Dallas or Telluride?

Neither is a beach destination. The Gulf coast at Galveston is a drive of four hours or more from Dallas, too far for a day out. Closer to home, Dallas has warm summer swimming from plain, sandy park beaches at Lewisville Lake and Grapevine Lake, plus the water parks in Arlington.

Telluride lies high in the San Juan Mountains, much further from any coast. The nearest swimming area is an hour away near Ridgway, and the mountain water stays cool even in midsummer, so being on the water here usually means rafting or fishing.

Dallas eats far more widely. Texan barbecue, Tex-Mex, steakhouses and taco trucks make up the core, and the suburbs add Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean and South Asian cooking in quantity, though you drive to all of it.

Telluride has a few good chef-led kitchens using Colorado lamb, elk and trout, plus burgers and taquerias for the ski crowds. On a week's stay the circle is small and peak weeks make tables hard to get.

Dallas has much more to see. Dealey Plaza and the Sixth Floor Museum draw visitors from everywhere, and the Arts District groups the Dallas Museum of Art, the Nasher and the Crow within a few blocks, with Fair Park's Art Deco halls further out.

Telluride's whole town is a National Historic Landmark, with mining-era storefronts, the Historical Museum in the old miners' hospital and mill ruins on the canyon walls. It fills an afternoon rather than a trip.

Dallas has a proper night out, spread over several districts: scruffy dive bars and late crowds in Deep Ellum, polished patios and cocktail lounges in Uptown, neighbourhood bars on Lower Greenville. You will need ride-hails between them, and everything stops at 2am.

Telluride's evenings are après-ski and a few Victorian saloons on Colorado Avenue, lively in peak ski weeks and on festival weekends, with no clubs and early nights the rest of the year.

This is Telluride's great strength. Cliffs, waterfalls and peaks above 4,000m rise straight from the box canyon, Bridal Veil Falls is reachable from town, summer brings wildflower basins and the San Miguel River, and winter brings steep skiing with famous views.

Dallas offers gentler, flatter green space: the White Rock Lake loop, the Katy Trail, the Great Trinity Forest and Cedar Ridge Preserve's escarpment trails, with summer heat limiting most of it to early mornings.

Dallas has the better day out in Fort Worth, under an hour away by car or the TRE train, with the Stockyards' longhorn drive and the Kimbell Art Museum. Grapevine's wineries, the courthouse squares of McKinney and Denton, and Waco add more.

Telluride's options are few and lie over mountain roads: Ouray and Silverton for mining-town character, and Mesa Verde's cliff dwellings at the very edge of a long day. Winter passes can close the routes.

Dallas gives children far more to do: Six Flags and a water park in Arlington, two large zoos, the Perot Museum, the walk-through rainforest at the Dallas World Aquarium and the State Fair each autumn. Long drives and summer heat are the catch.

Telluride suits active families who ski or hike, with a good ski school, the free gondola and easy waterfall walks. There is little to do indoors on a wet day, and the altitude can disturb young children's sleep at first.

Once you arrive, Telluride is far simpler. The historic grid is crossed on foot in a quarter of an hour, and the free gondola and buses link it with Mountain Village, so many visitors never drive. Getting there is the hard part, with a weather-prone local airport and mountain roads.

Dallas is easy to fly into but spread out once you land. DART light rail serves the airports, downtown and Fair Park, and the M-Line streetcar helps in Uptown, but most trips mean a hire car or ride-hails along the freeways.

Dallas is a real shopping city, the birthplace of Neiman Marcus, with NorthPark Center, the open-air luxury of Highland Park Village and Western boots and hats from everyday to custom-made. Bishop Arts adds independent boutiques.

Telluride offers a few pleasant blocks of galleries, jewellery, bookshops and outdoor gear on Colorado Avenue, all at resort prices.

Dallas costs much less. Suburban and freeway hotels are reasonable, barbecue and tacos are cheap, and many museums are free or low-cost. Car hire, tax and tip add up, though, and Uptown is pricey.

Telluride sits near the top of the North American market for rooms, lift tickets, guided activities and meals, and the Christmas and New Year weeks and summer festival weekends cost more still. Staying in Ridgway is the main way to save.

Dallas has the year-round stage: the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in I. M. Pei's Meyerson, opera and Broadway tours at the Winspear, and the Dallas Theater Center at the Wyly. In Deep Ellum, local and touring bands play most nights in clubs that go back to the district's blues and jazz days.

Telluride is about the summer festivals instead, above all the Bluegrass Festival in Town Park and the Labor Day film festival, with the Sheridan Opera House hosting smaller shows the rest of the year.

Telluride is the more restful choice. The pace is slow, Mountain Village hotels have full spas, and the hot springs at Ouray and near Ridgway make an afternoon soak with mountain views, though altitude can unsettle the first nights.

Dallas is brisk and car-bound. Hotel spas, day-spa chains and one large Korean-style bathhouse in the north are the main ways to unwind.