Deer Valley or Keystone?

Neither is a place to swim, and at both a hotel pool or hot tub does most of the work. There is still a difference. Deer Valley has Jordanelle's state park, with a sandy shoreline and water that is pleasant on July and August afternoons. Keystone's Dillon Reservoir is cold with snowmelt and mostly closed to swimming, so it is for sailing and views rather than a dip.

Deer Valley eats better, mainly because Park City's Main Street is next door. It has more steakhouses, sushi places, bistros and après-ski grills than a town that size would usually support, and up on the mountain there are the lodges and their long-loved turkey chili. Drinks come with dinner or from the local distilleries and breweries.

Keystone is plainer. You get grills, pizza and burgers at the bases, a summit dining room reached by gondola, and Colorado lamb, elk and trout on the menus. Craft beer gives it some local flavour, but for real choice people cook in their condo or drive to Frisco or Breckenridge.

Neither is a sightseeing destination, but Deer Valley has an afternoon's worth close by. Park City's restored silver-mining Main Street has old mine headframes on the slopes above it, the Park City Museum tells the town's story in the old city hall, and the Olympic Park has its ski jumps and exhibits from the 2002 Games.

Keystone is a ski resort built in the 1970s around a modern pedestrian village. Its mining past survives only in scattered cabins and ruins up the Snake River valley and in the Victorian towns down the road.

Deer Valley's own lodges go quiet when the lifts close, but the saloons and cocktail bars on Park City's Main Street fill up on ski-season weekends, and that is a real small-town night out a few minutes away. In Keystone the evening mostly ends with après-ski on the River Run decks and then dinner. Anyone wanting more takes the bus to Breckenridge. Neither has much of a club scene.

Both are first-rate mountain bases, and the difference is one of character. Deer Valley is known for immaculate grooming and its skiers-only rule. Park City Mountain is next door, and the deep powder of Alta and Snowbird is about an hour over the ridge. In summer it adds linked bike trails, fly-fishing on the Provo River and the lakes of the Uintas.

Keystone is higher and wilder, with bowls above 3,600m and Arapahoe Basin's long season just up the road. In summer it suits ambitious hikers better, with Grays and Torreys Peaks and the alpine tundra of Loveland Pass close by. The thinner air takes longer to get used to.

Keystone is the better base for days away from the slopes. Breckenridge's Victorian centre is close. Over the pass are Georgetown and Silver Plume with their loop railway, plus Idaho Springs, and further afield are Leadville's mining-boom streets and Vail's village. Denver is further off for museums.

From Deer Valley the main outing is Salt Lake City and Temple Square, about forty minutes away. Smaller stops include Midway, the Heber Valley steam railway, Sundance and Ogden's 25th Street. These are pleasant places, but the grandest sights within reach are landscapes rather than towns.

Both work well for families who ski, and Keystone has a slight edge because it is built around them. It has a big ski and snowboard school, gentle lower slopes, a snow fort on the mountain and a huge skating rink on the frozen lake at Lakeside.

Deer Valley's beginner runs are wide and free of snowboarders, and the Olympic Park adds tubing, an alpine coaster and ziplines. Beyond that, the zoo and children's museums are down in Salt Lake City. At both resorts the altitude can tire young children for the first day or two.

Once you have arrived, you can manage without a car at either resort, thanks to free buses. Deer Valley's buses link its base areas with Park City's walkable Main Street, although the steep resort itself is hard to cross on foot. Keystone's shuttles connect River Run, Mountain House and Lakeside, and county buses run to Frisco and Breckenridge.

The real difference is getting there. Salt Lake City airport is about forty minutes from Deer Valley. Keystone means a longer trip up from Denver over I-70, with chain rules in winter and slow weekend traffic.

At both, shopping is a sideline built around mountain gear and an outlet centre on the edge of town: Kimball Junction for Deer Valley and Silverthorne for Keystone. Deer Valley has more to browse thanks to Park City's Main Street, with its art galleries, western boots and hats and upmarket boutiques. Keystone's River Run has little beyond rental shops and a few gift stores.

Deer Valley costs more at almost every step of the trip. Nearly all the slopeside lodging is luxury, lift access is among the dearest in North America, and lessons and meals on the mountain cost to match. The usual way round it is to stay in the Heber Valley or Salt Lake City and drive in.

Keystone is expensive too, especially at Christmas and in the spring-break weeks. Even so, condos with kitchens, supermarkets in Dillon and Silverthorne and free buses make it easier to keep costs down. Summer is gentler on the budget at both.

Deer Valley offers more. Its centrepiece is the Utah Symphony's long-running summer festival at the Snow Park amphitheatre, where the audience picnics on the grass. All year round, the 1920s Egyptian Theatre on Main Street keeps plays and intimate concerts going.

Keystone depends more on its neighbours. In summer there are festivals on its village stages, concerts at Dillon's amphitheatre by the reservoir and Breckenridge's classical festival. A professional theatre company in Silverthorne gives winter evenings some substance.

Deer Valley is the more restful stay. It has quiet slopeside lodges, some of the most polished hotel spas in the mountain West, and the Homestead Crater in Midway about half an hour away, a warm spring pool inside a limestone dome.

Keystone's version is simpler: resort spas, and a hot tub at nearly every condo, which is a pleasure under falling snow. For natural hot springs you have to drive over the pass to Idaho Springs or much further to Glenwood Springs.