Durango, Colorado or Snowbird?

Neither place is for swimming, and both are a long way from any sea. What differs is the kind of water. In Durango you float the chilly Animas on an inner tube straight through town, or swim off Lake Nighthorse or the sandy edges of Vallecito Lake. At Snowbird you swim in the resort's heated pools, or drive about an hour to the cold reservoirs of the Heber Valley.

Durango gives you far more choice at the table. Main Avenue has green-chile Southwestern plates, steakhouses, early breakfast cafés and a few serious kitchens using Colorado lamb and trout, and the town has a remarkable number of breweries for its size.

Snowbird means resort dining in the lodges and on the plaza. It is competent but has nothing local about it, although the dining room at the top of the tram has the view. Most guests drive the forty minutes down to Salt Lake City once or twice a week just for some variety.

Durango has history you can actually visit, even if a morning covers most of it. The railway that founded the town in 1880 still runs steam locomotives from the old depot, with a roundhouse museum beside it. You can also walk the Victorian blocks of hotels and saloons from the mining boom and see the college's Southwestern and Native American collection.

Snowbird was built from scratch in 1971, and its concrete lodges were designed against avalanches, not to please visitors. Little survives of the canyon's silver-mining past, so any museum or historic building there means a trip to Salt Lake City.

Both go quiet early, but Durango at least gives you somewhere to spend the evening. You can try a taproom, have a pint on a Main Avenue patio or listen to the piano in an old Victorian saloon, and the college students keep a few bars busy at weekends. At Snowbird the après-ski hour on a lodge deck is the whole night out. After that, a proper evening means driving a mountain road to Salt Lake City or Park City.

Both are outstanding mountain bases, but they suit different things. Snowbird is mainly about snow. Its tram climbs to Hidden Peak, the canyon catches some of the deepest powder in North America, and the steep chutes, bowls and the link to Alta make it a magnet for expert skiers, with a season that often runs into late spring.

Durango offers more variety across the year. Mountain-bike singletrack starts at the edge of town, rafters run the Animas through the centre, the Colorado Trail and the high peaks of the Weminuche are close, and the drive towards Silverton is spectacular. Snowbird's summer has fine hiking to Albion Basin's wildflowers, but in Durango summer is the main event.

Durango has much the stronger list of days out. You can see the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde, ride the narrow-gauge train up the canyon to Silverton, or visit the ancestral Puebloan ruins at Aztec and Chimney Rock. Each is a destination in its own right, although almost all of them need a car.

From Snowbird, Salt Lake City's Temple Square and Capitol and Park City's Victorian Main Street are the two real outings. Midway, Sundance and Ogden are pleasant, but you would not plan a vacation around them.

Durango suits more families. The steam train, gentle tubing on the river, the alpine coaster and ziplines at the ski area in summer, and climbing the ladders at Mesa Verde appeal to young children as well as older ones. It has no zoo, aquarium or big museum for a wet day, though.

Snowbird works best for teenagers and confident young skiers, because the mountain is known for its steep terrain. Its car-free base is easy to manage, and the summer plaza has a coaster, an alpine slide and climbing walls. The zoo, aquarium and children's museums are down in Salt Lake City, a drive away. Both places are high enough to tire small children for the first day or two.

Snowbird is the simpler place to stay put. The lodges, the tram and the lifts are a short walk apart on a car-free base, and many rooms open onto the slopes, so you may not need to go anywhere for days. The weak point is the single canyon road, which jams on powder mornings and is sometimes closed for avalanche control.

Durango's centre is flat and easy on foot, and a river trail and a trolley help too. But trailheads, the ski area and Mesa Verde are spread along mountain highways, so a car is close to essential for most of what you came to do.

Durango gives you an enjoyable hour or two on Main Avenue. There is Navajo and Pueblo silver, turquoise and rugs, Western boots, galleries and good outdoor gear. Snowbird's base shops exist for rentals and forgotten goggles, and for any real browsing you have to go to Park City's main street or Salt Lake City's malls.

Durango is the cheaper of the two, although neither is a bargain. Summer and peak ski weeks are expensive, and a hire car is part of the cost, but trails, river and views are free, and spring and late autumn bring prices down noticeably.

Snowbird costs a great deal in winter, with lift tickets, slopeside rooms, rentals and captive-audience meals all adding up. Staying in Salt Lake City and driving up saves money, but you lose the slopeside stay. Summer is the cheaper season there.

Durango has a modest stage life with some charm. A long-running summer festival brings chamber and orchestral music, the college hall hosts touring acts, and you can boo the villain at a Victorian melodrama or eat a chuckwagon supper with cowboy music. Snowbird offers outdoor concerts on the plaza, oompah bands at its Oktoberfest and the occasional après-ski band. Anything more means the symphony or theatre in Salt Lake City.

Durango is the better place to unwind, thanks to its natural hot springs. There are mineral pools a few minutes north of town, terraced pools beside the river at Pagosa Springs and more at Ouray, and the town's pace is gentle too.

Snowbird's relaxation centres on one large spa on top of the main lodge, with a rooftop pool and hot tubs facing the canyon walls, which is very good after a hard ski day. For a natural soak, the geothermal crater at Homestead in Midway is about an hour's drive.