Durango, Colorado or Phoenix?

Neither city is a beach destination, and in both the water is a way to cool off. In Durango that means cold mountain water: tubing the Animas through town, a small swimming area at Lake Nighthorse and a few sandy edges at Vallecito Lake, all chilly even in July.

Phoenix has warm desert water instead, with reservoirs such as Saguaro Lake below bare cliffs and tubing on the lower Salt River. In practice, though, most of its swimming happens in resort pools with lazy rivers and slides, which are where the summer months are spent.

Phoenix gives you more to eat. Its Sonoran cooking, from carne asada and machaca to tortillas so thin they turn translucent and bacon-wrapped hot dogs from evening carts, is a real regional cuisine. Add wood-fired pizza, Scottsdale's resort dining and independent kitchens around Roosevelt Row, though you will drive between them.

Durango has a narrower table: green-chile plates, steakhouses and a few kitchens using Colorado lamb and trout, all within a walk along Main Avenue. Its strength is beer, with a striking number of breweries for a town of its size.

Phoenix has the stronger sights, though they are museums rather than streets. The Heard Museum's Native American collections, the Musical Instrument Museum and Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West are each worth a visit, and each is a separate drive.

Durango works the other way round. It has a compact downtown of brick and sandstone Victorian buildings and a working steam railway with its roundhouse museum, and an hour or two covers both. Its great ancestral Puebloan sites lie out in the surrounding country, not in town.

Phoenix is the place for a real night out. Old Town Scottsdale's clubs and rooftop bars fill at weekends, Tempe's Mill Avenue runs on students, and downtown has cocktail lounges and craft beer bars, all open until 2am. You pick one district and take a ride home.

Durango ends its evenings much earlier. A night out means a brewery taproom, a patio on Main Avenue or an old saloon with a piano player. There is almost no dancing, and with a crowd of outdoor people who start early, the town is quiet before midnight.

Both cities are outdoor places, but Durango has the bigger landscape. The San Juan Mountains rise above the town. Singletrack starts at the edge of the streets, the Colorado Trail begins just north, and the Weminuche Wilderness has peaks above 4,000m. Add rafting through the centre in summer and a ski resort half an hour away in winter.

Phoenix offers desert rather than alpine country: saguaro forest in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, steep scrambles up Camelback and the huge South Mountain park, all close to the suburbs. It is excellent from October to April, but the summer heat makes hiking dangerous after mid-morning.

Durango has the more memorable day out in Mesa Verde, where whole villages sit in the alcoves of canyon walls. There is also the narrow-gauge steam train up the canyon to Silverton, and the Puebloan ruins at Aztec and Chimney Rock.

From Phoenix the choices are good but more spread out: hillside Jerome, Prescott's saloon street and Sedona's red rocks to the north, with Montezuma Castle on the way, and Tucson's adobe barrios and Mission San Xavier del Bac to the south. You need a car from either city, and the Grand Canyon is too far from Phoenix for a comfortable day.

Families do about equally well in either city, in different ways. Durango is an outdoor vacation for children: the steam train, gentle rafting and tubing, the alpine coaster and ziplines in summer, and the ladders at Mesa Verde. There is nothing for a wet day, though, and the altitude can tire young children at first.

Phoenix has the indoor back-up that Durango lacks: a zoo, an aquarium, a science centre, a children's museum and water parks. The trade-off is long drives across the metro area and summer heat that keeps small children inside after early morning.

Durango is easier to manage, at least in the centre. The walk from the depot to the top of Main Avenue takes a quarter of an hour, a riverside trail links parks for walkers and cyclists, and a trolley runs along the main corridor. Beyond town, a car is close to essential.

In Phoenix the car rules from the start. Scottsdale, Tempe, downtown and the trailheads lie far apart on a grid of wide roads, the light rail helps only along its one corridor, and summer heat makes even short walks hard work.

Phoenix is the better choice for a day of shopping. Its luxury and open-air malls carry the international brands, and Old Town Scottsdale adds galleries and boutiques. Both cities sell Navajo and Pueblo silver, turquoise and rugs. Phoenix also has Hopi katsina carvings, and museum shops and reputable galleries where you can buy with confidence.

Durango's shopping is an hour or two on Main Avenue: outdoor gear, Western boots, galleries and sweet shops, with no fashion to speak of.

Neither city is cheap, but Phoenix is a little easier on the budget. Its resort prices drop sharply in summer, chain hotels along the freeways are good value all year, and Sonoran Mexican food is cheap and good.

Durango's rooms are scarce and expensive in summer and at the peak of the ski season, so spring and late autumn are the times to save. In both cities the hire car is the real extra cost, and the trails cost nothing.

Phoenix keeps a full big-city calendar. It has the Phoenix Symphony, Arizona Opera and Ballet Arizona, touring Broadway shows in Frank Lloyd Wright's round ASU Gammage, and bands at mid-sized venues downtown and in Tempe, mostly from autumn to spring.

Durango's stage is smaller and mainly a summer affair: a chamber and orchestral festival, a Victorian melodrama where the audience boos the villain, and cowboy music with a chuckwagon supper. The two peak in opposite seasons, and Durango has little on outside summer.

The two are close here, but the way you rest is different. Durango's answer is hot springs: mineral pools a few minutes north of town, terraced pools beside the San Juan River at Pagosa Springs and spring-fed pools at Ouray, all good after a ride or a day on the slopes.

Phoenix has no springs. Instead it has the classic desert resort, with full spas, several pools and golf along the foot of Camelback, treatments using sage, clay and agave, and dry winter warmth that makes a week by the pool easy.