Denver or Park City?

Neither city is a water destination, so treat them as level here. In Denver, the swimming spots are the sandy reservoir beaches at Cherry Creek and Chatfield on the city's edge, plus the outdoor public pools. In Park City, people paddleboard and swim at Jordanelle Reservoir during a short, cool summer season, and the hotel hot tubs see far more use.

Denver has much more range. You can try green chile smothered over burritos, Vietnamese and Mexican cooking along Federal Boulevard, chef-run places in Highland and LoHi, and taprooms all over RiNo. Its strengths are variety and beer, not fine dining.

Park City eats well but within narrower limits. Main Street serves polished mountain cooking such as elk, trout and steak, and après-ski on the slopeside decks is a ritual of its own. Cheaper meals mostly come from the chains at Kimball Junction, and for variety people drive down to Salt Lake City.

Denver has enough to fill two or three days. There is the gold-domed State Capitol, the Denver Art Museum with its Native American collection, the Clyfford Still Museum, the Molly Brown House and the brick warehouses of LoDo around the Beaux-Arts Union Station. None of it is world-famous, but it makes a proper city stay.

Park City's story is silver mining. The Park City Museum tells it, and you can see it in the old headframes on the slopes. The Olympic museums at Utah Olympic Park add a little more, but after an afternoon you will have seen it all.

Denver gives you several neighbourhoods to choose from for an evening, while Park City gives you one street. In Denver you can choose the mood: game-night crowds around LoDo, taprooms and cocktail rooms in RiNo's old warehouses, divey bars along East Colfax that stay open late, or an unhurried local drink in Highland or South Broadway. Bars pour until 2am all year, whatever the season. Dancing plays only a small part, and most nights end at a bar counter rather than on a dance floor.

Park City's evening happens on Main Street. It begins with après drinks on the decks at the foot of the lifts and moves uphill to a handful of saloons and cocktail bars, some with a band or a DJ. A ski-season weekend can get loud and cheerful, but the street empties well before Denver's bars close, and in summer or the shoulder months there is little to do after dinner. Visitors who want more drive down the canyon to Salt Lake City.

Both are mountain bases, but Park City sits right in the Wasatch, while Denver looks at the Rockies from the plains. In Park City the skiing starts at the edge of town, the steep terrain over the ridge is within an hour, and summer brings lift-served biking, fly fishing on the Provo and Weber rivers and gold aspens in autumn.

From Denver the scenery is grand but needs a car. Red Rocks and the trails above Golden are about half an hour away, Rocky Mountain National Park is about two hours, and the I-70 ski resorts are about two hours, with heavy weekend traffic on the way.

Denver has more places to visit by car. Boulder sits under the Flatirons, Golden has an old brick downtown, Georgetown has its narrow-gauge railway, and Colorado Springs, Estes Park and Breckenridge are all within a day's reach.

Park City has one main outing, Salt Lake City, with Temple Square and its museums. Closer by are the Heber Valley steam railway and the chalet town of Midway, with Ogden's railroad-era street a little further. After those the options run out fast, and most of what is left is scenery rather than towns.

Both work well for children, but in different ways. Denver offers classic city attractions: the zoo and the dinosaurs at the Museum of Nature & Science in City Park, and the Children's Museum, aquarium and amusement park by the South Platte.

Park City is built around the outdoors, with ski schools, the alpine coaster and ziplines at Utah Olympic Park, and alpine slides at the resort bases in summer. It also has free buses in place of car seats. In both places, the altitude needs care with young children.

Park City is easier to manage without a car. Free buses link Old Town, both ski bases and Kimball Junction, and parking is awkward enough that leaving the car is the better choice. Getting there is the harder part, with no rail link and a shuttle of about 40 minutes from the airport.

Denver has the better arrival: a train from the airport to Union Station and a free shuttle along the 16th Street Mall. Once you leave the compact downtown, though, the city spreads out, and the mountains and most day trips need a hired car.

Both do well on outdoor gear and Western wear, but Denver has more to explore. There is the upscale mall and the boutique blocks of Cherry Creek, the vintage and record shops of South Broadway, and big flagship gear stores.

Park City is resort shopping. Galleries, cowboy-boot shops and ski fashion line Main Street, and there is an outlet centre at Kimball Junction. It is pleasant for browsing, but for anything serious people go to Salt Lake City.

Neither is cheap, but Denver costs far less. Its prices are those of a typical large American city, and you can keep them down by staying along the light rail, eating at taquerias and spending your days on free trails.

In ski season Park City is among the most expensive resorts in North America, with lift tickets, slopeside rooms and ski school all priced at the top. Summer and autumn are much gentler, and many budget visitors stay in Salt Lake City or the Heber Valley and drive up.

This is one of the widest gaps between the two. Denver has Red Rocks Amphitheatre, where a summer show between the sandstone monoliths is a pilgrimage, and the Denver Center, which brings together theatre, touring musicals, the Colorado Symphony, opera and ballet. Five Points adds a long jazz tradition.

Park City's stage is mainly the 1920s Egyptian Theatre on Main Street, along with summer concerts by the Utah Symphony on the Deer Valley lawns. Outside summer there is little on, and anything bigger means driving to Salt Lake City.

Park City is the more restful stay. The large spas at the Deer Valley and Canyons lodges specialise in treating sore legs, outdoor hot tubs under the snow come with almost every stay, and in Midway you can swim in the Homestead Crater, a geothermal spring at about 35°C inside a limestone dome.

Denver's own options are day spas and yoga studios. For natural hot water you drive to the mineral pools and steam caves at Idaho Springs, under an hour west.