Denver or Las Vegas?

Neither city works for a beach trip, and in both the water is only a stand-in. Denver has sandy reservoir beaches at Cherry Creek and Chatfield on the edge of the city, plus outdoor public pools. Las Vegas has the gravel shore of Lake Mead in a desert basin with no shade, but most visitors stay at the resort pools, whose wave pools and lazy rivers make a slightly better afternoon in the heat.

Las Vegas has the wider and more ambitious choice. The Strip gathers outposts of famous chefs, classic steakhouses, French dining rooms and tasting menus. West of the resorts, Spring Mountain Road runs for kilometres of Sichuan, Korean, Japanese and Thai cooking, much of it served late into the night.

Denver is more casual and more local. Its strengths are beer, brewed in large quantities across the Front Range and poured in RiNo warehouses, and Southwestern cooking with green chile, along with the Vietnamese and Mexican kitchens of Federal Boulevard. Fine dining is limited, but the food has a regional character that the imported dining of Las Vegas lacks.

Denver has more to see in the usual sense. The Denver Art Museum, with its Native American collection, the Clyfford Still Museum and the gold-domed Capitol stand together around Civic Center Park. The brick warehouses of LoDo and the Beaux-Arts hall of Union Station still show the gold-rush city.

Las Vegas offers spectacle rather than heritage: replica skylines, the fountain show and the light canopy over Fremont Street. The Neon Museum and the Mob Museum tell the city's short history well, but a sightseer runs out of things to see after those, while Denver fills two or three days.

This is where Las Vegas pulls furthest ahead. Casino bars stay open around the clock, famous DJs play the resort nightclubs, dayclub pool parties fill the afternoons, and the Strip is still busy at three in the morning. Fremont Street and the arts district add cheaper dive bars and cocktail lounges.

Denver's nights are quieter and end earlier: taprooms and cocktail bars in RiNo, sports crowds in LoDo, dive bars on East Colfax, and closing time at 2am. It suits a relaxed evening with friends rather than a celebration that runs until dawn.

Both cities have big landscapes on the edge of town, but Denver's are more varied and can be used for more of the year. Red Rocks and the Golden foothills are within half an hour, Rocky Mountain National Park has alpine tundra, elk and high lakes, and the ski resorts along I-70 open in winter.

Las Vegas has dramatic desert in return, from the climbing cliffs of Red Rock Canyon to the flame-coloured rock of Valley of Fire, with pine forest on Mount Charleston. The summer heat, though, rules out desert hiking except at dawn, a limit that Denver's dry, sunny mountain climate does not impose.

Denver has the longer and more varied list of outings. Boulder under the Flatirons, the Victorian mining towns of Georgetown and Idaho Springs, the brick downtown of Golden and the old spa town of Manitou Springs each make a different day, all by car.

From Las Vegas the obvious outing is Hoover Dam with Boulder City, a good half day. Beyond that, the Grand Canyon, Zion and Death Valley are long journeys to scenery rather than to towns, so it is hard to fill a week with varied day trips.

Denver is the more natural place to take children. The zoo and the museum of nature and science share City Park, and a children's museum, an aquarium and an amusement park are grouped by the South Platte. Easy trails and scenic railways are a short drive west, though small children need care with the altitude and the strong sun.

Las Vegas can fill a day or two with its indoor amusement park, shark aquarium and fountain show. But children may not linger on the casino floors that connect the resorts, adult advertising is hard to avoid, and the summer heat makes walking difficult. It works best as one stop on a road trip to the national parks.

Denver's downtown can be walked, while the Las Vegas Strip only looks as if it can. In Denver, LoDo, Union Station and the Civic Center museums sit close together on flat ground, with a free shuttle running along the 16th Street Mall and a train from the airport to Union Station. Beyond the centre the city spreads out, and RiNo, Highland and South Broadway are reached by bus, bike or rideshare.

In Las Vegas almost everything lies on the Strip, but the resorts are so large, and the routes over footbridges and through casinos so indirect, that a hotel next door can take a long time to reach on foot. In summer the heat puts people off walking. A monorail and buses running day and night help, though most visitors use taxis and ride-hailing. In both cities you need a hired car to reach the mountains or the desert.

Las Vegas is the stronger shopping city if brands are the aim. The arcade at Caesars Palace, the Venetian's canal-side shops, the luxury mall in the middle of the Strip and Fashion Show hold most of the major fashion and jewellery houses and stay open late, and two outlet centres cater for bargain hunters.

Denver has less on offer, but more of it is local. There is the Cherry Creek mall with its surrounding boutiques, vintage and record shops on South Broadway, and strong outdoor gear and Western boots and hats, which make more distinctive souvenirs than anything on the Strip.

Both cost about the same overall, and neither is cheap, but the costs fall in different places. Denver has steady big-city prices, with downtown hotels at their dearest during ski season and conventions, and most visits need a hired car on top. Taquerias, breweries and free trails help keep costs down.

Las Vegas prices swing more. Midweek rooms can be good value and downtown is cheaper still, but weekends, conventions and resort fees push room prices up sharply, and drinks, shows and dining on the Strip are expensive. Staying from Sunday to Thursday and eating in Chinatown narrows the gap.

Las Vegas has more on stage on any given night. Its permanent theatres host water-based and acrobatic shows, magicians and comedians, and long residencies by pop and country stars who rarely tour, while the Smith Center brings touring musicals and the Philharmonic.

Denver's strengths are of another kind. Red Rocks Amphitheatre, set between its sandstone monoliths, is a concert venue few cities can match, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts houses theatre, symphony, opera and ballet, and Five Points keeps its jazz roots. It is the better choice for drama and opera, though not for spectacle.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, so the difference is in where you find calm. In Denver it is outdoors: sunny parks, an unhurried pace, and the historic mineral pools and steam caves of Idaho Springs under an hour away, with larger hot-spring resorts further into the mountains.

Las Vegas finds it indoors, in some of the largest hotel spas in the country, with thermal circuits, saunas and salt rooms open to non-guests for a day fee. They are restful on a weekday morning, but the casinos around them never go quiet, so staying in a non-gaming hotel helps.