Estes Park or Vail?

Neither town works for a beach vacation, and in both the mountain water stays cold through summer. In Estes Park the snowmelt lakes, Lake Estes among them, are for paddling, fishing and shoreline walks, and the town's indoor aquatic centre is there for a swim. Vail has small lakes and reservoirs where locals sunbathe in July, but for a swim you will use a hotel pool.

Vail eats better, though neither town is a reason to travel for food. Its restaurants in Vail Village and Lionshead are polished and cater to wealthy visitors. Expect steak and game, Alpine fondue, sushi and hotel dining rooms with serious wine lists, plus mountain lodges for lunch on the slopes.

Estes Park keeps to mountain gateway food: burgers, barbecue, elk and bison, big trail breakfasts, local breweries and the taffy shops on Elkhorn Avenue. Quality along the main strip is uneven. Both towns cut back outside their busy seasons, and diners in both drive down to Denver for real variety.

Estes Park has a little more history to show. The Stanley Hotel is a real landmark, with its Georgian Revival rooms, its link to The Shining and its ghost tours. The homesteading museum and the working MacGregor Ranch add some local story.

Vail's chalets and covered bridges are a 1960s copy of a Tyrolean town, not a historic one. Its best visit is the Colorado Snowsports Museum and its story of the Tenth Mountain Division, with the Betty Ford Alpine Gardens for a summer stroll. In either town the sights fill an afternoon, not a trip.

Vail has the clearly livelier evenings, at least in winter. When the lifts close, the terraces and slopeside bars in Vail Village and Lionshead fill for après-ski, and on weekends a few bars and a small club keep going past midnight. It feels more like a party than a wild night out, and in the off-seasons the town empties after dinner.

Estes Park keeps hikers' hours. A brewery taproom or a saloon on Elkhorn Avenue after the trail is about as far as it goes, and most visitors are in bed early for dawn wildlife watching.

Both are outstanding mountain bases, and the difference is what you do there. Estes Park is the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park. Its highlights are wildlife, alpine tundra along Trail Ridge Road, lake hikes to Bear, Dream and Emerald, and Longs Peak. In autumn the elk rut fills the meadows with bugling at dusk. It has no ski resort nearby, so winter means snowshoeing in a quiet park.

Vail centres on skiing, with a huge lift-served mountain and dry powder through a long winter. In summer the gondolas carry hikers and mountain bikers up high, the Gore Range and Holy Cross wilderness areas offer demanding hikes, and rafting is within reach. Choose Estes Park for elk and a national park, and Vail for skis and lifts.

Day trips from both are pleasant rather than outstanding, and both need a car, but the outings feel quite different. From Estes Park you head down the canyons to the cities of the plains: Boulder with Pearl Street and the Flatirons, Fort Collins' Old Town, and Denver's museums. In summer you can also cross Trail Ridge Road to Grand Lake.

From Vail you stay in the mountains. Beaver Creek and Breckenridge are close, Leadville has its silver-boom streets, and Aspen is further off. The best day out is Glenwood Springs and its hot springs in the Colorado River canyon.

Both suit outdoor families, with a slight edge to Estes Park, and the attractions differ. In Estes Park children see elk wander through town, earn junior ranger badges and manage the flat walks around Sprague and Bear lakes. Mini golf, go-karts and the Prospect Mountain tramway fill the gaps, and the town is cheaper for a family.

Vail is built around children learning to ski, with large ski schools, a safe car-free village and, in summer, a mountain coaster and ropes courses at the top of the gondola. Neither has a zoo or a big museum for a wet day, and both sit high enough that small children need a day to adjust to the altitude.

Vail is far easier to manage without a car. Its centre is pedestrian, the lifts leave from town, and a free bus runs the length of the valley, so many visitors manage the whole week on foot and by bus. The weak point is arrival, since there is no train and Vail Pass can close in heavy snow.

Estes Park has a walkable downtown and free summer shuttles to the Bear Lake trailheads. Beyond that a car is close to essential for reaching Trail Ridge Road, most trailheads and the towns on the plains. In summer, weekend traffic and parking in town can be a trial.

Neither town is worth a trip for shopping, but Vail has more worth buying. Its pedestrian lanes sell upmarket ski clothing, fur and leather, jewellery and mountain landscape paintings, which suits anyone kitting out for the slopes or after a luxury souvenir. Elkhorn Avenue in Estes Park is an hour's browse through T-shirts, taffy, western wear and a few wildlife galleries. Serious shoppers from either town head to Denver.

Estes Park is much easier on the wallet. It is pricey in summer and early autumn, but winter and spring rooms cost far less, cabins with kitchens let you cook, and the park's trails and wildlife are free beyond the entrance fee.

Vail is one of the most expensive places for a vacation in North America. Lodging, lift tickets, ski school, equipment hire and meals all cost far above normal levels, and peak winter weeks cost more again. Staying further down the valley helps a little, but no part of a Vail trip is cheap.

Vail is far ahead here, though in both towns the season is summer only. Bravo! Vail brings major orchestras to the open-air Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, where you can picnic on the lawn with the peaks behind the stage. The Vail Dance Festival and a long-running jazz festival add to it, so music lovers should aim for July and August.

Estes Park offers free concerts at its riverside performance park, the odd evening at the Stanley Hotel and the Scottish-Irish Highland Festival with its pipe bands each September.

Vail is the better place to be pampered. Its big hotels run polished spas with massage after skiing, saunas, steam rooms and outdoor hot tubs under the peaks. The mineral pools and vapour caves of Glenwood Springs are about an hour away.

Estes Park has only a few lodge spas and massage studios. What it offers instead is quiet: a riverside cabin, elk at dusk and evenings with nothing to do. Its winter and spring months suit visitors who want to switch off rather than be looked after.