Estes Park or Snowbird?

Neither place is for a beach vacation, and the water differs in kind rather than quality. At Estes Park, Lake Estes and the snowmelt lakes in the park are for paddling, fishing and walking along the shore, and swimming means the indoor aquatic centre. Snowbird has heated resort pools, and the Heber Valley reservoirs with their small beaches are about an hour's drive away. The Great Salt Lake is a sight to look at, not a place to swim.

Both offer plain mountain food, but in different settings. Estes Park is a real town, with diners for breakfast before a hike, barbecue, elk and bison, a few craft breweries and the long-standing fudge and taffy makers on Elkhorn Avenue. Many kitchens close early, though.

At Snowbird you eat at the resort: lodge restaurants, slopeside cafeterias, après-ski pizza and the dining room at the top of the tram with its views. The menus are short, Utah's liquor laws apply, and most guests drive down to Salt Lake City for dinner a night or two each week.

Estes Park has a little more to see. The Stanley Hotel, the model for The Shining, is worth a tour for its rooms and ghost stories. The local museum on homesteading and the working MacGregor Ranch below Lumpy Ridge are good for a rainy afternoon.

Snowbird has almost nothing. Its concrete lodges date from 1971, and little remains to see of the canyon's silver-mining and granite-quarrying past. For history or a museum you have to go down to Salt Lake City.

Evenings end early in both, and only the timing differs. In Estes Park, people head for the brewery taprooms and saloon bars on Elkhorn Avenue after a day's hiking. At Snowbird the busy hour is après-ski on the lodge decks as the lifts close. For anything later, you face a mountain road to Salt Lake City or Park City.

Both have superb mountain country, but it is used in very different ways. Estes Park is the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park, with meadows rising to alpine tundra, Trail Ridge Road above 3,700m, and trails to Bear, Dream and Emerald lakes. Elk, bighorn sheep and moose are everyday sights. There is no skiing nearby, though.

Snowbird is above all about snow. The tram climbs to Hidden Peak, and the steep chutes and bowls run through Mineral Basin to Alta, with a season that often lasts into spring. In summer the same slopes lead to the wildflowers of Albion Basin and into the Lone Peak wilderness, but the wildlife is less of a feature than in Estes Park.

Snowbird has the stronger day trips because its two best outings are close and distinctive. Salt Lake City, about forty minutes down the canyon, has Temple Square, the State Capitol and museums. Park City's Victorian Main Street is about an hour away.

From Estes Park everything means driving down a canyon. Boulder and Fort Collins's Old Town are each about an hour away, Denver a little more, and in summer you can cross Trail Ridge Road to Grand Lake. All of them are pleasant, but none of them is reason enough to make the trip.

Estes Park is much easier with children. They can spot elk in town, walk the flat paths round Sprague Lake and earn junior ranger badges, and the town adds go-karts, horse riding and the Prospect Mountain tramway.

Snowbird is best for teenagers who ski confidently, since the mountain is known for expert terrain. In summer there are the coaster, the alpine slide and the ropes course, and the car-free base makes children easy to keep track of. In both places the altitude can tire small children.

Snowbird is easier once you are there. The lodges, the tram and the lifts are a short walk apart on a car-free base, so a ski week can pass without driving. The weak point is the single canyon road, which jams on powder mornings and is sometimes closed for avalanche control.

In Estes Park you can walk downtown and along the Riverwalk, and summer shuttles run to Bear Lake. Trailheads, Trail Ridge Road and the towns on the plains all need a car, though, and summer weekends bring traffic and a hunt for parking.

Estes Park gives you at least an hour's browsing on Elkhorn Avenue, with western wear, outdoor gear and galleries of wildlife photography among the souvenir and taffy shops. Snowbird has only a few base-area shops for rentals, goggles and resort-branded clothing. For real shopping you need Park City's boutiques or Salt Lake City's malls.

Neither is cheap, but Estes Park is the gentler on the wallet. Summer rooms near the park are costly, but winter and spring stays are far cheaper, kitchen cabins save on meals, and once you are in the park the hiking and wildlife cost nothing.

At Snowbird a winter stay adds up quickly: lift tickets, rentals, slopeside rooms and resort meals all cost a lot. The usual ways to save are a multi-resort pass or staying down in Salt Lake City and driving up each morning, which means giving up the slopeside experience.

Both have only a thin, mostly outdoor season, so the difference is in the type of event. Estes Park has free summer concerts at its riverside performance park, music and ghost-story evenings at the Stanley, and the Scottish-Irish Highland Festival with its pipe bands each September. Snowbird has plaza concerts and an Oktoberfest with oompah bands, then the odd après-ski band in winter. For theatre or an orchestra, you drive to Denver or Boulder from one and to Salt Lake City from the other.

Snowbird has the edge because of its large spa on top of the main lodge. It has a rooftop pool and hot tubs facing the canyon walls, steam rooms and a full range of treatments, and the warm mineral water in the Homestead crater is about an hour away.

Estes Park has no hot springs and only a few lodge spas. What it offers is quiet: a riverside cabin, elk at dusk and empty evenings, which is most restful outside the summer crowds.