foot peaks such as Mount Elbert are all within reach.

Page is red-rock desert. It has the glowing slot canyons of Antelope Canyon, the drop to the river at Horseshoe Bend, and Lake Powell's flooded canyons leading to Rainbow Bridge. Below the dam, Lees Ferry is the starting point for rafting. The Vermilion Cliffs and the Wave lie an hour or two away.

Copper Mountain is the better base for seeing other towns. Within about half an hour you can reach Breckenridge's Victorian main street, Leadville's weathered silver-boom district, Vail's Alpine-style village and lakeside Frisco. Further toward Denver, Georgetown has a narrow-gauge railway, and Denver itself has proper museums, provided the I-70 traffic allows.

From Page the scenery is spectacular, but there are few towns. Lees Ferry's pioneer buildings, the cliff dwellings at Navajo National Monument and the small Western town of Kanab are the main options, and the drives are long.

Copper Mountain is built for families in a way Page is not. The village core is car-free, children's ski school is central to the resort, and tubing, a mountain coaster and an indoor trampoline centre fill the time off the slopes. The catch is the altitude of nearly 3,000m, which can mean headaches and poor sleep for the first couple of days.

Page gives children great lake days and short Antelope Canyon tours, and its motels have pools. However, it has unfenced cliff edges at the viewpoints, ladders on some canyon tours, harsh summer sun and many hours in the car.

Copper Mountain is far easier once you are there. Walkways, lifts and a free shuttle link the resort, and free county buses run to Frisco and on to Breckenridge and Keystone, so a car can sit untouched for days. Getting there is the hard part: Denver airport is about two hours away, and I-70 can be slow in snow.

In Page a car is essential from start to finish. Horseshoe Bend, the marinas and the wider parks all lie outside the small town, there is no useful public transport, and the major airports are hours away.

Copper Mountain sells what you need on the mountain, while Page sells something worth taking home. Copper's village shops keep to ski and snowboard rental, outdoor gear and resort clothing. For anything more, you drive to the Silverthorne outlets or the galleries on Breckenridge's main street.

In Page, the thing to look for is Navajo craft: silver and turquoise jewellery, rugs and pottery from trading posts and roadside stalls, often bought straight from the maker. Beyond that there are boating supplies, gift shops and groceries for the cooler.

At Copper Mountain the money goes on the mountain itself. Lift access, slope-side beds, rental gear and resort meals are all at their most expensive in winter. Condos with kitchens, a base in Frisco or Silverthorne, or a summer visit make the bill smaller.

Page costs less overall, and most of the spending goes on the sights. Antelope Canyon can only be seen on paid guided tours, boat and houseboat hire on the lake is expensive, and rooms run short in the busy months. Meals and fuel cost what they would in any small American town, and camping at Lone Rock or coming in winter keeps the total down.

Neither has a stage worth planning around, and what little exists differs in character. Copper has summer concert weekends on the village plaza and acoustic sets at après-ski, and Breckenridge's summer classical season is a short drive away. Page offers Navajo cultural presentations and traditional dance put on for visitors, which are more distinctive but occasional.

Copper Mountain is the better place to unwind, if only modestly. Many condos have outdoor hot tubs facing the slopes, and the resort's athletic club adds pools and massages. The thin air can disturb sleep for the first couple of nights.

Page has motel pools and a few hotel spa offerings. Its calm lies in wide views and dark skies, but most stays are built around pre-dawn canyon starts and long drives rather than rest.