Copper Mountain or Rapid City?

Neither place is near a coast, but Rapid City at least offers a swim. Sheridan Lake, Pactola Reservoir and Sylvan Lake lie in the pine hills within half an hour. Their shores are small, sandy or gravel, and the water is comfortable in high summer.

At Copper Mountain the reservoirs are cold with snowmelt even in July. Swimming there means a heated pool or a hot tub at the lodge.

Rapid City's food is simple but has some regional character. Look for chislic in the bars, Indian tacos on Lakota fry bread and bison burgers, plus a few brewpubs and more ambitious kitchens around Main Street.

Copper Mountain has resort food: burgers and chilli at the mid-mountain lodges and pizza or Mexican in the village. Many visitors cook in their condos. For a proper dinner out, people drive to Frisco or Breckenridge.

Rapid City has a modest but real set of sights. You can walk past the bronze presidents on downtown street corners, learn about Lakota history and the gold rush at the Journey Museum, and see Badlands fossils at the School of Mines. There are also Cold War aircraft at the air and space museum.

Copper Mountain is a village of condos and lodges built around the lifts, with nothing historic of its own. Visitors who want Victorian main streets and old mine works have to go to the neighbouring towns.

Both places go to bed early, but at different times of day. Copper Mountain's social life is après-ski: bars at the foot of the lifts full of people in ski boots in the late afternoon, then a quiet village by late evening and very little at all out of season.

Rapid City has a proper, if small, night out around Main Street Square, with brewpubs, sports bars and country-music bars. It is a friendly place for a beer after dinner. The exception is the Sturgis motorcycle rally in early August, when the bars stay loud until late.

Both are outdoor destinations, but Copper Mountain's mountains are on another scale. A large ski area rises to bowls above 3,600m, Vail and the other Summit County resorts are close by, and in summer the Colorado Trail and fourteen-thousand-foot peaks such as Mount Elbert are within reach. The thin air is part of the deal.

The Black Hills around Rapid City are lower and more varied. There are granite spires along the Needles Highway, bison and pronghorn in Custer State Park, guided tours through Wind Cave and Jewel Cave, and the 175km Mickelson Trail for cyclists. The Badlands are an hour east.

Rapid City has the better-known destinations within reach. Mount Rushmore is half an hour away, with the Crazy Horse Memorial beyond it. Further afield are gold-rush Deadwood and Lead, the Mammoth Site at Hot Springs and the Minuteman Missile silo out on the prairie.

From Copper Mountain the outings are mostly mining towns and resorts: Breckenridge's Victorian main street, Leadville's silver-boom district, Vail over the pass and Georgetown's narrow-gauge railway. Denver is the one big-city trip, but weekend ski traffic on I-70 can make it a long day.

Rapid City is the easier choice with children. Families have been driving to the Black Hills for generations, and there are a reptile park, a drive-through park with bears and wolves and Storybook Island in town. Further out, children can pan for gold, take a cave tour or watch bison stop the traffic. The downside is the long hours in the car.

Copper Mountain works well for families who ski. It has a car-free village core, a strong children's ski school, tubing and an indoor trampoline centre. However, the altitude of nearly 3,000m can mean headaches and poor sleep for the first few days, and there is little else for children to do.

Copper Mountain is the easier place to be without a car once you have arrived. Walkways, lifts and a free shuttle link the village, and free county buses run to Frisco and on to Breckenridge. Getting there is the hard part: Denver airport is about two hours away by road, and I-70 can be slow in winter.

In Rapid City only the small downtown is walkable, and the buses do not reach the hills. You will need to hire a car. The roads are quiet and the scenic drives are part of the reason to come.

Neither is a place to shop, but Rapid City has something to take home. Look for Black Hills gold jewellery with its grape-leaf designs, Lakota quillwork, beadwork and star quilts, and Western boots and hats.

Copper Mountain's shops mostly rent skis and sell outdoor gear and resort-branded clothing. For more choice, visitors drive to the outlet mall at Silverthorne or the boutiques of Breckenridge.

Copper Mountain is much more expensive. Lift access, slope-side lodging, equipment hire and resort meals push up the cost of a winter week. A condo with a kitchen or a room in Frisco or Silverthorne helps, and summer is cheaper.

Rapid City is good value by American standards, with ordinary motels, cheap meals and many free sights. Car hire and park fees are the costs you cannot avoid. Prices rise in high summer and climb steeply during the Sturgis rally week.

Rapid City has a small but genuine programme. It has a symphony orchestra and touring shows and rodeos at the civic centre, and in summer a long-established playhouse stages plays among the pines of Custer State Park. Its powwows, above all the large autumn gathering, are something a ski resort cannot offer.

At Copper Mountain there is no theatre or concert hall. Live music means summer bands on the plaza or acoustic sets at après-ski, and for anything more you drive to Breckenridge.

The two are about equal for relaxation. Neither has a real spa culture, so the difference lies in what is on offer. At Copper Mountain you relax in an outdoor hot tub looking up at the slopes or at the resort athletic club with its pools and massages. The nearest hot springs are a long drive away, and the altitude can disturb sleep at first.

Rapid City's best option is an hour south in Hot Springs, where a historic indoor pool fed by warm springs has drawn bathers since the 1890s. Quiet cabins in the hills make up the rest.