Denver or Tucson?

Neither city is a swimming destination, and both rely on pools. Denver at least has sandy reservoir beaches at Cherry Creek and Chatfield on its edge for a summer afternoon, though its mountain lakes are cold. Tucson has nothing like that: resort pools do the work, the creek pools in Sabino Canyon appear only after rain, and the nearest sea, at Puerto Peñasco, is about four hours' drive away.

Both cities eat Mexican food, but Tucson makes more of it. Denver's strengths are beer and green chile: its taprooms fill RiNo warehouses and the streets around Coors Field, and it has casual chef-run places in Highland and LoHi and Vietnamese cooking along Federal Boulevard.

Tucson has a cuisine you will not find elsewhere. Sonoran cooking means mesquite-grilled carne asada, flour tortillas so thin you can almost see through them, and the bacon-wrapped Sonoran hot dog, best in the old family kitchens along South 12th Avenue and in the barrios. Desert ingredients such as tepary beans and prickly pear also appear on menus. Neither city does much fine dining, but Tucson gives you more reasons to plan meals around the place.

Denver's sights are those of a Victorian gold-rush city and sit close together around Civic Center Park. They include the gold-domed Capitol, the Denver Art Museum's titanium-clad wing and the Clyfford Still Museum, with the LoDo warehouses and Union Station a short walk away. Tucson's are older and more scattered, from the painted, gilded interior of Mission San Xavier del Bac and the adobe streets of Barrio Viejo to the hundreds of aircraft at the Pima Air & Space Museum.

Both have strong Native American collections, and either fills two or three days. Denver suits art lovers on foot, while Tucson suits a car-borne visitor drawn to Spanish colonial history and aviation.

Denver gives you the better night out, spread across more neighbourhoods. LoDo has sports bars on game nights, RiNo has taprooms and cocktail bars in old warehouses, East Colfax has dive bars, and Highland is good for an easy neighbourhood drink.

Tucson's evenings centre on two neighbouring streets: Fourth Avenue, full of students, and Congress Street, with its rooftops and a few dance floors. Both go quieter in summer when the university empties. Neither is a clubbing city, but drinks on a Tucson patio on a warm night have a pleasure of their own.

Both cities are built for being outdoors, but Denver's mountains give it the edge. Red Rocks and the foothills above Golden are half an hour away. Summits over 4,000m and the tundra and elk of Rocky Mountain National Park lie within about two hours, and in winter the I-70 ski resorts are within reach.

Tucson's landscape is the Sonoran Desert. Saguaro forests stand on both sides of the city, Sabino Canyon has good trails, and the road up Mount Lemmon climbs from cactus to pine. It is superb from autumn to spring and for birdwatchers and road cyclists, but in summer the heat limits outings to the hours around dawn, which is exactly when Denver's high country is at its best.

Both are surrounded by small Western towns you need a car to reach, with no single great sight. Denver's lead up into the mountains: Boulder under the Flatirons, Georgetown and its narrow-gauge railway, Estes Park at the national park gate and Breckenridge's Victorian main street.

Tucson's head south-east into frontier country. Tombstone trades on its Wild West history, Bisbee has steep copper-mining streets, the Tumacácori mission ruins lie beyond Tubac, and wineries dot the grassland around Sonoita. Go from Denver for alpine scenery, and from Tucson for border history and open desert.

Denver is the easier city with children. City Park puts the zoo next to the dinosaurs and planetarium of the Museum of Nature & Science. The children's museum, aquarium and amusement park sit together near downtown, and easy trails and scenic railways are a short drive away.

Tucson has excellent outings, above all the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and the giant planes at the air and space museum. They are spread across the city, though, and summer heat makes them hard going for small children. Denver's own caution is the altitude and the strong sun.

Neither city is good for public transport, but Denver is easier without a car for the first few days. A train runs from the airport to Union Station, the downtown sights are walkable with a free shuttle along the 16th Street Mall, and light rail reaches the suburbs.

Tucson has a single streetcar line linking downtown, Fourth Avenue and the university, and slow buses beyond it. Its main attractions sit on the desert edges, so you need a hire car from the first day, though light traffic and easy parking make driving painless. In Denver, the car matters mainly for the mountains.

Neither city is a shopping destination, and each is best at things tied to its region. Denver is the place for outdoor gear and Western boots and hats, with the Cherry Creek mall and boutiques for everyday shopping and South Broadway for vintage. In Tucson, look for Native American jewellery, Tohono O'odham baskets and Mexican folk art in the old town galleries and in Tubac, and its winter gem and mineral show draws collectors in a way nothing in Denver does.

Tucson is the cheaper of the two. Mid-range hotels cost less, taquerías and hot dog stands keep meals cheap, and summer rates fall sharply. Winter, the gem show and the desert golf and spa resorts are the expensive exceptions.

Denver costs what a large American city costs, and downtown hotels are expensive in convention weeks and ski season. Both need a hire car, so in Denver the savings come from staying near the light rail, eating at breweries and taquerias, and spending the days on the free trails.

For live performance, Denver is clearly stronger. Red Rocks Amphitheatre, a stage set between huge sandstone monoliths, makes a summer concert an event in itself. The Denver Center for the Performing Arts brings theatre, Broadway tours, symphony, opera and ballet together in one downtown complex, and Five Points keeps its jazz roots.

Tucson's season is smaller and runs mostly from autumn to spring. It has a symphony, Arizona Opera shared with Phoenix, touring shows at Centennial Hall and gigs at the restored Fox Theatre. Its own strength is mariachi, which runs deep in the life of the city.

The two cities offer quite different kinds of rest. Denver itself has little beyond ordinary spas and studios, and its relaxation comes from the mountains: the natural hot springs to the west, the nearest at Idaho Springs, fit well at the end of a day's hiking or skiing. In Denver, unwinding is something added to an active trip rather than the reason for it.

Tucson makes rest the purpose of the stay, and it does this much better. It was one of the first homes of the American destination spa, and its resorts in the Catalina foothills build whole weeks around desert walks, massage and meditation, with pools facing the mountains. It has no hot springs and no bathing culture of its own, so the choice is between a mineral soak after a mountain day in Colorado and a quiet, sunny winter resort stay in the Arizona desert.