Estes Park or Jackson Hole?

Neither is a place for swimming, but Jackson Hole at least offers a real lake swim for a few weeks. String Lake at the foot of the Tetons is shallow and sandy, and it warms enough by late summer to make a good break from a hike.

In Estes Park the snowmelt lakes stay too cold even in July, so the water is for paddling, fishing and walking along the shore, and any proper swim means the indoor aquatic centre or a hotel pool.

Jackson Hole eats noticeably better. Wealth in the valley supports chef-led dining rooms, serious wine lists, good bakeries and a summer farmers' market on the Town Square, with trout, bison and huckleberries giving the menus a regional character.

Estes Park keeps to hearty gateway-town food: barbecue, diners and taffy shops on Elkhorn Avenue, with uneven quality and early closing outside summer. Neither is cheap or varied, but in Estes Park the better meals are often a drive away in Boulder.

Neither town is a sightseeing destination, and they differ mainly in how their few sights are spread. Estes Park has one landmark known well beyond Colorado: the Stanley Hotel, the white Georgian Revival hotel on a rise above the valley that inspired The Shining, where tours of the public rooms come with its history and ghost stories. Beyond that, the homesteading museum and the MacGregor Ranch below Lumpy Ridge will fill a rainy afternoon.

Jackson Hole has no single headline sight. Instead it has several modest ones between town and park: the National Museum of Wildlife Art on the hillside above the elk refuge, the antler arches on the Town Square, and the Mormon Row barns and the log chapel with the peaks behind them. Most visitors see them all in one day between hikes.

Jackson Hole has an actual night out, which Estes Park does not. In winter the bars at the foot of the Teton Village lifts fill as skiing ends, and in town the old saloon with saddle bar stools and a dance floor is a Western classic.

Estes Park winds down after dinner and a beer in a taproom, since most visitors are up before dawn to see wildlife. Even in Jackson the evening ends well before midnight, and the shoulder seasons are very quiet.

Both are outstanding mountain bases, so the difference is in character. Estes Park offers Rocky Mountain National Park on its doorstep: alpine tundra, Trail Ridge Road above 3,700m, lakes like Bear and Emerald, and elk grazing in town and bugling in the autumn meadows. Climbing at Lumpy Ridge and winter snowshoeing round it out.

Jackson Hole has more drama and range. The Tetons rise from the valley floor without foothills, Yellowstone is within reach, grizzlies and bison add to the wildlife, and the Snake River brings rafting and floats. It also has a major ski mountain, which Estes Park lacks.

Estes Park is much better for days out. Boulder, with Pearl Street and the Flatirons, and Fort Collins' Old Town are each about an hour down the canyons, Denver adds big-city museums, and in summer Trail Ridge Road leads to Grand Lake.

From Jackson Hole nearly every outing goes into the parks rather than to another town. The Idaho farm towns over Teton Pass and the ranch towns to the south make pleasant drives, but none is a destination in its own right.

Both suit outdoor families equally well, with Junior Ranger programmes, flat lakeside walks, small safe towns and wildlife seen from the car. Estes Park's extras are of the town kind: mini golf, go-karts, the tramway up Prospect Mountain and taffy on the Riverwalk.

Jackson Hole's are more Western and seasonal, with a gentle Snake River float, the summer rodeo, the staged shootout on the square, sleigh rides among the wintering elk and a good ski school. Neither has much for a rainy day.

In practice they are much the same: a walkable downtown and a car for everything else. Estes Park's advantage is the free summer shuttle into the Bear Lake corridor, which saves fighting for trailhead parking, though the town clogs on summer weekends and there is no rail link from Denver.

Jackson Hole's strengths are an airport just north of town and a bus to Teton Village for skiers, but there is no public transport into Grand Teton or Yellowstone, and winter roads need care.

Jackson Hole offers more worth buying. Its boardwalks around the Town Square are lined with galleries of Western and wildlife art, handmade cowboy hats and boots, turquoise jewellery, high-end mountain gear and a few upscale boutiques.

Elkhorn Avenue in Estes Park is a pleasant hour of souvenirs, fudge, western wear and a handful of galleries, and anything more means driving down to Boulder or Denver.

Estes Park is the more forgiving of the two, though neither is cheap in high summer. Its winter and spring rooms are far cheaper, and kitchen cabins help families keep costs down.

Jackson Hole costs resort prices in summer and ski season alike, from rooms and meals to lift passes and guided rafting, and beds can be scarce. Staying over the pass in Idaho or coming in late spring or autumn helps, and in both places the trails and wildlife are free once inside the park.

Jackson Hole has the one serious draw: the Grand Teton Music Festival, which since the 1960s has brought musicians from leading American orchestras to a timber hall in Teton Village each summer. An arts centre in town, chuckwagon shows and saloon country bands add to it.

Estes Park offers free riverside concerts in summer, evenings at the Stanley Hotel and the September Scottish-Irish Highland Festival with its pipe bands. In both towns there is little on outside the warm months.

Jackson Hole has natural hot springs, and that makes the difference. You can soak in a pool in a forested canyon south of town, reached by dog sled or snowmobile in winter, or in the riverside pools by the Snake, and the luxury resorts add spas and massage for tired skiers.

Estes Park has no springs and only a few lodge spas. What it offers is calm instead: a riverside cabin, elk at dusk and a very quiet winter and spring.