Dallas or Winter Park, Colorado?

Neither city is for a beach vacation, but the water is different. Around Dallas, the big reservoirs such as Lewisville Lake have plain sandy park beaches and water that stays warm all summer. The mountain lakes near Winter Park are fed by snowmelt and stay cold even in July, so people paddle on them rather than swim. In practice, a Dallas visitor cools off in a water park in Arlington, and a Winter Park visitor soaks in hot springs.

Dallas gives you far more reasons to plan meals. You can queue for brisket sold by weight, order Tex-Mex with frozen margaritas, eat at the steakhouses, and drive out to the Korean, Vietnamese and South Asian restaurants in Carrollton, Richardson and Irving.

Winter Park feeds a mountain day and nothing more: burgers and green chile at the lodges, a breakfast burrito before the lifts open, and a few dinner rooms serving elk or trout. On busy weekends the tables fill early.

Dallas has real sights to plan around. These are the Sixth Floor Museum at the Kennedy assassination site, a walkable Arts District with the Dallas Museum of Art and the Nasher, and Fair Park's 1930s Art Deco buildings. That is about two days of sightseeing.

In Winter Park, the culture amounts to the railway story of the Moffat Tunnel and a small ranch museum in Fraser. Anyone wanting galleries has to drive to Denver.

Dallas has a proper night out across several districts. You get dive bars and late crowds in Deep Ellum, polished patio and cocktail bars in Uptown, and a looser mix on Lower Greenville, with ride-hails between them until the 2am last orders.

Winter Park's evenings peak at lift closing, with crowded après-ski bars at the base and a few taprooms along the main road. The crowd is skiers who want first chair, so the town is quiet well before midnight.

This is Winter Park's whole reason to exist. In winter there are steep bumps on Mary Jane, cross-country tracks in the valley and backcountry slopes on Berthoud Pass. In summer there are lift-served bike trails, hikes to the Indian Peaks, and elk and moose in Rocky Mountain National Park, about an hour away.

Dallas has pleasant green spaces rather than landscape. These include the White Rock Lake loop, the Katy Trail and the Great Trinity Forest, with Cedar Ridge Preserve the nearest proper hike, and summer heat pushes all of it into the early morning.

Dallas has the stronger day out in Fort Worth, about forty-five minutes away by car or commuter train. It has the Stockyards' longhorn drive and the Kimbell Art Museum. Grapevine's wineries and the courthouse squares of McKinney and Denton are also close.

From Winter Park, the lakeside boardwalk at Grand Lake and the hot pools at Hot Sulphur Springs are easy drives along the valley. Going east is a different matter. The mining towns of Georgetown and Idaho Springs, and Denver about an hour and a half away, all lie over Berthoud Pass, and winter storms can slow or close that road.

Both are good with children, and Dallas has slightly more variety. It has Six Flags and a water park in Arlington, two large zoos, the Perot Museum and an aquarium with a rainforest walk-through, though summer heat and long drives wear children down.

Winter Park is the opposite kind of family trip: a big children's ski school, gentle slopes and a compact base village, with an alpine slide and mini golf in summer. Altitude can disturb the first nights, and there is little to do indoors on a wet day.

Winter Park is the easier of the two once you arrive. A free shuttle links the ski base, the town and Fraser, so a ski week can be done without a car, although trailheads and the national park need one, and getting there means crossing Berthoud Pass.

Dallas expects you to drive. DART light rail reaches the airports, Fair Park and Deep Ellum, and the M-Line streetcar helps in Uptown, but most sights lie miles apart along freeways.

Dallas is a real shopping destination, especially for luxury. It has NorthPark Center, the European fashion houses at Highland Park Village and the long Neiman Marcus tradition, plus Western boots and hats from everyday shops to custom makers.

Winter Park sells what a mountain trip needs: ski tuning, bike shops, outdoor clothing and souvenirs. For anything else, you go to Denver.

Dallas costs less day to day. Barbecue and tacos are cheap, many museums cost little, and suburban hotels are reasonable, although car hire and tipping add up.

A winter week in Winter Park is expensive once lift tickets, rentals, lessons and resort-priced meals are added. You can soften it with a condo kitchen in Fraser, or by coming in summer, when the trails are free and lodging rates drop.

Dallas has a full season of formal arts. The orchestra plays in I. M. Pei's Meyerson, the Dallas Opera and touring Broadway shows are at the Winspear, and the Dallas Theater Center is at the Wyly. Deep Ellum adds blues, rock and country, a tradition that goes back to the 1920s.

In Winter Park, performances mean free summer concerts on the grass in the town park, or a band in an après-ski bar in winter.

Winter Park is the more restful place. It has cold, clean mountain air and a hot tub at most lodgings, and the stepped mineral pools at Hot Sulphur Springs above the Colorado River are about half an hour away. It is at its calmest in late spring and autumn.

Dallas is brisk and car-bound. Unwinding there means hotel spas and day-spa chains, with a large Korean-style bathhouse in the north of the city as the one real draw.