Estes Park or Steamboat Springs?

Neither town is any use for a beach vacation. Both sit high in the Colorado mountains, and their lakes are fed by cold snowmelt. The difference is in how you get into the water. In Estes Park that means paddling on Lake Estes or using the indoor aquatic centre, while Steamboat has tubing on the Yampa through town and, for the hardy, a brief midsummer swim in Steamboat Lake or Stagecoach.

Both serve hearty western food to people coming off the trail or the slopes, and neither is a reason to visit. Estes Park leans towards family diners, barbecue, elk and bison, with the taffy and fudge shops of Elkhorn Avenue on the side, and many of its kitchens cut back outside summer. Steamboat's resort dining on Lincoln Avenue and at the ski base is a little more grown-up, with lamb and beef from the Yampa Valley ranches and a couple of more ambitious kitchens.

In either town, the sights fill a short afternoon. Estes Park has the better-known single sight in the Stanley Hotel, the Georgian Revival hotel that inspired The Shining, along with homesteading history at the Estes Park Museum and MacGregor Ranch. Steamboat's story is ranching and skiing, told through the old storefronts of Lincoln Avenue, the Tread of Pioneers Museum and Howelsen Hill, one of the oldest ski areas in North America.

Steamboat has the livelier evenings, at least in season. Après-ski starts at the gondola base as the lifts close, then moves to the saloons and brewpubs on Lincoln Avenue, some of which stay busy into the late evening through the ski months.

Estes Park goes to bed early. A few taprooms and saloon bars on Elkhorn Avenue fill up after a day on the trails, but little happens after ten, because most visitors are out before dawn for wildlife. Neither town has a club.

Both towns exist for the outdoors, but in different ways. Estes Park is the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park, with Trail Ridge Road crossing the alpine tundra, Longs Peak above, lakes such as Bear and Emerald, and elk bugling in the meadows each autumn. It is at its best for hikers and wildlife-watchers from summer into autumn.

Steamboat is less a protected park than a landscape for sport through the year. Winter brings powder skiing and backcountry terrain on Rabbit Ears Pass. In summer there is mountain-biking on Emerald Mountain, Fish Creek Falls and the lakes of the Mount Zirkel Wilderness, with fly fishing and paddling on the Yampa.

Estes Park is far better placed for days away. Boulder and Fort Collins are each about an hour down the canyons, and Denver's museums are about an hour and a half away. In summer, the drive over Trail Ridge Road leads to Grand Lake.

Steamboat is remote. The ranching towns nearby are worth a coffee stop at most, Vail and Grand Lake are two hours of mountain driving away, and Denver is about three hours, so a day out here usually means heading into the hills.

Both towns suit families who like the outdoors, and both have the same gaps: no zoos, aquariums or big museums, and altitude that tires young children for the first day or so. Estes Park keeps children busy with elk in the streets, junior ranger activities, mini golf, go-karts and the tramway up Prospect Mountain. Steamboat's strengths are a strong ski school and gentle beginner slopes, the slides and climbing wall at Old Town Hot Springs, and tubing and the rodeo in summer.

Steamboat is a little easier without a car. The town bus links downtown and the ski base all day, slopeside lodgings put the gondola within walking distance, and the small regional airport at Hayden saves the long drive from Denver.

Estes Park's free shuttles help in summer, especially on the Bear Lake road, but they run only in the warmer months. There is no rail link, and summer weekends bring heavy traffic and scarce parking in town. In both towns, the trailheads and mountain roads still call for a car.

Shopping is an hour's browse in both towns, and in both it centres on western wear along the main street. Elkhorn Avenue in Estes Park leans towards souvenirs, taffy and galleries of wildlife photography and Native American-style jewellery. Lincoln Avenue in Steamboat has F.M. Light & Sons, a family outfitter since the early twentieth century, and there are ski and gear shops at the mountain base.

Neither town is cheap, but Estes Park is easier on the wallet. Its high prices are concentrated in summer and early autumn, and rooms are far cheaper in winter and spring.

Steamboat is costly in every season, most of all in ski season, when lift access, equipment hire and slopeside lodging add up. The Christmas and spring-break weeks are the most expensive. Summer and the quieter months between seasons cost less, though some places close then.

Steamboat has the fuller summer programme. The Strings Music Festival has filled its pavilion for decades with chamber music, jazz and bluegrass. Perry-Mansfield in Strawberry Park, a performing-arts school and camp founded in 1913, stages student theatre and dance.

Estes Park has free riverside concerts in summer, occasional evenings at the Stanley Hotel, and pipe bands at the Scottish-Irish Highland Festival each September, but little else. Outside summer both towns are quiet, and for serious theatre or an orchestra you have to drive a long way.

For a soak or a slow few days, the two towns are far apart. Estes Park has no hot springs at all, and its pampering stops at a handful of lodge spas and massage studios. It offers a plainer kind of rest: a riverside cabin, cool mountain air, elk grazing at dusk and evenings with nothing to fill them. That works best in winter and spring, once the summer visitors have gone.

Steamboat is built around warm water. Old Town Hot Springs is right in town for a quick soak after skiing or a hike. The bigger draw is Strawberry Park Hot Springs, about 11km up a mountain road, where rock-edged pools sit beside a creek in the woods and are at their best with snow falling. Add the resort spas, and Steamboat is the clear choice if relaxing means getting into hot water.