Fort Collins or Park City?

Neither town has anything like a beach, and both offer summer swimming at a nearby reservoir. Fort Collins has Horsetooth Reservoir right on the edge of town, with a swim beach and coves full of paddleboards, and the water warms up better in its hotter summers.

Park City's equivalent is Jordanelle Reservoir down the valley, with sandy swimming areas and mountain views but cooler water. In practice most visitors there get wet in hotel pools and hot tubs instead.

The two are broadly level, but they shine in different ways. Fort Collins is a beer town first, with big breweries offering tours on the north side of Old Town and taprooms with food trucks all over the city, while its restaurants are casual gastropubs, tacos and a few farm-to-table kitchens.

Park City turns that around. The drinking is mostly après-ski on slopeside decks, and the food is more polished, with elk, bison and trout served in Main Street dining rooms that cater to wealthy skiers. For wider choice, both send you down the road, to Denver or Salt Lake City.

Neither is a sightseeing destination, and both are best appreciated by walking their historic main streets. Fort Collins has red-brick Old Town around its pedestrian square, the Museum of Discovery, the Victorian Avery House and the university's art museum.

Park City's story is silver mining, told through the wooden storefronts of Main Street, headframes on the slopes and the Park City Museum with its old jail cells, plus the Olympic museums at the 2002 Games site. You can see either in a day or less.

Fort Collins makes for the better evening out. A big student population fills the pubs, rooftop patios, cocktail bars and taprooms around Old Town on weekends, and there are at least a few dance clubs, though it quietens over the summer break.

Park City's nightlife starts at the lifts and stays short: a run of Main Street saloons and bars that gets rowdy on winter weekends and fades early, especially outside ski season. For real clubbing, Denver and Salt Lake City are the respective escapes.

Both are outdoor towns, but Park City is the more spectacular base. It sits at around 2,100m in the Wasatch, with two major ski areas starting in town, famous dry powder, more steep resorts over the ridge, and hundreds of kilometres of singletrack for summer riding.

Fort Collins has the foothills rather than high peaks on its doorstep: Horsetooth Mountain and Lory State Park trails, rafting and fly fishing in the Poudre Canyon, and Rocky Mountain National Park about an hour and a half away. It is excellent for hiking and cycling, but with no downhill skiing nearby it cannot match Park City in winter.

Fort Collins has more places to drive to. Boulder beneath the Flatirons and the museums of Denver lie south, Estes Park leads into the national park, and Cheyenne and Laramie are just over the Wyoming line, giving a reasonable spread of towns and cities.

Park City leans almost entirely on Salt Lake City, with Temple Square and the Capitol, plus smaller outings to the Heber Valley steam railway, Swiss-style Midway, Ogden's railroad street and the Sundance canyon road. After those, most of what is in reach is scenery.

Park City is the more engaging place for children. Ski schools and gentle learning slopes in winter, the Olympic Park's alpine coaster, ziplines and freestyle jumps into a splash pool, and summer alpine slides and climbing walls give plenty to do, with free buses doing the ferrying. Altitude and winter costs are the drawbacks.

Fort Collins is safe and easy but quieter: playgrounds, flat riverside cycle paths, the Museum of Discovery's dome theatre, the farm at Lee Martinez Park and tubing on gentle river stretches. It suits younger children and a slower pace better than an action-packed stay.

Park City is easier to manage without a car once you arrive. Free buses link Main Street, both ski bases, the lodging areas and Kimball Junction, and many hotels add shuttles, though anything beyond town needs wheels.

Fort Collins works well for cyclists: a flat, compact Old Town, protected bike lanes, bike-share and long off-street trails, and a rapid bus along the main corridor. Beyond that core the suburbs sprawl, buses thin out, and the foothills and every day trip need a car.

Park City has slightly more to browse, and it is aimed at visitors with money: Main Street galleries, Western-wear and cowboy-boot shops, jewellers and ski fashion, with an outlet centre at Kimball Junction.

Fort Collins is more homespun, with independent bookshops, vintage clothing, cycling and outdoor shops and Colorado-made gifts in Old Town. Neither is worth a trip for shopping alone.

Fort Collins is much the cheaper stay. Chain hotels and taproom meals are mid-priced for the US, only graduation and football weekends push rooms up, and the trails, river paths and Old Town cost nothing. A hire car is the main extra.

Park City sits at the top end of North American ski resorts, with lodging, lift passes, ski school and Main Street dinners all costly, and the Christmas and New Year weeks dearer still. Summer and autumn are much gentler, and many visitors on a budget sleep in Salt Lake City or the Heber Valley instead.

Fort Collins offers a little more through the year. The Lincoln Center brings touring Broadway, dance and the local symphony, the university adds concerts, opera and theatre in term time, and small Old Town stages book bluegrass, indie and rock bands.

Park City's programme comes alive mainly in summer, when the Utah Symphony plays on the lawns at Deer Valley and free concerts fill the parks. The 1920s Egyptian Theatre on Main Street keeps going year-round with comedy and plays, but the rest of the year is thin.

Park City is the better place to unwind. The big ski lodges at Deer Valley and the Canyons run large spas built around tired legs, outdoor hot tubs in the snow come with most stays, and Homestead Crater in Midway lets you swim in warm geothermal water inside a limestone dome.

Fort Collins has only ordinary day spas and yoga studios, with the nearest hot springs well over an hour's drive away. Its calm comes instead from quiet neighbourhoods, shaded river paths and long sunny days.