Fort Collins or Kansas City?

Neither city has a coast, so swimming in both means fresh water in summer. Fort Collins has the more appealing spot in Horsetooth Reservoir, with a swim beach and coves full of paddleboards against the foothills. Kansas City offers sandy lake beaches in county parks on the edge of the metro area, plus public and hotel pools. In either city it is an afternoon out, not a reason to come.

Kansas City has the stronger food scene and an identity Fort Collins lacks. Hickory-smoked barbecue, burnt ends and sweet molasses sauce make comparing smokehouses a reason to visit in itself, and the steakhouses, the River Market's international counters and the Westside's Mexican kitchens add some range.

Fort Collins does better with the glass than the plate. Its long-established breweries and many taprooms can fill several days for beer lovers, but the cooking in Old Town is gastropubs, tacos and the occasional farm-to-table kitchen, and nothing you would plan a trip around.

There is a wide gap here. Kansas City has real institutions: the Nelson-Atkins with its Chinese collection and Oldenburg shuttlecocks, the WWI museum under the Liberty Memorial, and the jazz and Negro Leagues museums at 18th and Vine. Union Station and the Spanish-style Country Club Plaza add architecture worth seeing.

In Fort Collins, the red-brick Old Town square is the main sight, supported by the Museum of Discovery, the Victorian Avery House and the university galleries. It is pleasant for a stroll, but it is done in a day, while Kansas City needs two or three.

Kansas City has more going on at night, spread across several districts with different moods. There are the sports bars of Power and Light, the student strip in Westport and the cocktail bars of the Crossroads, though you will need a ride between them.

Fort Collins keeps everything within a few walkable blocks of Old Town: patios, pubs and taprooms busy with students at weekends. It is easier to get around but thinner, especially when the university is on its summer break. Neither has much of a club scene.

This is Fort Collins's biggest advantage. The plains meet the foothills at the edge of town. Horsetooth Mountain and Lory State Park have trails to rocky summits, and the protected Cache la Poudre canyon offers rafting, fly fishing and camping. Rocky Mountain National Park's alpine lakes and elk are about an hour and a half away.

Kansas City's surroundings are rolling prairie and farmland. Swope Park, the Loose Park rose garden and the reservoirs on the metro's edge are pleasant, but the nearest serious hiking, in the Ozarks, is several hours away.

Fort Collins has the better range of outings. Boulder beneath the Flatirons, the museums of Denver, the mountain town of Estes Park and Cheyenne's frontier museum across the Wyoming line all make a full day out.

Kansas City's options are quieter half days: Truman's home and library in Independence, the main street in Lawrence, the antebellum river town of Weston and the Pony Express museum in St Joseph. You need a car for almost all of them, as you do from Fort Collins.

Kansas City gives children more to look forward to. Worlds of Fun with its water park, the large zoo, Science City inside Union Station, and the aquarium and Legoland Discovery Centre at Crown Center make several busy days. The cost is a lot of driving between them.

Fort Collins is smaller and gentler: playgrounds in every neighbourhood, the hands-on Museum of Discovery, the farm at Lee Martinez Park and tubing on quiet stretches of the river. For a zoo or theme park, families there drive to Denver.

Fort Collins is easier to get around without a car. Old Town is flat and compact, a rapid-bus line runs north to south, and protected lanes and long riverside trails make cycling the obvious way to reach campus, breweries and parks. You only need to drive for the foothills and day trips.

Kansas City is built around the car. The free-flowing highways and easy parking help, and the Main Street streetcar between the River Market, Union Station and Crown Center allows a car-free day or two. Beyond that, buses are sparse, pavements run out and the main sights are far apart.

Kansas City has more to browse. The Country Club Plaza puts upmarket and national stores in 1920s Spanish-style courtyards, and the Crossroads, Westport and 39th Street add galleries, record shops and thrift stores.

Fort Collins keeps it small: a few blocks of independent boutiques, bookshops, cycling and outdoor gear and Colorado-made gifts in Old Town, then chain stores along the highways.

The two cost about the same, typical of an ordinary American city, and in both the hire car is the extra most visitors cannot avoid. The savings come from different places. In Fort Collins they are the free trails, river paths and Old Town, though rooms jump on graduation and football weekends.

Kansas City's downtown hotels are moderate, and the Nelson-Atkins does not charge for general entry. Paid attractions such as the theme park, the zoo and ball games add up quickly for families.

Kansas City is well ahead because it has its own music. Hard-swinging jazz, the style of Count Basie and Charlie Parker, still plays most nights in clubs around 18th and Vine, often with late jam sessions. The Kauffman Center is home to the symphony, opera and ballet, and Starlight Theatre stages musicals outdoors in summer.

Fort Collins offers touring Broadway shows and the local symphony at the Lincoln Center, university concerts and indie or bluegrass bands on small Old Town stages. It is enjoyable but regional in scale.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, and both offer only ordinary day spas. Fort Collins is the easier place to unwind, with shaded river paths, quiet streets and dry sunny days, though its nearest hot-spring soak is at Idaho Springs, well over an hour away. Kansas City has a closer spa trip in the historic mineral-water resort of Excelsior Springs, and slow mornings in the Loose Park rose garden or the Nelson-Atkins sculpture park.