Durango, Colorado or Fort Collins?

Neither town is a swimming destination, and both treat the water as a summer extra. In Durango that means a chilly dip at Lake Nighthorse or Vallecito Lake, or tubing the Animas straight through town.

Fort Collins has the warmer option: Horsetooth Reservoir in the foothills has a proper swim beach and coves full of paddleboards, and the water warms up nicely in July and August.

The two eat in much the same way, and in both the beer outshines the cooking. Durango leans Southwestern, with green-chile plates, steakhouses and a few kitchens using Colorado lamb and trout, and its taprooms fill with rafters and riders at dusk.

Fort Collins is the bigger beer name, with long-established breweries offering tours and taprooms with food trucks across the city, while its menus run to gastropubs, tacos and burgers. For a serious dinner out, Fort Collins people drive to Denver; in Durango there is nowhere else to go.

Durango has the more memorable sight. Its steam locomotives, depot and roundhouse museum give the town a living piece of its railway founding, and the college on the mesa holds a well-regarded Southwestern and Native American collection.

Fort Collins is more about atmosphere than landmarks: a red-brick Old Town around a pedestrian square, the Museum of Discovery, the Victorian Avery House and the campus art museum. Neither will fill more than a day, but Durango's offer feels more distinctive.

Fort Collins has more going on after dark. A large university fills the pubs, sports bars and rooftop patios around Old Town at weekends, and there are a few cocktail bars and a handful of dance clubs.

Durango's evenings are a pint on a Main Avenue patio or a drink in an old saloon with a piano, and the town winds down well before midnight because most people have an early trail or river start.

Both towns are outdoors towns, but Durango sits deeper in the mountains. The San Juans rise above 4,000m in the Weminuche Wilderness, the Colorado Trail begins just north of town, the mountain biking is famous, and winter brings a full ski resort half an hour away.

Fort Collins sits where the plains meet the foothills, with Horsetooth Mountain and Lory State Park close by, rafting and fishing in the wild Poudre canyon, and Rocky Mountain National Park about an hour and a half off. It is excellent, gentler country, but winter means snowshoes rather than lifts.

Durango's day trips are the more remarkable. Mesa Verde's cliff dwellings lie to the west, the narrow-gauge train climbs the Animas canyon to the mining town of Silverton, and the ancestral Puebloan ruins at Aztec and Chimney Rock are within easy reach.

From Fort Collins the outings are more urban: Boulder under the Flatirons, Denver's museums, Golden, Estes Park at the gate of Rocky Mountain National Park, and Cheyenne across the Wyoming line. Both lists need a car.

Both are safe, relaxed places for children, and the difference is in the kind of day. Durango's draws are adventures: the steam train, river tubing, the alpine coaster and ziplines at the ski resort, and the ladders at Mesa Verde, though the altitude and long drives can tire small ones.

Fort Collins has more for a rainy or quiet day, with the hands-on Museum of Discovery, the city farm at Lee Martinez Park and the children's garden, plus flat river paths for young cyclists.

Fort Collins is the easier place to manage without driving all the time. It is one of the most bike-friendly cities in the country, with protected lanes, bike share and long off-street trails, and a frequent rapid bus runs the main corridor.

Durango's historic centre is a short, flat walk with a river trail and a trolley, but trailheads, the ski area and Mesa Verde all mean a car. In both, anything beyond town needs one.

Neither is a shopping destination, and both amount to an hour or two of browsing on one main strip. What sets Durango apart is regional craft: Navajo and Pueblo silver, turquoise jewellery, rugs and Western boots along Main Avenue.

Fort Collins has more of a college-town mix, with independent boutiques, bookshops, vintage clothing and Colorado-made gifts in Old Town, plus a regional mall and chain stores out on the highways.

Costs are similar, with Fort Collins a touch easier on the wallet. Durango is a mountain resort whose rooms tighten in summer and at peak ski season, and paid extras like the steam train and guided rafting add up.

Fort Collins has plenty of ordinary chain hotels, though prices jump on graduation and football weekends. In both, the trails and river paths are free and a hire car is the biggest extra.

Fort Collins offers more on a typical night. The Lincoln Center brings touring Broadway shows, dance and the local symphony, the university arts centre stages opera and theatre in term time, and small Old Town venues book bluegrass and indie bands.

Durango's stage life is mostly a summer affair, with a chamber and orchestral music festival, a boo-the-villain melodrama and chuckwagon cowboy shows, and little to choose from outside that season.

Durango wins clearly here because of its hot springs. Mineral pools sit a few minutes up the valley, and the terraced pools at Pagosa Springs and Ouray's spring-fed baths make an easy outing after a ride or a ski day.

Fort Collins has no springs near town, only ordinary day spas and yoga classes, and the nearest soak is a long drive west of Denver. Its calm comes from quiet river paths and sunny days rather than water.