Kansas City or Winter Park, Colorado?

Neither city is a beach destination. Both lie far inland, and swimming in either is something you do in passing.

What differs is the water. Kansas City's summer heat makes its sandy lake beaches in county parks and its public pools genuinely pleasant for a swim. In Winter Park, the snowmelt lakes around Grand Lake and Granby stay cold enough that people paddle rather than swim, so the warm water is in a hot tub or the hot springs pools.

Kansas City is far ahead at the table. Hickory-smoked meat, thick sweet sauce and burnt ends make the smokehouses a reason to visit in their own right, and you can make an afternoon of comparing old counters near the stockyards with polished dining rooms. Beyond barbecue there are steakhouses, the River Market's immigrant counters and Mexican cooking on the Westside.

Winter Park feeds you rather than tempts you. Expect burgers and green chile at the lodges, breakfast burritos before the lifts open, and a few rooms serving elk or trout. With no market and no regional cooking, food here supports the outdoor day rather than shaping it.

Kansas City offers a city's worth of sightseeing, though not an old city's. The best hours are spent indoors, in large institutions devoted to art, war and Black American history, and the grand railway terminal and the Spanish-style Plaza stand in for the historic streets the city mostly lacks. The sights lie far apart, so plan a long weekend of driving between them rather than wandering, after which the list runs thin.

In Winter Park, the history is the landscape itself: a ski area that Denver laid out in the 1930s and a railway tunnel bored beneath the Continental Divide. Half a rainy afternoon covers it.

Kansas City gives you a proper choice of nights out: sports bars and big screens in Power and Light, student bars in Westport, and calmer cocktail and craft beer rooms in the Crossroads. It is small on clubs and needs a ride between districts, but it stays lively on weekends.

Winter Park's evenings start when the lifts close, with crowded base bars and brewery taprooms on the main road. Most of the crowd is up for first chair, so the town winds down early.

Winter Park belongs to another league outdoors. It has two connected mountains with summits above 3,600m, cross-country track in the valley and backcountry on Berthoud Pass. In summer, the lift-served bike park, forest singletrack and the moose and tundra of Rocky Mountain National Park take over.

Around Kansas City, the land is rolling prairie and river farmland. Swope Park, Loose Park's roses, creek trails and reservoir boating make good breaks from the city, but real hills mean driving hours to the Ozarks.

Both give you a handful of good outings rather than famous sights, and both need a car. Kansas City's are about history and small towns on the flat: Truman in Independence, the university town of Lawrence, river houses in Weston and the Jesse James story in St Joseph.

From Winter Park, the drives are prettier and partly urban. You cross mountain passes to the Victorian mining streets of Georgetown, the boardwalk at Grand Lake or the city day in Denver. The catch is that snow on Berthoud Pass can close or slow the road in winter.

Both are easy with children, but the vacations look different. Kansas City is a city trip: roller coasters and a water park at Worlds of Fun, a big zoo, Science City and the aquarium and Legoland centre at Crown Center. Plenty of indoor options make it reliable in any weather, though you will spend time in the car.

Winter Park is built around a large children's ski school and a compact base village, with tubing and sleigh rides in winter and an alpine slide in summer. Altitude can cost a night or two of sleep, and wet days offer little to do indoors.

Winter Park is the easier place to manage without a car, at least for a ski week. A free shuttle links the ski base, the town and Fraser, and the base village is walkable. You still need wheels for trailheads, the national park and the mountain drive up from Denver.

Kansas City is built for driving. The Main Street streetcar covers the River Market, downtown and Crown Center, but the zoo, the theme park and most districts lie well beyond it, and buses are infrequent.

Kansas City has more to browse. The tiled courtyards of the Country Club Plaza hold upmarket and chain stores, and the Crossroads, River Market and 39th Street add galleries, vintage clothes, antiques and record shops.

Winter Park's shops cover practical needs: ski tuning, bike repairs, outdoor clothing and a few souvenirs. It is good for a forgotten glove, and for anything more you go to Denver.

Kansas City goes further on the same budget. Hotels cost less than in coastal cities, a barbecue lunch is filling and the Nelson-Atkins is free to enter, though a hire car and ticketed attractions push the total up.

Winter Park in winter carries resort prices for lift tickets, lessons, rentals and meals, with little cheap food to fall back on. Staying in a condo in Fraser and cooking your own meals helps, and the summer is much kinder, when trails are free and room rates fall.

Kansas City has a living music tradition of its own. This is the swinging, blues-based jazz of Basie and Parker, still played most nights in small clubs with late jam sessions. It also has a full formal season of symphony, opera and ballet at the Kauffman Center, plus musicals under the stars at Starlight in summer.

Winter Park offers free summer concerts in the town park, pleasant on a warm evening, and a band in an après-ski bar in winter. There is no theatre, so a real performance means Denver.

Winter Park is the more restful place, mostly because of its setting: cold air, quiet forest and a hot tub at most lodgings. Its trump card is Hot Sulphur Springs, where mineral pools step down a hillside above the Colorado River.

Kansas City has no bathing culture beyond hotel and day spas, and its nearest mineral-water town, Excelsior Springs, is forty minutes away. Its kind of calm is a slow morning among the roses in Loose Park or in the Nelson-Atkins sculpture garden.