Copper Mountain or Sedona?

Neither is a place to swim, but Sedona at least has somewhere to get wet. Copper's snowmelt lakes are used for boating, so a swim there means a heated lodge pool. In Sedona, the sandstone chute at Slide Rock and the deeper holes at Grasshopper Point and Red Rock Crossing make a cool break after a summer hike, as long as you get there before the weekend crowds.

At Copper Mountain, food is fuel for skiers. You get burgers and chilli at the mid-mountain lodges, pizza and pub plates in the village, and a condo kitchen for everything else. For a proper dinner out, people drive to Frisco or Breckenridge.

Sedona gives you more to look forward to in the evening, even if the range is narrow. It has Southwestern menus built on chilli, corn and grilled meat, plenty of vegetarian cooking and terraces where the sunset over the red rocks is the main attraction. Tasting rooms in the Verde Valley wine country add an afternoon of wine tasting that Copper has no answer to.

Copper Mountain has nothing to visit in the village itself. It is condos and lodges at the foot of the lifts, and the region's history lives in the neighbouring towns. Sedona is not a museum town either, but it fills an afternoon or two. There is the Chapel of the Holy Cross built into a butte, the Heritage Museum and galleries of Western and Native American art, and out in the backcountry, the Sinagua cliff dwellings at Palatki and Honanki.

Neither is a place for a night out, but the evenings follow different patterns. At Copper, going out is packed into a few hours of après-ski in winter. The lift-base bars fill as the slopes close, the plaza can get loud on a busy weekend, and the altitude and a long day send most people to bed early. Out of season there is little left, and anyone wanting a later night drives half an hour to Breckenridge.

Sedona never gets that rush, but its evenings change little through the year. A beer at a brewpub or a glass of wine in a resort lounge rounds off dinner, and then most people turn in ready for a dawn start on the trail. On a clear night, the best thing to do after dark is look up.

Both are first-rate for the outdoors, but the landscapes could hardly be more different. Copper is alpine: a big ski area under the Tenmile Range with treeless bowls above 3,600m. In summer it becomes the Colorado Trail, the paved path over Vail Pass and fourteen-thousand-foot peaks such as Mount Elbert.

Sedona is red sandstone desert. Trails lead to Cathedral Rock, Devil's Bridge and up West Fork of Oak Creek, there is slickrock singletrack for mountain bikers, and the South Rim of the Grand Canyon is about two hours away. Copper's thin air makes every climb harder, while in Sedona the challenge is the summer heat.

From Copper, the drives lead mostly to mining-era towns. Breckenridge keeps a long Victorian main street, Leadville is a high, weathered silver-boom town, and Georgetown and Silver Plume have a historic narrow-gauge railway. Vail's Alpine-style village is just over the pass, and Denver, about an hour and a half away when I-70 is clear, adds the museums of a proper city.

Sedona's history goes back much further. The Sinagua left Montezuma Castle and Tuzigoot within half an hour, and the Wupatki pueblos lie beyond Flagstaff. Jerome clings to its mountainside and the Verde Canyon Railroad runs through a canyon with no road. These places are small, though, and a few days cover them, while Copper's list stretches all the way to a city.

Copper Mountain is the easier choice with children. It has a car-free core and a ski school at the heart of the resort, and snow tubing, a mountain coaster and an indoor centre with trampolines and foam pits fill the time off the slopes. The catch is altitude: at nearly 3,000m, young children need watching for the first couple of days.

Sedona suits active families for a short stay, with Slide Rock, the lower paths around Bell Rock and open-air jeep tours. Beyond those there is no zoo or theme park, summer heat on exposed trails needs care, and families often move on to the Grand Canyon after a few days.

Copper is much easier once you have arrived. Walkways, lifts and a free shuttle link the resort, and free county buses run on to Frisco, Breckenridge and Keystone. Getting there is the hard part: about two hours by road from Denver's airport, and I-70 in winter can be slow and snowy.

In Sedona, a car is needed for almost everything beyond compact Uptown. Trailheads, the chapel and the day-trip towns are spread out along two highways, the shuttle serves only the busiest trailheads, and parking fills early on weekends.

Copper's shops stop at ski rental, outdoor gear and resort-branded clothing, and for anything more people drive to the Silverthorne outlets. Sedona gives you a reason to browse. Tlaquepaque has galleries and craft studios set around courtyards and fountains, the main road sells Native American jewellery, pottery and rugs, and the crystal and metaphysical shops are like nothing at Copper.

Both are expensive, and for similar reasons: resort lodging and resort meals, plus lift access and rental at Copper, and jeep tours, balloon flights and spa treatments in Sedona.

The ways to save differ. At Copper, condos with kitchens help, so do beds in Frisco or Silverthorne, and summer costs noticeably less. In Sedona, most trails need only a parking pass, picnics cost little, and staying in Cottonwood or Flagstaff brings room rates down.

There is little to attend in either. Copper offers summer concert weekends on the village plaza and acoustic sets at après-ski. Sedona's thin calendar spreads further across the year, with chamber music, local theatre, its long-running film festival in late winter and Native American flute players at some resorts. Neither has a concert hall, so a real programme means driving to Breckenridge from Copper, or to Flagstaff or Phoenix from Sedona.

This is where the two differ most. Relaxing at Copper means a hot tub facing the slopes, perhaps a massage at the athletic club, and quiet evenings, though the altitude can disturb sleep on the first nights.

Sedona is a retreat town in its own right. Destination spas sit against the canyons, there is yoga, meditation and breathwork, and quiet sunrise walks to the vortexes are part of the local routine. Neither has hot springs or thermal baths, so in Sedona wellness mostly means booking treatments.