Fort Collins or Phoenix?

Neither city is a beach destination, and swimming is a sideline in both. In Fort Collins it means the swim beach and coves at Horsetooth Reservoir in a short summer season. In Phoenix you swim mostly in resort pools with slides and lazy rivers, with the desert-cliff lakes on the Salt River and tubing on the lower river for a day out.

Phoenix eats better. It has a regional cooking of its own in Sonoran carne asada, paper-thin flour tortillas and bacon-wrapped hot dogs, plus serious wood-fired pizza and polished resort dining in Scottsdale, although getting to the good places usually means driving.

Fort Collins is mainly about the glass rather than the plate. Its long-established breweries and dense spread of taprooms are a reason to come in themselves, but the food in Old Town is pleasant gastropub and taco fare without a local cuisine.

Phoenix offers more to see. The Heard Museum's Native American collections, the Musical Instrument Museum and Wright's Taliesin West are each worth a half day, though they are spread out and there is no historic core to stroll.

Fort Collins reverses that balance. It has few individual sights beyond the Museum of Discovery and the Avery House, but its red-brick Old Town and Victorian streets make a pleasant few hours on foot, and a day covers the lot.

Phoenix has more going on, split between the clubs and rooftop bars of Old Town Scottsdale, the student bars on Tempe's Mill Avenue and cocktail lounges around Roosevelt Row, with a ride-hail between them. Fort Collins keeps it casual: pubs, patios and taprooms around the Old Town square, a mostly student crowd and only a handful of dance floors, all within walking distance.

Fort Collins has the edge, mainly because its outdoors works all summer and reaches high country. Foothill parks sit at the edge of town, the protected Cache la Poudre canyon offers rafting, fishing and camping, and Rocky Mountain National Park adds alpine lakes and elk.

Phoenix has a dramatic landscape of its own, with saguaro forest in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, scrambles up Camelback and the huge South Mountain park, and Sedona's red rock within reach. Its season is the cool half of the year, though, because summer heat makes hiking dangerous after mid-morning.

The day-trip lists are about equally good, and both need a car. From Fort Collins the outings are Boulder, Denver's museums, Estes Park and frontier Cheyenne just over the Wyoming line. Phoenix offers more of the Old West: hillside Jerome, the Montezuma Castle cliff dwelling, Sedona and Tucson's mission, though Arizona's distances make the drives longer.

Phoenix has more for children to do, with a zoo, an aquarium, a science centre, a children's museum, water parks and pool resorts. The catch is long drives across the metro area and summer heat that rules out daytime play outdoors.

Fort Collins is gentler and smaller. It has flat river paths, the city farm at Lee Martinez Park, the Museum of Discovery and summer days at the reservoir, but for anything big families head to Denver.

Fort Collins is much easier without a car. Old Town and the campus are flat and close together, a rapid-bus line runs north-south, and the protected lanes and off-street trails make cycling the natural choice. You still need a car for the canyon and the mountains.

Phoenix is built around driving. Its single light rail line is useful only between the airport, downtown and Tempe, the walkable pockets are small and far apart, and summer heat makes even short walks hard work.

Phoenix is the better place to spend money. Scottsdale's luxury mall, the Biltmore-area centre and Old Town galleries cover brands and Western wear, and the turquoise and silver jewellery, katsina carvings and Navajo rugs are a real reason to shop. Fort Collins offers a few pleasant blocks of independent boutiques, bookshops and outdoor gear stores, good for browsing but no more.

Costs come out much the same, and in both a hire car is the main extra while the hiking is free. What differs is timing. Fort Collins prices jump on graduation and football weekends, while Phoenix swings by season, with resorts expensive in the perfect-weather months and much cheaper in the summer heat.

Phoenix offers the fuller programme, with a symphony, an opera company and a ballet company, Broadway tours in Wright's round ASU Gammage and concerts at the Musical Instrument Museum, mostly from autumn to spring. Fort Collins works on a regional scale, with the Lincoln Center, the university's arts centre and bluegrass and indie bands on small Old Town stages. Its free outdoor concerts are at their best in summer, which is exactly when Phoenix goes quiet.

Phoenix is one of the country's classic resort-rest destinations. Spa resorts along the foot of Camelback and in north Scottsdale use desert treatments with sage, clay and agave, and the winter sun makes poolside days easy, though the best of it comes at resort prices.

Fort Collins has little beyond ordinary day spas and yoga studios, and the nearest hot-spring soak is a long drive into the mountains. What calm it offers comes from shaded river paths and an unhurried pace.