Flagstaff or Steamboat Springs?

Neither town is anywhere near a coast, and in both the water is cold and the swimming season short. What differs is the kind of dip. In Flagstaff it means a drive down to the creek pools and natural rock slide of Oak Creek Canyon, crowded at weekends. In Steamboat the summer water time is tubing the Yampa straight through town or a chilly swim at Steamboat Lake or Stagecoach.

Neither is a food destination, and the gap is small. Flagstaff has slightly more variety: a cluster of craft breweries downtown and in the Southside, the coffee houses and Mexican kitchens of a university town, and regional touches such as Navajo frybread and green chile.

Steamboat's food is more ranch than campus, with steakhouses, Colorado lamb and beef and hearty western plates along Lincoln Avenue and at the ski base. It is satisfying after a day outdoors, but the range is narrower.

Flagstaff has a short but real list of sights: the Lowell Observatory, where Pluto was discovered, the Museum of Northern Arizona's Native American art, the Riordan Mansion and a railroad-era downtown on Route 66. Add the cliff dwellings and pueblos within driving range, and a curious visitor can fill several days.

Steamboat's history is ranching and skiing. The Tread of Pioneers Museum tells that story, and you can see it in the western storefronts and on Howelsen Hill. An afternoon covers it.

Flagstaff is the livelier of the two, largely thanks to the university. Brewery taprooms, cocktail bars and old Route 66 saloons sit within a short walk of each other downtown and in the Southside, and term-time weekends have some energy.

In Steamboat, evenings revolve around après-ski at the gondola base, then a few saloons and brewpubs on Lincoln Avenue. They are busy in ski season and quiet early otherwise, and neither town has a club scene.

Both are outstanding mountain bases, and the difference is in kind. Flagstaff's landscape is volcanic and vast: the San Francisco Peaks, an enormous ponderosa forest and Sunset Crater's lava flows. The red rock of Sedona and the Grand Canyon are within driving range, and the night skies are remarkably dark.

Steamboat is the better ski town, with its famous light powder and aspen glades right beside town, Nordic trails and backcountry terrain at Rabbit Ears Pass. In summer it turns to mountain biking, fly fishing on the Yampa and alpine lakes in the Mount Zirkel Wilderness, with elk and moose often seen.

Here Flagstaff is far ahead. Within an hour or two lie Sedona, the hillside mining town of Jerome, the cliff dwellings at Montezuma Castle, the Sinagua ruins at Walnut Canyon and Wupatki, the historic railway from Williams to the Grand Canyon and the Hopi mesas.

Around Steamboat there are only small ranching towns, and Vail and Grand Lake are two hours of mountain driving away. Excursions there mean heading into the hills, not to another place.

Both work well with children, in different ways. Flagstaff suits curious kids, with telescope evenings, dinosaur displays, rope courses in the pines and the steam-era train to the Grand Canyon, though the outings involve long drives.

Steamboat keeps everything close: a strong ski school, warm pools with slides in town and tubing on the Yampa. It has nothing like a museum for a rainy day, though. In both towns the altitude tires small children for the first day or two.

For the core of a stay, Steamboat is the easier place to manage without a car. The town bus links Lincoln Avenue with the ski base through the day, and slopeside lodgings let skiers walk to the gondola. The hot springs up the valley and the passes still need a car.

Flagstaff's downtown and Southside are walkable, and the urban trails make cycling practical. But the motels are spread along Route 66, and almost everything worth the trip, from the Grand Canyon to Sedona, lies beyond public transport, so plan on hiring a car or booking tours.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Flagstaff gives you a real reason to buy. Navajo rugs, Hopi kachina carvings, pottery and turquoise jewellery are sold in galleries and trading posts, and are best bought from established dealers or from the artists themselves. Steamboat's equivalent is western wear on Lincoln Avenue, boots, hats and saddle-blanket goods from a long-established family outfitter, plus ski shops and a few galleries.

Flagstaff is clearly the cheaper base, and the two are expensive at opposite times of year. Flagstaff's dearest weeks come in summer and the school breaks, when it fills up as the bed base for the Grand Canyon. Even then, a motel on old Route 66 costs well below a room in Sedona or at the canyon rim. Neither town is cheap for an international visitor, though. Both add tipping to every bill and need a car for most outings, and in Flagstaff the park and monument fees soon add up.

Steamboat costs most in winter, just when Flagstaff is at its easiest, and on a ski week lift passes and equipment hire are added to resort-priced lodging. Its summer is gentler and its shoulder months cheaper still, so a self-catering condo outside ski season narrows the gap. It never closes it, and Steamboat stays the more expensive stay in every month.

Both towns have a modest, pleasant calendar, but at different times of year. Flagstaff's runs all year, with the symphony orchestra and university concerts on campus and touring bands at the restored Orpheum Theater downtown. Steamboat comes into its own in summer, when the Strings Music Festival fills its pavilion with chamber music, jazz and bluegrass and Perry-Mansfield stages student theatre and dance, while in winter it is mostly down to bar bands.

This is Steamboat's clearest advantage. The town grew up around mineral springs, and soaking is part of daily life, from the spring-fed pools in town that locals use all year to the rock-lined pools of Strawberry Park, about 11km up a mountain road and at their best on a snowy evening.

Flagstaff has no hot springs and only a few spas. Its calm comes from pine-scented air, cool evenings and bright stars, and anyone who wants treatments drives down to the resort spas of Sedona.