Fort Collins or Snowbird?

Neither place is for swimming, but Fort Collins at least has Horsetooth Reservoir on its doorstep, with a swim beach and coves full of paddleboards on hot summer afternoons. At Snowbird the realistic options are the resort's heated pools or the cold reservoirs of the Heber Valley an hour's drive away, and the Great Salt Lake is something to look at rather than swim in.

Fort Collins comes out well ahead, mainly on beer. Its long-established breweries and dense spread of taprooms make it a real draw for anyone who cares about craft brewing, and Old Town adds gastropubs, taco spots and summer farmers' markets, even if the eating itself is ordinary rather than memorable.

Snowbird's choices stop at the lodge restaurants, slopeside cafeterias and the dining room at the top of the tram, all priced for guests with nowhere else to go. Most visitors plan a night or two down in Salt Lake City for some variety.

Fort Collins is no great sightseeing town, but it does have a historic core. Old Town's red-brick and sandstone streets, the Avery House, the Museum of Discovery and the university galleries make a pleasant day. Snowbird has essentially nothing of this kind: it is a purpose-built 1971 resort of concrete lodges, the canyon's mining past has left almost no trace, and any museum means the drive to Salt Lake City.

Fort Collins offers a genuine if casual night out, with pubs, sports bars, rooftop patios and a few cocktail bars around the Old Town square, and a student crowd keeping weekends busy. Snowbird's evening is après-ski on a lodge deck, then dinner and an early night before the first tram. Neither has real clubbing, but only Fort Collins gives you somewhere to go after dinner.

Both are outdoor bases, but Snowbird is the more dramatic one. The tram lifts you to Hidden Peak at about 3,350m, the snow is among the deepest and driest in North America, and the terrain runs across Mineral Basin to Alta. In summer, Albion Basin's wildflowers and the Lone Peak and Twin Peaks wilderness start right from the base.

Fort Collins sits lower, where the plains meet the foothills, and its strengths are variety and ease of access. Horsetooth and Lory State Park are minutes away, the Poudre Canyon has rafting and fly fishing, and Rocky Mountain National Park is within reach. For downhill skiing, though, it is several hours from the big resorts.

The two are evenly matched here, and from either one a car does most of the work. From Fort Collins the outings fan out along the Front Range, to Boulder beneath the Flatirons, Denver's museums and Estes Park, and north into Wyoming for Cheyenne's frontier museum and summer rodeo.

Snowbird's list rests on Salt Lake City, with Temple Square and the State Capitol, and on Park City's Victorian Main Street, before it thins out to Midway, Sundance and Ogden's 25th Street. Fort Collins has the wider spread of choices, and Snowbird's two main outings are closer at hand.

Fort Collins is the easier choice with children of any age. It has safe, flat neighbourhoods with playgrounds, cycle paths along the river, the Museum of Discovery's dome theatre, the farm at Lee Martinez Park and summer days at the reservoir. Snowbird suits families of confident skiers and teenagers better, because the mountain leans towards expert terrain and the altitude can tire small children.

Snowbird's car-free base is easy to manage, though, and summer adds a mountain coaster, an alpine slide and a ropes course. For zoos and aquariums, families in Fort Collins drive to Denver and families at Snowbird drive to Salt Lake City.

Both are easy within a small area and awkward beyond it. Fort Collins is a cycling town, with protected lanes, bike share and a rapid-bus line linking Old Town and the campus, though its suburbs and the foothills need a car.

At Snowbird everything is a short walk along the car-free base, and many rooms open onto the slopes. The catch is that a single winding canyon road is the only link to the outside world, and it jams on powder mornings and sometimes closes for avalanche control.

Only Fort Collins offers any real browsing, with a few walkable Old Town blocks of independent boutiques, bookshops, vintage clothing and Colorado-made gifts, plus a regional mall. Snowbird's base shops sell ski gear, outerwear and resort-branded clothing, handy for replacing lost goggles. For anything more, you go to Salt Lake City or to Park City's main street.

Most of the gap comes from what you pay to do the thing you came for. In Fort Collins the main draw, the foothills and the river, costs nothing, and the rest of the trip runs at the ordinary prices of an American university city. A hire car is the one large extra, and big campus weekends are the time to avoid.

At Snowbird, the mountain is where the money goes. A ski day starts with a lift ticket, and staying up the canyon means paying resort prices for every meal because there is nowhere else to eat. Basing yourself in Salt Lake City closes much of the gap, at the cost of the canyon drive each morning, and a summer stay for hiking costs noticeably less than a winter one.

Fort Collins has a respectable programme for its size. The Lincoln Center brings touring Broadway shows, dance and the symphony, the university's arts centre stages opera and theatre during the academic year, and bluegrass and indie bands play the small Old Town stages. Snowbird has summer concerts on the plaza, oompah bands at its Oktoberfest and the odd band at après-ski, and anything more serious is down in Salt Lake City.

Snowbird is the better place to unwind, mostly because of the large spa on top of its main lodge. It has a rooftop pool and hot tubs facing the canyon walls, steam rooms and a full treatment menu, and it is at its best at dusk after a ski day. The geothermal crater at Homestead in Midway, about an hour away, adds a warm mineral soak inside a limestone dome.

Fort Collins has only ordinary day spas and yoga studios and no hot springs nearby. Its calm comes from quiet neighbourhoods, shaded river paths and sunny days rather than from anywhere built for relaxing.