Jackson Hole or Rapid City?

Neither city is a swimming destination. Both are deep inland, and the water comes from mountain lakes for a few summer weeks.

The difference is small but real. In Jackson Hole, sandy-bottomed String Lake is the one place warm enough for a proper swim, while Jenny Lake and the Snake River stay cold from snowmelt. Around Rapid City, Sheridan Lake, Pactola Reservoir and Sylvan Lake warm a little more reliably and have small shores, which makes them an easy stop on a driving day.

Jackson eats better. The valley's wealth supports chef-led dining rooms and serious wine lists around the Town Square, and elk, bison and Rocky Mountain trout come with huckleberries in every form. The catch is that hardly anything is cheap.

Rapid City's cooking is plainer and more regional. You will find steakhouses, chislic in the bars and Indian tacos on Lakota fry bread, with a few more ambitious kitchens downtown on Main Street. Beyond that, the highway strips are mostly chains.

Rapid City offers a bit more to look at, though in neither place is culture the main reason to go. Its downtown has a bronze statue of a president on every corner, and the Journey Museum and the School of Mines fossil collection explain the Black Hills from their geology to the gold rush.

Jackson's highlights are the National Museum of Wildlife Art and, in the park, the barns of Mormon Row and the Chapel of the Transfiguration, all framed by the Tetons. They are beautiful but few, and most visitors see them in a single day between hikes.

Evenings are quiet in both places, and they get busy at different times. Jackson's liveliest nights come in ski season, with loud après-ski bars at Teton Village and dancing at the saloon with saddles for bar stools.

Rapid City has brewpubs and country bars around Main Street Square, and it stays calm for most of the year. The exception is early August, when the Sturgis rally keeps the whole region up late.

This is where Jackson Hole pulls clearly ahead. The Tetons rise sheer from the valley floor, Grand Teton National Park begins minutes from town, and Yellowstone lies to the north. In winter the Teton Village tram opens up some of the steepest lift-served terrain on the continent. Grizzlies, moose and the wintering elk herd add a sense of real wilderness.

Rapid City's outdoors are gentler but still very good. There are the granite Needles and Black Elk Peak, bison in Custer State Park, two cave systems for guided tours and the Badlands an hour east. The skiing is modest, so the Black Hills are best for driving, cycling and hiking.

Rapid City is built for day trips. Mount Rushmore is half an hour away and Crazy Horse a little beyond it. Gold-rush Deadwood, the Mammoth Site at Hot Springs, the Minuteman Missile silo and Wall are all within easy reach, so a week can be filled with different places.

From Jackson, nearly every outing goes into the landscape. The farm towns over Teton Pass in Idaho and the ranch towns to the south make pleasant drives but do not fill a day, and the region's real Western towns are a long way off.

Rapid City has the edge for children. Generations of road-tripping families have left a reptile park, a drive-through bear and wolf park, Storybook Island and hilltop dinosaurs. Add cave tours and fossil digging, motels with pools, and lower prices.

Jackson Hole is great for children who love wildlife, with Junior Ranger badges, sleigh rides through the elk herd, the summer rodeo and a good ski school. But it has no attractions built for children, and the altitude and long drives into the parks are harder on small ones.

Both trips need a car, but Jackson Hole is a little easier without one. Its small centre can be walked, the airport is a short drive away, and a bus links town with Teton Village, which helps most in ski season.

In Rapid City, the city buses never reach Rushmore or the hills, so visitors without a car depend on seasonal tours. Driving there is relaxed, with light traffic and easy parking, while Jackson's winter roads call for more care.

Jackson has more worth buying. The boardwalks around the Town Square are lined with galleries of Western and wildlife art, makers of handmade cowboy hats, and serious ski and climbing gear, along with a few upmarket boutiques.

Rapid City's specialities are Black Hills gold jewellery with its grape-leaf designs, and Lakota quillwork, beadwork and star quilts. These are worth seeking out, but otherwise it is a regional mall and souvenir shops in Keystone and Wall.

There is a wide gap here. Jackson Hole is among the most expensive places to stay in the United States, with resort prices for rooms, meals, lift tickets and guided trips. The parks and trails cost little once you are there, and staying over the pass in Idaho helps.

Rapid City is much cheaper for most of the year, with fair-priced motels, casual meals and free sights in town. Prices rise in the summer peak, and they jump sharply during the August rally week.

Neither town has much live performance. The best of each comes in summer, in different forms. Jackson's highlight is the Grand Teton Music Festival, which has brought orchestral players to its timber hall in Teton Village since the 1960s.

Rapid City has a symphony that plays through the year, plays staged among the pines in Custer State Park and, most distinctive of all, a large autumn powwow at the civic centre.

Jackson Hole is the better place to unwind. Its hot springs pool sits in a forested canyon south of town, and in winter getting there is an outing in itself, with the last stretch by snowmobile or dog sled. The soaking pools on the banks of the Snake are an easy drive. Add the luxury resort spas and a town that goes to bed early, and a soak after a day outside comes easily.

Rapid City's best bath is an hour away in Hot Springs, a historic indoor pool fed by warm springs since the 1890s. Otherwise, rest there means a quiet cabin in the hills.