Copper Mountain or Palm Springs?

Neither place has a beach, and the swimming they offer is very different. Copper's lakes and reservoirs are fed by snowmelt and stay cold even in July, so swimming means a heated lodge pool or a hot tub after the slopes.

In Palm Springs the pool is central to the stay, because almost every hotel, motel and rental house is built around one, and the hot season of lounging beside it is long. The ocean is two hours west, and the salty Salton Sea is a place to look at, not to swim in.

Palm Springs gives you more to enjoy at the table. There are long brunches on shaded patios, mid-range American restaurants along Palm Canyon Drive, date shakes from the groves around Indio, and honest taquerias and panaderias further east in the valley. It is better for relaxed grazing than for serious eating.

At Copper Mountain the food is fuel for skiers: burgers and chilli in the mid-mountain lodges, a few pizza and pub places in the village, and a lot of cooking in condo kitchens. For an evening of real choice you drive to Frisco or Breckenridge.

Palm Springs has a real cultural draw in its mid-century modern buildings. They include Albert Frey's houses and the tramway station, Neutra's Kaufmann House, and the folded roofs of the Alexander homes in Twin Palms and Vista Las Palmas, and you can tour them by bike or car. The Agua Caliente Cultural Museum tells the Cahuilla story, and the Palm Springs Art Museum adds modern and Western art.

Copper Mountain is a village of condos and lodges built around the lifts, with no sights of its own. The mining-era main streets that make the region interesting belong to its neighbours.

Après-ski is the whole of the night out at Copper Mountain. On winter afternoons the bars at the foot of the lifts fill with skiers still in their boots, but by late evening most people are back in their condos, and out of season the village is silent. If you want a later night, Breckenridge is half an hour's drive away.

For an evening out, Palm Springs is clearly the better of the two. Arenas Road has a long-established cluster of LGBTQ bars with patios and drag nights, retro cocktail lounges line Palm Canyon Drive, and hotel pool parties carry the spring weekends. There are few clubs, though, and most nights end early.

Both places sit beside serious mountains, but Copper Mountain is built for using them. Its treeless bowls in the Tenmile Range rise above 3,600m, and Vail and several other Summit County ski areas are a short drive away. In summer the Colorado Trail crosses the resort, and fourteen-thousand-foot peaks such as Mount Elbert are within an hour.

Palm Springs has outstanding contrasts. The tramway rises to pine forest and winter snow on Mount San Jacinto, the Indian Canyons and Tahquitz Canyon hide palm oases, and Joshua Tree's boulder fields are an hour away. From June to September, though, the heat limits hiking to the hour after dawn or the cool upper mountain.

Copper Mountain has the better choice of outings. Breckenridge's long Victorian main street and Leadville's weathered silver-boom district are each about half an hour away, Vail's Alpine-style village is just over the pass, and Georgetown has its narrow-gauge railway. Denver's museums are within reach when I-70 is clear.

The outings from Palm Springs are smaller and odder. Pioneertown is a lived-in Western film set, Idyllwild is a village in the pines, and the Salton Sea has abandoned resort towns and the painted hillside of Salvation Mountain. Los Angeles and San Diego are too far for a comfortable day trip.

Copper Mountain is the more practical choice with children. The car-free core, the gentle slopes kept apart from harder ones, the ski school, the snow tubing, the mountain coaster and the indoor centre with foam pits fill a week. The catch is the altitude of nearly 3,000m, which can mean headaches and broken sleep for the first couple of days, especially for small children.

Palm Springs has good outings in the Living Desert zoo, the tramway and the Air Museum. The town itself leans towards adults, though, with adults-only boutique hotels and a cocktail social life, so families are better placed in the big resorts further down the valley.

Once you have arrived, Copper Mountain needs no car at all. Walkways, lifts and a free shuttle link the villages, and free county buses run to Frisco, Breckenridge and Keystone. Getting there is harder: Denver airport is about two hours away, and I-70 can be slow in winter snow.

Palm Springs is the other way round. The airport is on the edge of town, and the downtown strip is flat and easy on foot, but the canyons, the tramway, the rest of the valley and Joshua Tree all need a car, and in summer nobody walks at midday.

Nobody goes to Copper Mountain to shop. The village sells ski rental, outdoor gear and resort-branded clothing, and for anything more people drive to the Silverthorne outlets or the galleries on Breckenridge's main street.

Palm Springs is far better for shopping, and most of all for mid-century design. The Uptown Design District on North Palm Canyon Drive is packed with consignment furniture, lighting and vintage clothing, and Village Fest brings a weekly street fair downtown. El Paseo in Palm Desert and the Cabazon outlets cover the mainstream.

Neither is cheap, but Palm Springs is easier to manage. Its high season from winter into spring is costly, yet in the summer heat rooms drop sharply, and simple motels keep costs down all year.

At Copper Mountain a winter week adds up quickly once you count lift access, slope-side lodging, equipment rental and resort meals. Condos with kitchens, lodging in Frisco or Silverthorne, and summer visits soften the bill.

Palm Springs has much more to see. Each April the Coachella and Stagecoach festivals fill the polo grounds at Indio, the McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert hosts touring shows, and the casinos book well-known acts. In town, drag cabaret and piano bars are the local style.

At Copper Mountain live music means bands on the village plaza on summer weekends and acoustic sets at après-ski. Anything more formal is in Breckenridge, with its summer classical season and small theatre.

Palm Springs was founded on a hot spring, and you can still soak in it at the bathhouse over the Agua Caliente spring downtown. Fifteen minutes north, the spa motels of Desert Hot Springs fill their pools with mineral water drawn straight from the ground, and the slow pace of pool, late breakfast and sunset drink is restful in itself.

At Copper Mountain relaxing means an outdoor hot tub facing the slopes and the pools and massages at the athletic club. The air is clean and the evenings are quiet, but the nearest hot springs are a long drive away.