Kansas City or Steamboat Springs?

Neither city is a beach destination, as both lie deep inland. What differs is summer swimming. Kansas City has sandy lake beaches in county parks and plenty of warm pools. In Steamboat the reservoirs stay cold, and the usual summer outing is tubing down the Yampa through town.

Of the two, Kansas City is the place to eat, and barbecue is the reason: hickory-smoked burnt ends and thick, sweet sauce, served everywhere from old counters by the stockyards to polished dining rooms. The Vietnamese and Ethiopian counters in the River Market and the Mexican kitchens of the Westside add some range.

Steamboat feeds you well after a day outdoors, with steakhouses, Colorado lamb and a few brewpubs along Lincoln Avenue. The choice is narrow, though, and there is no market or street-food culture to explore.

Kansas City has real sights to plan days around. There is the Nelson-Atkins, with its Chinese art and Oldenburg shuttlecocks, the WWI museum beneath the Liberty Memorial tower, the Negro Leagues and jazz museums, and the Beaux-Arts Union Station.

Steamboat's history of ranching and skiing fits into an hour on Lincoln Avenue and a visit to the Tread of Pioneers Museum. Howelsen Hill shows how long the town has been training ski jumpers. It makes a pleasant hour or two, but it is not a reason to come.

Kansas City gives you a choice of nights out: big sports bars in the Power and Light District, the student bar strip in Westport, and calmer cocktail and craft-beer bars in the Crossroads, though you need a ride between them. In Steamboat the evening is après-ski at the gondola base followed by a few saloons and brewpubs downtown. These are lively in peak season and quiet early the rest of the year.

Nature is Steamboat's strongest suit, and the gap is wide. Close to town you have the ski mountain's dry powder and aspen glades, backcountry terrain on Rabbit Ears Pass, summer trails on Emerald Mountain, Fish Creek Falls and the alpine lakes of the Mount Zirkel Wilderness. Elk and moose are common along the way.

Kansas City's outdoors is gentler: rolling prairie, the huge Swope Park, the roses in Loose Park, trails along the creeks and reservoirs for boating. They are good for a morning, but serious hiking country is hours away in the Ozarks.

Kansas City has more to aim for, if only modestly. You can visit Truman's home in Independence, the university main street of Lawrence about forty minutes west, the river town of Weston and the Pony Express museum in St Joseph. Steamboat is too remote for outings like these. Only small ranching towns are nearby and Denver is about three hours away, so a day out of town means heading into the hills rather than to another place.

Both cities work well with children, but they suit different families. Kansas City offers attractions: Worlds of Fun and its water park, a large zoo, Science City inside Union Station, and the aquarium and Legoland centre at Crown Center. The drawback is the long drives between them.

In Steamboat, families spend their time doing things rather than visiting attractions. There is ski school on gentle slopes, slides and a climbing wall at Old Town Hot Springs, tubing, the gondola and the rodeo, all in a small, safe town. Children who don't enjoy the outdoors will find little else, and the altitude can tire the youngest for the first day or two.

Steamboat is the easier of the two without a car, at least in the centre. Lincoln Avenue is flat and walkable, many lodgings are within walking distance of the gondola, and the town bus links downtown with the ski base. You still need a car for the hot springs, the falls and the passes, and in winter it needs good tyres.

Kansas City is built for driving. The Main Street streetcar links the River Market, Union Station and Crown Center, which makes a car-free day or two possible. For the zoo, Worlds of Fun and most outlying sights you will need a hired car or ride-hailing.

The two main shopping streets could hardly be less alike. One is the Country Club Plaza, built in the 1920s with tiled towers and courtyards in Spanish style. The other is Lincoln Avenue with its western storefronts. The Plaza gives far more choice, with chain and upmarket stores, and Kansas City also has galleries, design and vintage shops in the Crossroads, and record and thrift stores in Westport and on 39th Street.

In Steamboat, shopping takes about an hour among western-wear outfitters, a few galleries and ski shops. It is the place to buy a pair of boots or a good hat, but not much else.

Kansas City is clearly the cheaper stay. Hotels cost less than in the big coastal cities, barbecue lunches are filling and general entry to the Nelson-Atkins is free. A hired car and ticketed family attractions do add up.

Steamboat charges resort prices, above all in ski season, when lodging, lift access and equipment hire mount up and the Christmas and spring-break weeks cost the most. Summer and the quieter months between seasons are gentler, and self-catering condos and free trails help. Even so, it is never a budget choice.

Kansas City has a year-round season and a music of its own. Jazz plays in small clubs around 18th and Vine with late jam sessions, the symphony, opera and ballet perform at the Kauffman Center, and Starlight puts on musicals in summer. In Steamboat, live music is mostly a summer affair, led by the Strings Music Festival's chamber music, jazz and bluegrass and by free outdoor concerts. For the rest of the year there is little beyond bands in the bars.

Steamboat is far ahead here, and the town is named after one of its mineral springs. Old Town Hot Springs in town has pools that locals use all year. Up a mountain road, Strawberry Park has rock-lined pools in a wooded valley, at their best on a snowy evening.

Kansas City has hotel and day spas, and the old mineral-water resort of Excelsior Springs is about forty minutes north. Its slow pace and the rose garden in Loose Park make for calm mornings, but there is no bathing culture to build a trip around.