Dallas or Estes Park?

Neither is a beach destination, but they lack the sea in different ways. Around Dallas you can at least swim. Lewisville, Grapevine and Lake Ray Hubbard have sandy park beaches and warm water all summer, and Arlington has water parks, though the shores are plain and brown.

Estes Park's lakes are fed by snowmelt and stay cold even in July. You walk, paddle or fish beside them rather than swim, and an indoor pool is the only real place to get in the water.

Dallas is a city you can plan meals around. It has brisket sold by weight, Tex-Mex with frozen margaritas, old-school steakhouses and taco trucks in Oak Cliff. Further out are the Vietnamese and Chinese strips of Richardson and Garland, Carrollton's Koreatown and South Asian food in Irving. You will need a car to reach most of it.

Estes Park feeds you well after a hike, with elk burgers, big diner breakfasts, craft beer and taffy from Elkhorn Avenue. The choice is narrow, though, and many kitchens close early, so anyone after a serious dinner drives down to Boulder.

Dallas has a sight of national weight in Dealey Plaza and the Sixth Floor Museum. It also has the Dallas Museum of Art, the Nasher and the Crow Museum within a few walkable blocks, plus Fair Park's 1930s exhibition halls. That is a solid two days.

Estes Park's culture centres on the Stanley Hotel, which inspired The Shining. Add the homesteading museum and MacGregor Ranch and you have an afternoon, not a reason to come.

After dark, Dallas offers several distinct districts. Deep Ellum has dive bars and late crowds, Uptown and McKinney Avenue have polished cocktail lounges, and Lower Greenville mixes neighbourhood bars with rooftop patios. Bars close at 2am, and you will need ride-hails to move between areas.

Estes Park barely has a nightlife. A few taprooms and saloon bars on Elkhorn Avenue fill up after the trails close, then the town goes quiet before most people would think of going out.

This is where Estes Park leaves Dallas far behind. The national park climbs from meadows and ponderosa forest to tundra above 3,700m. Trails lead to Bear, Dream and Emerald lakes, and you are likely to see elk, bighorn sheep, moose and marmots. Climbing at Lumpy Ridge, fly fishing and winter snowshoeing add to it.

Dallas has pleasant green corners rather than scenery: the White Rock Lake loop, the Katy Trail, the Great Trinity Forest and limestone paths at Cedar Ridge. Summer heat pushes even these into the early morning.

Dallas has the stronger day out in Fort Worth, close enough to reach by commuter train. The Stockyards' longhorn drive and the Kimbell, Modern and Amon Carter museums make it a genuinely different city. Grapevine, McKinney's courthouse square and Granbury fill out a second or third day.

From Estes Park, the outings go down the canyons to university-town Boulder, Fort Collins' Old Town and breweries, or Denver's museums. In summer, the drive over Trail Ridge Road to Grand Lake is a sight in its own right. None of them is as strong as Fort Worth.

Both work with children, but Dallas gives a family more to fill the days. Six Flags and the water park in Arlington, two large zoos, the Perot Museum and the rainforest aquarium mean rainy or scorching days are covered, though the summer heat and long drives wear on everyone.

Estes Park offers a simpler sort of fun: elk in the streets, junior ranger badges, flat lake walks, the Prospect Mountain tramway and mini golf. The altitude takes a day to get used to, and there is little indoors when the weather turns.

You will want a car in both, though Estes Park is a little easier. Its downtown along Elkhorn Avenue and the Riverwalk is compact, and in the warmer months free shuttles run to the Bear Lake trailheads. Summer weekends bring traffic and parking queues in town.

Dallas spreads over miles of freeway. DART light rail is useful from the airports and for Fair Park and Deep Ellum, and the M-Line streetcar links Uptown with the Arts District. Elsewhere, patchy pavements and slow buses leave you dependent on a car or ride-hails.

Dallas is a real shopping city, and the home of Neiman Marcus. NorthPark Center, the open-air Highland Park Village with its European fashion houses and the Galleria cover luxury, and custom boot makers and hat shops cover Western wear. Bishop Arts adds independent boutiques.

Estes Park's shopping is an hour's stroll down Elkhorn Avenue, past souvenirs, fudge, outdoor gear and galleries of wildlife photography. For anything more you go down to Boulder or Denver.

Dallas is the cheaper of the two. Suburban and freeway hotels cost less than you might expect, barbecue and tacos make for good cheap meals, and many museums are free. Car hire and pricey Uptown evenings are what push the budget up.

Estes Park charges resort prices in summer and early autumn, when lodging near the park is in heavy demand. Winter and spring are much cheaper, and a cabin with a kitchen helps. Once you are inside the park, the hiking and wildlife cost nothing beyond the entrance fee.

Dallas has a full evening programme. The I. M. Pei-designed Meyerson is home to the symphony, the Winspear stages opera and touring Broadway shows, and the Wyly hosts the Dallas Theater Center. Deep Ellum's clubs, rooted in 1920s blues and jazz, have rock, hip-hop and country most nights.

In Estes Park, live performance is seasonal and outdoors: free summer concerts by the river, evenings at the Stanley and September's Scottish-Irish Highland Festival. For most of the year there is little on.

Neither has hot springs or a bathing culture, and both are modest for a rest. Dallas offers polished hotel spas and day-spa chains, plus a large Korean-style bathhouse where you can spend the whole day.

Estes Park has few spas but more natural calm: a riverside cabin, mountain air and elk at dusk, best enjoyed out of the summer crowds.