Denver or Page, Arizona?

Neither is a seaside place, but Page has real swimming and Denver hardly does. In Denver you are limited to the sandy reservoir beaches at Cherry Creek and Chatfield, hotel and public pools, and mountain lakes that stay cold.

In Page, Lake Powell is warm enough by midsummer for long swims. You can drive down to the sand at Lone Rock, or take a boat or kayak to deep coves and jump in off the rock. There are no lifeguards, the shoreline moves with the lake level, and outside summer the water is too cold for most people.

Denver gives you far more to eat. The highlights are beer brewed all along the Front Range, Southwestern green chile and a long run of Vietnamese and Mexican kitchens on Federal Boulevard, plus chef-run places in Highland and LoHi, even if fine dining is thin.

Page feeds road-trippers with diners, barbecue and chains, and it closes early. The Navajo taco on frybread is the one dish worth looking for, and it is a reason to stop at a roadside stand rather than a reason to visit.

Both are young towns, but only Denver has a proper museum quarter. Around Civic Center Park you find the gold-domed State Capitol, the Denver Art Museum with its Native American collection and the Clyfford Still Museum, while LoDo, Larimer Square and Union Station preserve the old Western city in brick and Beaux-Arts stone.

Page was built in the 1950s for the dam workers. It offers the Carl Hayden Visitor Center at Glen Canyon Dam and a small museum about John Wesley Powell. Its deeper culture comes from the surrounding Navajo Nation, not from anything indoors in town.

Of the two, only Denver has a night out worth planning. LoDo on game nights, warehouse taprooms in RiNo and the dive bars of East Colfax keep going until the 2am close, though clubs are few. Page has a brewpub and a handful of bars, most visitors go to bed early for a sunrise canyon tour, and the best evening there is spent under the very dark desert sky.

Both are superb bases for the outdoors, but Page puts the most striking scenery closer to the door. Horseshoe Bend and the Antelope Canyon slots are minutes from town, Lake Powell's flooded red canyons lead by boat to Rainbow Bridge, and Lees Ferry, the Vermilion Cliffs and the Wave are all within reach.

Denver's outdoors is alpine rather than desert: Red Rocks and the Golden foothills within half an hour, summits over 4,000m, the tundra and elk of Rocky Mountain National Park, and ski resorts along I-70 in winter. Denver gives more variety through the seasons, while Page packs rare red-rock country into one small area.

Denver has many more towns within a drive. Boulder under the Flatirons, Golden's brick downtown, the Victorian mining towns of Georgetown and Idaho Springs, and Manitou Springs with Colorado Springs all make easy outings, most within an hour or so.

From Page the scenery is the outing, and places with buildings are few and far between: the pioneer ranch at Lees Ferry, the Betatakin cliff dwellings at Navajo National Monument and the small Western town of Kanab. Monument Valley is a long drive to see a landscape, not a town.

Denver is the easier choice with children. City Park has both the zoo and the Museum of Nature & Science with its dinosaurs. The Children's Museum, an aquarium and an amusement park are grouped together by the South Platte, and for older children there are scenic railways and mining towns in the mountains.

Page suits families who love the outdoors, and a beach day at Lone Rock or a short Antelope Canyon tour goes down well. But nothing is built for children, the summer sun is punishing, and the unfenced cliff edges at Horseshoe Bend mean holding small hands tightly.

Downtown Denver is flat and compact enough to see on foot. A free shuttle runs the length of the 16th Street Mall, and a train brings you from the airport straight to Union Station. RiNo, Highland and South Broadway are a bus, bike or rideshare away, though the mountains and Red Rocks still need a hired car.

In Page you can walk the motel strip and nothing more. There is no useful public transport, and the lake and canyons are outside town. The nearest major airports are hours away, so most people arrive on a road trip with their own wheels.

Denver has proper shopping. There is the mall and the boutiques at Cherry Creek, vintage clothes and records on South Broadway, large outdoor gear stores and Western wear from boots to hats.

Page has supermarkets, boating supplies and gift shops. Its one real draw is Navajo silver, turquoise, rugs and pottery from trading posts and roadside stalls, often bought from the person who made them.

In Denver the costs are those of a big city: downtown hotels that go up during conventions and ski season, tax and tips on every restaurant bill, and a hired car on top. Taquerias, brewery taprooms and free trails in the foothills help keep the total down.

Page spends your money on the sights rather than the town. Meals and fuel cost what they do in any small place, but rooms are scarce in the busy months, Antelope Canyon can only be seen on a paid tour and boats on the lake are expensive. Camping at Lone Rock or Wahweap, or coming in winter, keeps the bill down.

This is one of the widest gaps between the two. Denver has Red Rocks Amphitheatre, where a summer concert between sandstone monoliths is something people plan a trip around. It also has several blocks of theatre, symphony, opera and ballet at the Denver Center, and jazz rooms in Five Points.

Page has no theatre or concert venue. The nearest thing to a show is a Navajo cultural presentation or a dinner with traditional dance, plus the odd local band in a bar.

For a spa afternoon or a hot soak, Denver is better placed. Hotel spas, day spas and yoga studios are in town, and the historic mineral pools and steam caves of Idaho Springs are under an hour's drive away.

Page has motel pools and a few hotel treatments, little more. Its calm comes from quiet desert evenings and wide views, but the days are built around early starts and long drives rather than rest.