Kansas City or Keystone?

Neither city is a place to swim, and they are about equally poor for it. Kansas City at least has sandy lake beaches in its county parks for a summer afternoon. Keystone's Dillon Reservoir is snowmelt-cold and mostly off limits for swimming, so there the water means a hotel pool or a hot tub.

Kansas City has a food identity that Keystone lacks. Hickory-smoked barbecue, burnt ends and sweet molasses sauce are served everywhere from old stockyard counters to petrol-station joints, and the River Market and the Westside add Vietnamese, Ethiopian and Mexican cooking.

Keystone eats the way ski resorts do: slopeside grills, pizza, après-ski burgers and a gondola-served summit dining room. Colorado elk, lamb and trout give it a little local flavour. Many visitors cook in their condos or drive to Frisco or Breckenridge for more choice.

Kansas City has real sights to fill a few days. The Nelson-Atkins holds a major encyclopaedic collection, the WWI Museum under the Liberty Memorial tower is the country's main museum of that war, and the Negro Leagues and Jazz museums at 18th and Vine tell African American stories you won't find anywhere else. Union Station and the Spanish-style Country Club Plaza add some fine architecture between visits.

Keystone was built for skiing in the 1970s and has nothing like this. Its history lies in the old mining cabins up the Snake River valley and in the Victorian towns nearby, so a culture day there means driving out of the resort.

Kansas City gives you a real choice of evenings. There are the sports bars of the Power and Light District, the student strip in Westport and calmer cocktail and craft-beer bars in the Crossroads, though clubs are few and you need a ride between areas. Keystone's night peaks at après-ski on the River Run decks and is mostly over after dinner, because people want to be up for first chair. Breckenridge's Main Street is the nearest place for anything later.

Keystone is the obvious choice here. It has high bowls and tree runs above 3,600m and dry, reliable snow, and four other major ski areas are within an hour. In summer the same slopes turn into lift-served biking and the start of hikes up Grays and Torreys Peaks.

Kansas City's outdoors are pleasant rather than memorable: Swope Park, the Loose Park rose garden, paved creek trails and reservoirs for fishing, all set in gentle prairie. The nearest serious hiking, in the Ozarks, is hours away.

Keystone sits among more interesting places to visit. Breckenridge's Victorian centre, the silver towns of Georgetown and Silver Plume on their loop railway, Leadville's opera house and Vail's village are all within an hour or so, and Denver is further out. From Kansas City, the outings to Truman's Independence, college-town Lawrence, Weston and St Joseph make pleasant half days. They are short on famous sights, and you need a car for all of them.

Both work well with children, but for different trips. Kansas City is a summer city for families, with roller coasters and a water park at Worlds of Fun, a big zoo, Science City and the Legoland and aquarium at Crown Center, though the car journeys between them add up.

Keystone is made for the family ski trip. It has a large ski school, gentle lower slopes, tubing, a snow fort and a huge frozen-lake skating rink, and lifts are a short walk from condos with kitchens. Altitude and cold are the things to prepare small children for.

Keystone is easier to manage once you have arrived. Free shuttles link its three bases, and free county buses run to Dillon, Frisco and Breckenridge, so you can leave the car parked. The hard part is getting there, over I-70 from Denver in winter weather.

Kansas City is built around the car. The streetcar along Main Street covers downtown, Union Station and Crown Center, but the zoo, Worlds of Fun and the outlying sights need a car or ride-hailing.

Kansas City has more to browse. The tiled courtyards of the Country Club Plaza are a pleasant place to shop in their own right, and the Crossroads, Westport and 39th Street add galleries, vintage and record shops. Keystone's shops sell mostly ski gear and rentals. The outlet centre in nearby Silverthorne is the main draw for brand-name clothes and outdoor wear.

Kansas City costs about as much as an ordinary American city. Hotels are cheaper than on the coasts, the Nelson-Atkins charges nothing for general entry and a barbecue lunch is filling, though car hire, sales tax and tips push the bill up.

Keystone costs far more. Lift access, slopeside rooms, equipment rental and ski school are all expensive, and the Christmas, New Year and spring-break weeks are the dearest of all. Cooking in a condo, the free buses and a summer visit help, but it never becomes cheap.

Kansas City has the stronger and more distinctive offer. It is the home of the swinging, blues-based jazz of Count Basie and Charlie Parker, still played most nights around 18th and Vine. The Kauffman Center houses the symphony, opera and ballet, and summer musicals play at the open-air Starlight Theatre.

Keystone's performances come mostly in summer: village-stage festivals, concerts at Dillon's lakeside amphitheatre and Breckenridge's classical festival. In winter there is a small professional theatre in Silverthorne and acoustic sets at après-ski.

Neither has a bathing tradition, but Keystone does relaxation better. Sitting in an outdoor hot tub while snow falls after a day on the slopes is the classic way to end the day, and the resort spas are built around sore legs. Kansas City offers hotel and day spas, the old mineral-water town of Excelsior Springs nearby and an unhurried morning in the Nelson-Atkins sculpture park.