Flagstaff or Vail?

Neither town is anywhere near a coast, and in both swimming mostly means a hotel pool. Flagstaff does have the livelier summer option: the creek pools at Slide Rock in Oak Creek Canyon, on the road down to Sedona, where families slide over slippery rock into cold water. Vail has only small mountain lakes and reservoirs, better for paddling and lying in the sun than for a proper swim.

Neither town is worth the trip for its food, but they fall short in different ways. Flagstaff is casual: craft breweries downtown and in the Southside, diners, Mexican and New Mexican cooking, and now and then a Navajo taco or a green chile dish. Because it is a university town rather than a resort, its breweries and restaurants don't shut down for a season.

Vail is all polish and has no cheap end. Expect steak and game houses, fondue rooms, elk and Colorado lamb, long wine lists in hotel dining rooms and lunch in lodges up on the mountain. In the quiet spring and autumn weeks many of its kitchens close, which leaves visitors at those times with little choice.

Flagstaff has real sights, though not many. Pluto was discovered at the Lowell Observatory, which still runs night viewings through its historic telescopes, and the Museum of Northern Arizona holds serious Hopi, Navajo and Zuni collections. Add the Riordan Mansion and the brick railroad-era downtown on Route 66.

Vail was built from scratch as a ski resort, and its Tyrolean-style village is an imitation rather than a historic place. The Colorado Snowsports Museum, which tells the story of the Tenth Mountain Division's wartime ski troops, and the Betty Ford Alpine Gardens make a pleasant afternoon, and that is about all.

A night out in Flagstaff is something you do on foot. Brewery taprooms, a few cocktail bars and old Route 66 saloons are a few minutes' walk apart downtown and in the Southside. On term-time weekends the university crowd makes them busier than you would expect in a town this size. There is little in the way of clubs, and most places wind down early, which suits anyone setting off at dawn for the Grand Canyon.

In Vail the evening starts at the foot of the slopes. Après-ski fills the terraces and slopeside bars of Vail Village and Lionshead as the lifts close, and the crowd is well off, in a mood more festive than wild. On winter weekends a few bars and a small club stay open past midnight, but summer evenings are far calmer.

Both are outstanding mountain bases, so the choice comes down to the kind of landscape you want. Flagstaff gives you range: the volcanic San Francisco Peaks, a vast ponderosa forest, the lava flows of Sunset Crater, Sedona's red rock and the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, all under some of the darkest skies anywhere.

Vail is higher and more alpine. It has a far bigger ski mountain, wilderness hiking among lakes and peaks above 4,000m in the Gore Range and Holy Cross areas, fly fishing on Gore Creek and rafting rivers within reach.

Flagstaff has the better spread of outings. The Grand Canyon, Sedona and the hillside mining town of Jerome are all within reach, along with cliff dwellings at Montezuma Castle, Sinagua ruins at Walnut Canyon and Wupatki, the historic railway from Williams and the ancient villages of the Hopi mesas.

From Vail, most outings lead to other resorts, such as Beaver Creek, Breckenridge's Victorian main street and the silver town of Leadville. Glenwood Springs is the most rewarding day out. Both places need a car for almost all of this.

These two are close, with Flagstaff slightly more varied for curious children. It offers telescope evenings at the observatory, dinosaur displays, snow play in winter, a drive-through wildlife park and the steam-era train to the Grand Canyon, though the drives between them are long.

Vail is built around children learning to ski. It has big ski schools, a safe car-free village, and in summer a mountain coaster and tubing at the top of the gondola. Beyond the mountain there is little for children, and in both places the altitude tires small children for the first day or two.

Vail is far easier once you have arrived. The village and Lionshead are pedestrian, the lifts start in town and a free bus runs the length of the valley, so a week without a car is realistic. Getting there is the harder part: there is no rail, and the pass can close in heavy snow.

Flagstaff is easier to reach, with long-distance trains stopping downtown, but it is harder to get around. The centre is walkable and the urban trails are good for cycling, but the motels are spread out and almost everything worth seeing lies beyond the local buses.

Vail has the more polished shopping, along pedestrian lanes of upmarket ski clothing, Western boots and hats, jewellery and landscape galleries, though all of it is narrow in range and pricey. Flagstaff's shops are plainer, but it has something Vail does not: Navajo rugs, Hopi kachina carvings and turquoise jewellery from downtown galleries and trading posts. Buy from established dealers or directly from the artists.

The gap here is wide. Flagstaff is moderately priced by American standards, and its Route 66 chain motels are a cheaper base than Sedona or the canyon rim, though a hire car, fuel and park fees add up.

Vail is among the most expensive places to vacation in North America. Lift tickets, ski school, slopeside rooms and resort meals all cost far more than usual. Summer and the off-season, or a room further down the valley, ease the cost only a little.

Vail has the bigger occasions, but only in summer. Bravo! Vail brings major orchestras to the open-air Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, with picnics on the lawn, and dance and jazz festivals follow. In winter there is little beyond après-ski bands.

Flagstaff's calendar is smaller but runs all year: the symphony and university concerts, touring folk and indie acts at the restored Orpheum, community theatre and weekend bands in the breweries.

Vail is the better place to unwind in comfort. Its large hotels have spas with saunas, steam rooms and outdoor hot tubs facing the peaks, and the historic mineral pools and vapour caves of Glenwood Springs are about an hour away.

Flagstaff has only a few day spas. Its calm comes from cool pine evenings and bright stars, and anyone wanting treatments or a retreat drives an hour down to Sedona.