Fort Collins or Las Vegas?

Neither city has a coast, so swimming in both means reservoirs. Fort Collins has Horsetooth Reservoir in the green foothills, with a swim beach and coves full of paddleboards in July and August.

Las Vegas has Lake Mead's gravel shore in bare, shadeless desert, but its real swimming happens in the Strip's resort pools, with wave pools and lazy rivers that make more sense in the fierce heat.

Las Vegas offers far more to eat. The Strip has steakhouses, French dining rooms, tasting menus and famous buffets, and the Asian restaurants along Spring Mountain Road give it real depth away from the resorts, many of them open late.

Fort Collins answers mainly with beer. Its long-established breweries and many taprooms can fill several days for anyone who loves craft beer, but the eating in Old Town is gastropubs, tacos and a few farm-to-table kitchens, and serious dinners mean a drive to Denver.

Neither city is a destination for sights, and both can be covered in about a day. The difference lies in their character. Fort Collins has real nineteenth-century heritage in the red-brick and sandstone streets of Old Town, the Avery House and its Victorian and Craftsman districts.

Las Vegas offers spectacle instead: themed resorts, the fountains and the Fremont Street light canopy, plus two good museums, the Neon Museum and the Mob Museum, that tell the city's short history well.

This is the widest gap between the two. Las Vegas never closes, with DJ residencies in vast resort clubs, pool-party dayclubs and a Strip as busy at 3am as at 9pm, plus cheaper dive and cocktail bars around Fremont Street and the arts district.

Fort Collins offers a friendly few blocks of pubs, rooftop patios and taprooms around Old Town, with a lot of students and few clubs. It is pleasant for a beer, but anyone after a late night would drive to Denver.

Fort Collins has the stronger outdoors, and it lasts through the year. Trails start on the edge of town at Horsetooth Mountain and Lory State Park, the protected Cache la Poudre carves a canyon for rafting and fly fishing, and Rocky Mountain National Park adds alpine lakes and elk.

Las Vegas has dramatic desert scenery in Red Rock Canyon's climbing cliffs, the flame-coloured rock of Valley of Fire and the pine forest of Mount Charleston. Summer heat limits desert hiking to dawn, though, so its season is spring, autumn and winter.

Fort Collins has more places within easy reach. Boulder beneath the Flatirons, Denver's museums, Estes Park, Golden, and Cheyenne and Laramie over the Wyoming line make a varied list, even if few of them are remarkable.

From Las Vegas, the one easy outing is Hoover Dam with Boulder City. The Grand Canyon, Zion and Death Valley are long journeys to landscapes rather than towns, and the city's isolation in the desert shows.

Fort Collins is much easier with children. It is safe and unhurried, with playgrounds everywhere, the animals at Lee Martinez Park farm, the Museum of Discovery's dome theatre, and tubing and swimming in summer, though it has no zoo or theme park.

Las Vegas does have bigger thrills, including an indoor amusement park, a shark aquarium and rides at the top of the tower. Against that are casino floors on every route, adult advertising and punishing summer heat, so most families treat it as a stop on a national-parks road trip.

Fort Collins is easier to get around. Its compact, flat Old Town, rapid-bus line and excellent cycle network make a bike the natural way to reach the breweries, campus and riverside trails.

Las Vegas looks walkable on a map, but its huge resorts, footbridges and casino detours turn short hops into long walks, so most visitors fall back on taxis, ride-hailing or the monorail. In both cities, the countryside needs a car.

Las Vegas is far stronger for shopping. The resort malls at Caesars Palace and the Venetian and on the central Strip hold the major fashion and jewellery houses, the Fashion Show mall adds department stores, and two outlet centres cater for bargain hunters, all open late.

Fort Collins offers a few pleasant blocks of independent boutiques, bookshops, outdoor gear and vintage in Old Town. That is good for an hour of browsing, but it is no reason to visit.

Neither is cheap, but the costs fall differently. In Fort Collins, rooms are middling, the trails and river paths are free, and the main extra cost is a hire car. Prices jump on graduation and football weekends.

Las Vegas can be a bargain midweek, especially downtown, but weekend and convention rates, resort fees, cocktails, clubs and shows push costs up quickly. Eating in Chinatown helps.

Live entertainment is a main reason to choose Las Vegas. Permanent theatres stage acrobatic and water spectacles, magic and comedy every night, and big-name stars hold residencies that few other cities ever see. The Smith Center adds Broadway tours and the philharmonic.

Fort Collins works on a regional scale, with the Lincoln Center, the university's concerts and opera, small bluegrass and indie stages, and free summer concerts outdoors.

Las Vegas has the better spas. Its resorts run some of the largest in the country, with thermal circuits, salt and ice rooms and long treatment menus, though the noise of the casinos has to be escaped to enjoy them.

Fort Collins has only ordinary day spas and yoga studios, and the nearest hot springs are a long drive away. What it offers instead is calm: shaded river paths, quiet streets and an unhurried pace.