Fort Collins or Rapid City?

Neither city has beaches, since both are about as far from the sea as American cities get, but Rapid City has a little more for swimmers. Sheridan Lake, Pactola Reservoir and Sylvan Lake sit among pine-covered hills within half an hour of town, with clear water and small sandy or gravel shores.

Fort Collins depends mainly on Horsetooth Reservoir in the foothills, with a designated swim beach and coves full of paddleboards and boats on summer afternoons. In both places a swim is a break on a hot day, not a reason to come.

Fort Collins eats and drinks better, and the beer is the main reason. Big breweries on the north side of Old Town offer tours, taprooms with food trucks outside are spread across the city, and the summer farmers' markets sell Palisade peaches from the Western Slope. Rapid City has a few brewpubs downtown, but nothing on this scale.

Rapid City has the more regional food, though. You can eat chislic in the bars, bison burgers, and Indian tacos on Lakota fry bread at diners and powwows. Away from that the choice narrows quickly to steakhouses and chains, whereas Fort Collins has a wider spread of casual places and a few more ambitious kitchens.

Neither has much to see, but the sights are of different kinds. In Fort Collins the townscape is the attraction: red-brick and sandstone Old Town around its pedestrian square, the surrounding Victorian and Craftsman streets, and smaller sights such as the Avery House and the university's art museum.

Rapid City's museums tell a bigger regional story. The Journey Museum traces the Black Hills from their geology through Lakota history to the gold rush, the School of Mines displays fossils from the Badlands, and bronze statues of past presidents stand on the downtown street corners. Either town takes about a day.

Fort Collins has a much fuller night out, thanks to its large university. Pubs, rooftop patios, cocktail bars and late-opening taprooms are packed into a few blocks of Old Town, and weekends are busy. For proper clubbing, though, people go to Denver.

Rapid City's evenings centre on Main Street Square, with brewpubs, sports bars and country-music bars, and most places wind down well before midnight on weeknights. The exception is the Sturgis motorcycle rally in early August, when the bars around the region stay loud until late.

Both are outstanding for the outdoors, but the landscapes are different. From Fort Collins you head west into the foothills and up the Cache la Poudre canyon for rafting, fly fishing and camping. Rocky Mountain National Park, with alpine lakes and trails above the treeline, is within reach for a long day, and paved riverside trails run through the town itself.

Rapid City offers more variety close at hand. There are granite spires and the Needles Highway, bison, pronghorn and elk in Custer State Park, long guided tours underground in Wind Cave and Jewel Cave, and the eroded ridges of the Badlands an hour east. Cyclists can ride the long Mickelson Trail, which follows an old rail bed through the hills.

Rapid City has the stronger list of excursions, and several are famous. Mount Rushmore is about half an hour away, with the Crazy Horse Memorial just beyond. Deadwood's gold-rush streets, the Mammoth Site at Hot Springs and the Minuteman Missile silo out on the prairie make good days out too.

Fort Collins's day trips are pleasant rather than remarkable. Boulder sits below the Flatirons, Estes Park is the gateway to the national park, and Cheyenne has its frontier museum. Its real advantage is Denver, a large city with major museums and galleries. You need a car for almost all of these trips from either city.

Rapid City is the better choice with children. The Black Hills have been a family road-trip destination for generations, with a reptile park, a drive-through park with bears and wolves, concrete dinosaurs on a hilltop and Storybook Island, all close to town. The price is long hours in the car and crowds at Mount Rushmore in summer.

Fort Collins is gentler and smaller in scale. It has hands-on science and a dome theatre at the Museum of Discovery, a city farm at Lee Martinez Park, flat cycle paths and tubing on quiet stretches of the river. For a zoo or an amusement park, families drive 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 to south, and protected bike lanes, a bike-share scheme and off-street trails make cycling the obvious way to get around in dry weather. You will still want a car for the canyon and the foothills.

In Rapid City a car is effectively essential. The downtown is walkable, but the city buses do not reach Mount Rushmore, the state parks or the hill towns, and the seasonal tour buses are the only alternative. On the plus side, traffic is light and the scenic roads are part of the trip, though some have tight tunnels and hairpin bends.

Shopping is modest in both, but the goods differ. In Fort Collins you browse independent bookshops, vintage clothing, and outdoor and cycling shops along a few blocks of Old Town. Rapid City has more to take home that is local: tri-colour Black Hills gold jewellery, Lakota quillwork, beadwork and star quilts, and Western boots and hats. Beyond that, both have a regional mall and chain stores on the edge of town.

Rapid City is a little easier on the budget, with motels and casual meals that are cheap for an American tourist area and free sights such as the presidential statues and Dinosaur Park. Costs rise in the summer peak and rise steeply in rally week, so late spring and early autumn are the cheap times to go.

Fort Collins is mid-priced for the country. Room rates jump on graduation and football weekends, and sit-down meals with tax and tip add up. In both places a hire car is the biggest extra cost, and Rapid City adds fuel and park entry fees on top, while the foothill trails and river paths of Fort Collins cost nothing.

Fort Collins has the fuller programme. The Lincoln Center hosts touring Broadway shows, dance and the local symphony, the university's arts centre puts on opera and theatre during the academic year, and small Old Town venues book touring bluegrass, indie and rock bands, with free outdoor concerts on summer evenings.

Rapid City has its own symphony, and the civic centre hosts touring concerts, rodeos and Broadway shows. What it does best, though, is the distinctive: summer plays at a playhouse in the pines of Custer State Park, and powwows, above all the large one held each autumn.

Neither has a spa culture, and both offer little more than day spas and yoga classes. The difference is that Rapid City has a proper soak within reach. The historic indoor pool at Hot Springs, fed by warm springs since the 1890s, is about an hour south, and quiet cabin stays in the hills add to the restful side.

Fort Collins has no hot springs nearby, and the closest soak is at Idaho Springs, almost two hours away. What it offers instead is an easy pace: shaded river paths, quiet neighbourhoods and long sunny days.