Dallas or Durango, Colorado?

Neither city is anywhere near a coast. In both, swimming is a sideline. Around Dallas that means warm, brown-watered reservoirs like Lewisville and Grapevine Lake, plus hotel pools and the Arlington water parks.

Durango's swimming is cold and mountain-fed. You can take a quick dip at Lake Nighthorse or Vallecito, or float the Animas on an inner tube through town. Choose Dallas if you want warm water and a long season, and Durango if you want a brief, bracing summer swim.

Dallas has much more to eat. The core is serious barbecue sold by weight, Tex-Mex with frozen margaritas, and old-school steakhouses. Out in Richardson, Garland, Carrollton and Irving it widens into Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean and South Asian cooking, with the chef-led restaurants in Uptown and Bishop Arts.

Durango eats well but within a narrow range: green-chile plates, Colorado lamb and trout along Main Avenue, and breakfast cafés for an early start. Its real strength is beer, with an unusual number of breweries for a small town. It does have one advantage: everything is within a short walk, whereas Dallas's best tables are spread across suburbs you will drive to.

Dallas gives you more to see. Dealey Plaza and the Sixth Floor Museum draw visitors from everywhere, and the Arts District puts the Dallas Museum of Art, the Nasher and the Crow Museum within a few blocks. Fair Park's Art Deco halls and the Perot Museum fill a second day.

Durango's sights are its narrow-gauge railway, the roundhouse museum and a handsome few blocks of Victorian brick and sandstone, and an afternoon covers them. Its deeper history lies outside town at the Puebloan sites, which belong to a day trip rather than a stroll.

Dallas has a proper night out, spread across several districts with different crowds. Deep Ellum has dive bars and murals, Uptown has polished cocktail lounges and patios, and Lower Greenville has rooftop bars. You will need a ride-hail between them, and last orders come at 2am.

Durango's evenings are a brewery taproom, a patio pint on Main Avenue or a piano saloon, with a few student bars busy at weekends. There is hardly any dancing, and the town is quiet well before midnight because most people are up early for the trails.

Durango is the outdoor destination here. It sits at the foot of the San Juan Mountains, with mountain-bike singletrack from town, the start of the Colorado Trail, peaks above 4,000m in the Weminuche Wilderness, and rafting and fly-fishing on the Animas. In winter it adds skiing half an hour north.

Dallas has gentler green space. You can ride the loop at White Rock Lake or the Katy Trail, walk in the Great Trinity Forest, or hike the escarpment at Cedar Ridge. These make good mornings out, but the flat prairie and summer heat keep them small in scale.

Durango has the more memorable days out. Mesa Verde's cliff dwellings, the steam train up the Animas canyon to Silverton, and the ruins at Aztec are all within reach, and the drive north to Ouray is spectacular. You need a car for nearly all of them, and some are long days.

Dallas has one excellent trip: Fort Worth, under an hour away and reachable by train. It offers the Stockyards cattle drive and the Kimbell's Louis Kahn galleries. After that the choice narrows to courthouse squares in McKinney and Denton, Grapevine's wineries and a longer run to Waco.

Dallas has far more ready-made days out for children. Arlington has Six Flags and a large water park side by side, there are big zoos in both Dallas and Fort Worth, and the State Fair fills Fair Park with rides every autumn. On a wet day or in the worst of the summer heat, the Perot Museum and the rainforest walk-through at the Dallas World Aquarium are the indoor fallbacks. Hotels and restaurants are easy with children, but almost every day involves the car, and from June to September the outdoor attractions are hard going in the heat.

Durango suits families who are happy outdoors. Children can ride the steam train up the canyon, tube or raft gently on the river, try the summer coaster and ziplines at the ski area, and climb the ladders at Mesa Verde. The town is small and relaxed, with riverside parks, but there are no zoos, aquariums or big museums for a rainy day, and the altitude can tire small children for the first day or two.

You will want a car in both, but for different reasons. Dallas is a sprawl of freeways. DART light rail covers the airports, downtown, Deep Ellum and Fair Park, and the M-Line streetcar links the Arts District and Uptown, but most trips beyond those still mean driving or a ride-hail.

Durango is the easier place to be on foot. The whole historic centre is a flat fifteen-minute walk, with a riverside path for bikes. Once you head for trailheads, slopes or Mesa Verde, though, you depend on the car on mountain highways.

Dallas is much the better shopping city. Neiman Marcus started here, NorthPark Center and the Galleria are large malls, and Highland Park Village gathers European fashion houses in a 1930s Spanish-style setting. For Western boots and hats you can choose anything from everyday shops to custom makers.

Durango's shopping is one stroll along Main Avenue. You will find outdoor gear, galleries and Navajo and Pueblo turquoise and silver, which are worth a look. There is no fashion or luxury.

Dallas is the cheaper of the two. Suburban and freeway hotels are moderately priced, and cheap barbecue and tacos are everywhere. Many museums cost little, though the hire car and the Uptown steakhouses and cocktail bars soon add up.

Durango is a mountain resort, so rooms are scarce and priced up in summer and ski season. The train, guided rafting and the hire car push the bill higher still. The trails and the river are free, and spring and late autumn are cheaper times to go.

Dallas has a full formal arts scene in its Arts District. The Dallas Symphony plays at the Meyerson, the Winspear hosts opera and Broadway tours, and the Wyly is home to theatre. Deep Ellum adds clubs with rock, hip-hop and blues most nights.

Durango's stage life is small and mostly happens in summer. A chamber and orchestral festival runs then, alongside a Victorian melodrama where the audience boos the villain and cowboy shows with a chuckwagon supper. Out of season you will often find nothing on.

Durango is the easier place to slow down. Spring-fed mineral pools lie a few minutes north of town, and the terraced pools at Pagosa Springs and Ouray's springs are within a drive. The town's calm pace suits a soak after a day on the trails.

Dallas offers hotel spas, day-spa chains and a large Korean-style bathhouse in the north of the city. That bathhouse is the one place built around a long, slow day, but the rest of the city moves at a brisk, car-bound pace.