Denver or Keystone?

Neither city has a coast or a beach worth planning around, but the water differs. In summer, Denver's locals swim at the sandy reservoir beaches of Cherry Creek and Chatfield. Dillon Reservoir below Keystone is snowmelt-cold and mostly closed to swimming, so people use it for sailing and paddleboarding, and a hotel hot tub is the realistic way into the water.

Denver gives you much more to eat. Brewing is its strong point, with taprooms in RiNo warehouses and the streets around Coors Field. Smothered green chile and breakfast burritos sit alongside chef-run places in Highland and the long run of Vietnamese and Mexican cooking on Federal Boulevard.

Eating in Keystone means resort food: slopeside grills, pizza and burgers after skiing, plus a few more ambitious dining rooms, one of them at the summit and reached by gondola. Many visitors cook in their condo or drive to Frisco or Breckenridge for more choice.

Denver has a compact but real set of sights for two or three days. There is the gold-domed State Capitol, the Denver Art Museum with its Native American collection, the Clyfford Still Museum and the Beaux-Arts hall of Union Station.

Keystone was built as a ski resort in the 1970s and has almost nothing to see. The nearest history is in the mining-era cabins of the Snake River valley and the Victorian towns nearby, and for museums you have to go down to Denver.

Denver is the place for a night out, as long as you want bars and not clubs. LoDo fills with sports crowds on game nights, RiNo has taprooms and cocktail bars, and East Colfax keeps its dive bars open late. Keystone's evening is après-ski on the decks at River Run, and the resort goes quiet soon after dinner because its guests are families and early risers. Anyone who wants more heads to Breckenridge's Main Street.

Both cities are bases for the Rockies, but Keystone is in the mountains while Denver looks at them. Keystone's three peaks have bowls above 3,600m, Arapahoe Basin is minutes up the road, and Breckenridge, Copper Mountain and Vail are within an hour. In summer Loveland Pass, the tundra of the Montezuma valley and the trailheads for Grays and Torreys Peaks are all close.

Denver's outdoors start well, with Red Rocks and the Golden foothills within half an hour, the Flatirons beyond, and bike trails along Cherry Creek and the South Platte. But the ski resorts and Rocky Mountain National Park are about two hours away, and I-70 traffic can make that longer.

The two cities share much of the same country, reached from opposite ends of I-70, and Georgetown's historic railway and the old mines of Idaho Springs work from either. Denver's other easy days out are the university towns and the Front Range: Boulder, Golden, Fort Collins, Colorado Springs with Manitou Springs, and Estes Park for the national park.

From Keystone the trips are to mining-era and ski towns: Breckenridge, Frisco and Dillon close by, then Leadville and Vail. Denver itself makes a good city day out, traffic permitting.

Both work well with children, in different ways. Denver has a city's worth of options for any weather: the zoo and the Museum of Nature & Science in City Park, and the Children's Museum, aquarium and amusement park by the South Platte.

Keystone is built for the family ski week, with a large ski school, gentle lower slopes, tubing, a snow fort on the mountain, a huge skating rink at Lakeside Village and condos a short walk from the lifts. Away from the snow it has little aimed at children, and the altitude, which is higher than Denver's, needs more care with small ones.

Once you have arrived, Keystone is easier to manage without a car. Free shuttles link River Run, Mountain House and Lakeside, and free county buses run to Dillon, Frisco and Breckenridge. The hard part is getting there, because there is no train and the drive over I-70 can be snowy and slow in winter.

Denver has the airport train to Union Station and a flat, walkable downtown with a free shuttle along the 16th Street Mall. Beyond the centre the city spreads out, and the mountains and most day trips need a hired car.

Denver has much more to browse. There is the upscale mall and the blocks of boutiques at Cherry Creek, vintage clothes and records on South Broadway, and large outdoor-gear stores alongside Western boots and hats. Shopping in Keystone is mostly ski rental and gear in River Run Village, and the real draw is the outlet centre ten minutes away in Silverthorne. Neither is a place for luxury shopping.

Denver costs noticeably less, though neither is cheap. Its prices are typical of an American city, and staying out along the light rail, eating at taquerias and breweries and using the free trails all help.

Keystone is expensive at almost every step of a ski trip: lift access, slopeside condos, equipment rental and ski school all add up, and the Christmas and spring-break weeks cost the most. Condo kitchens, free buses and a gentler summer help, but it never becomes a budget choice.

Denver is far stronger here. Red Rocks Amphitheatre, with its stage between two sandstone monoliths, is a concert venue people travel to see. The Denver Center for the Performing Arts has theatre, touring Broadway musicals, the Colorado Symphony, opera and ballet, and the jazz rooms of Five Points stay open all year.

Keystone's live music is mostly a summer thing: festivals on the village stages, concerts at Dillon's amphitheatre by the reservoir and Breckenridge's classical festival. In winter, the professional theatre in Silverthorne and acoustic sets at après-ski are about all there is.

Neither place has a bathing tradition. Denver comes out a little ahead because Idaho Springs, with its mineral pools and steam caves, is under an hour west, and the city adds day spas, yoga studios and sunny parks.

In Keystone, relaxing means the resort spa and an outdoor hot tub under falling snow, and the resort is calm outside the peak weeks. Natural hot springs mean a drive over the pass.