Denver or Moab?

Neither city offers a beach vacation, and both lie far inland. Where they differ is the kind of water. Denver swims at the sandy reservoir beaches of Cherry Creek and Chatfield and in outdoor public pools, which are calm and easy with children.

Moab has Mill Creek's shallow pools, Ken's Lake and sandbars on a fast, silty, cold stretch of the Colorado that needs care. In both places, the pool back at your hotel or motel is the simplest way to cool off.

Denver gives you far more to eat and drink. Its brewing culture fills old warehouses in RiNo and the streets near Coors Field, and green chile is the dish to look for. Vietnamese and Mexican cooking on Federal Boulevard and the chef-run places in Highland and LoHi add range, though fine dining is limited.

Moab eats to refuel after the trails: burgers, tacos and pizza on Main Street, a couple of breweries and a few more ambitious dinner places. Utah's alcohol rules make a drink with dinner more formal than across the border in Colorado, and choice thins out in winter.

Denver has a modest but real set of sights, enough for two or three days. They include the Native American collection at the Denver Art Museum, the Clyfford Still Museum, the gold-domed Capitol, the Beaux-Arts hall of Union Station and the brick warehouses of LoDo.

Moab's town has only the small Museum of Moab. What it has that Denver lacks is much older: Ancestral Puebloan and Fremont rock art on the cliffs along Potash Road and Kane Creek, a few minutes from Main Street, plus dinosaur trackways nearby. It is worth a morning, not a reason to come.

Denver is clearly the place for an evening out, though it is a city of bars rather than clubs. Think taprooms in RiNo, game-night crowds in LoDo and late dive bars on East Colfax. Moab has a couple of brewpubs where bikers and rafters swap stories, and the town is mostly asleep by eleven. Its real night-time attraction is the very dark desert sky.

Both are fine outdoor bases, and Denver's outdoors is alpine. Red Rocks and the foothill trails above Golden are within half an hour, and dozens of high summits make serious hiking country. Rocky Mountain National Park, with its elk and tundra, is about two hours away. Denver is the one for skiing along I-70, and you go back to the city at night.

Still, Moab is the more extraordinary base. Arches begins minutes from town, and the canyon overlooks of Island in the Sky are less than an hour away. Slickrock mountain biking, rafting on the Colorado, canyoneering and climbing all start from one small town. The catch is summer, when days pass 38°C.

Denver has a much wider choice of towns within a drive. Boulder sits under the Flatirons, Georgetown has its narrow-gauge railway, and Manitou Springs, Fort Collins, Estes Park and Breckenridge give each day a different character. Nearly all of them need a car.

From Moab, a day out mostly means more landscape. Green River, Monticello and Bluff are small. The better cultural outing is south to the museum and ruins at Edge of the Cedars in Blanding, or to the stone towers of Hovenweep at the far edge of a day.

Denver is the easier city with children. The zoo and the Museum of Nature & Science share City Park, and the Children's Museum, an aquarium and an amusement park sit together by the South Platte. Easy mountain trails and scenic railways are a short drive away.

Moab rewards school-age children who love scrambling on rocks, with Junior Ranger programmes, dinosaur tracks and calm raft floats. It is harder with toddlers: there are unfenced drops, risky midday heat in summer and long drives, and nothing indoor is built for children. In Denver, the altitude and the strong sun are the main things to watch.

Denver lets you manage at least part of the trip without a car. A train runs from the airport to Union Station, a free shuttle runs the length of the 16th Street Mall, and LoDo and the Civic Center museums are within walking distance. The mountains and Red Rocks still call for a hired car.

In Moab a car is essential. Main Street is walkable, and a paved path takes cyclists to the Arches entrance. Beyond that the parks lie along long desert roads, there is no useful public transport, and some trailheads need a high-clearance vehicle.

Denver offers a proper shopping day: the large mall and boutiques of Cherry Creek, vintage clothes and records on South Broadway, flagship outdoor stores and cowboy boots and hats. Moab's Main Street is practical. It has bike and climbing shops, rock shops selling geodes and fossils, and a few galleries with Navajo jewellery and weavings, but no fashion at all.

Neither is a bargain, and the costs land in different places. In Denver the money goes on downtown hotels, especially in ski season, and on restaurant bills that grow with tax and tips. Staying out along the light rail and eating at taquerias softens this.

In Moab, simple motel rooms carry resort prices in spring and autumn, and guided rafting or jeep tours add up quickly. On the other hand, campgrounds and dispersed camping cost little, the best hikes are free and winter is much cheaper.

Denver is the clear choice for live performance. A summer concert at Red Rocks, between its sandstone monoliths, is worth planning a trip around. The Denver Center for the Performing Arts adds theatre, touring musicals, the Colorado Symphony, opera and ballet, and Five Points has jazz rooms.

Moab has one notable event, the Moab Music Festival at the end of summer. Its chamber concerts are held in town and in canyon grottoes reached by boat. The rest of the year you will find little more than a band in a brewpub at the weekend.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, but Denver makes it easier to unwind. There are hotel spas, day spas and yoga studios in town, and the historic mineral pools and steam caves of Idaho Springs are under an hour away.

Moab has only a few small massage studios, and its days are early and energetic. The rest it offers is stillness: quiet desert evenings and cliffs turning red at sunset. If you want real rest, book a ranch or a cabin in the La Sal Mountains.