Keystone or Moab?

Neither place has a beach, so this is no reason to choose either. In Keystone, swimming means a hotel pool or hot tub, because Dillon Reservoir below the resort is snowmelt-cold and mostly closed to swimmers. Moab's summer heat at least makes a dip tempting, in the shallow pools of Mill Creek or at Ken's Lake, though the Colorado River itself needs care.

Both towns feed people who have spent the day outside, and neither is worth the trip for its food. The difference is the setting. Keystone offers resort dining at the ski bases, with elk, trout and Colorado lamb on menus and a summit restaurant reached by gondola. Moab's Main Street has burgers, tacos and breweries, with some Southwestern touches.

In Keystone, condo kitchens and the short drive to Frisco or Breckenridge give you more choice. In Moab, Utah's alcohol rules make a drink with dinner more formal than it would be over the state line in Colorado.

Neither town is a place for sightseeing, but Moab has a little more to show. A morning is enough for the petroglyph panels left by Ancestral Puebloan and Fremont peoples along Potash Road and Kane Creek, the dinosaur trackways and the small Museum of Moab. Keystone is a ski resort built in the 1970s, so its history lies outside it, in the mining cabins of the Snake River valley and the Victorian towns nearby.

Both towns go to bed early. In Keystone the evening is après-ski on the decks at River Run, and Breckenridge's Main Street is a short bus ride away if you want a longer night. In Moab, mountain bikers and rafters fill a few brewpubs, and then the very dark desert sky takes over as the evening's main attraction.

Both are first-rate outdoor bases, and the choice is between snow and rock. Keystone means skiing on three peaks with Arapahoe Basin up the road. In summer it offers alpine hiking towards Grays and Torreys Peaks and sailing on Dillon Reservoir.

Moab means red desert: Arches National Park a few minutes from town, the canyon views of Canyonlands and Dead Horse Point, the Slickrock Trail, rafting on the Colorado and climbing at Wall Street. In Keystone you need a day or two to adjust to the thin air. In Moab it is the summer heat you have to plan around.

Keystone has far more to see within easy reach. Breckenridge's Victorian centre is half an hour away. The silver towns of Georgetown and Silver Plume lie over the Continental Divide, Leadville keeps its mining-boom streets and opera house, and Denver is about an hour and a half away.

Day trips from Moab are mostly more landscape. Bluff and the Ancestral Puebloan sites at Blanding and Hovenweep are rewarding, but they take long drives across empty country, and the towns on the way are small.

Keystone is the easier place with children. It is built around the ski school, gentle slopes, tubing and the big skating rink at Lakeside Village, and free shuttles and condos near the lifts take much of the strain out. The cautions are the altitude and the winter cold.

Moab works for school-age children who like scrambling on rock. They have short walks to Sand Dune Arch, dinosaur tracks, river floats and Junior Ranger programmes. The heat, the unfenced drops and the long car journeys make it hard going with toddlers.

Keystone is much easier without a car. Free shuttles link its bases and free county buses run to Dillon, Frisco and Breckenridge, though the drive up from Denver over I-70 can be slow in snow. In Moab you can walk Main Street and cycle to the Arches entrance. Beyond that you need a car, often a high-clearance one, or you depend on tours run by outfitters.

Neither is a shopping destination. Keystone has the edge because of the large outlet centre in Silverthorne, ten minutes away, with brand-name clothes and outdoor wear. Moab's Main Street is better for things tied to the place: rock shops selling geodes and fossils, and galleries with Navajo jewellery and weavings.

Moab is the cheaper of two expensive places. Rooms there cost resort prices in spring and autumn, but one park entry covers a week, camping is cheap or free, and the best hikes cost nothing.

In ski season Keystone costs more on almost every count: lift access, equipment rental, slopeside rooms and ski school, and the Christmas and spring-break weeks are the dearest of all. The free buses and condo kitchens help, and summer is gentler on the budget.

Keystone has more live performance, mostly in summer. There are music festivals on the resort's village stages, concerts at Dillon's open-air amphitheatre by the reservoir and Breckenridge's classical festival, plus a professional theatre company in Silverthorne all year. Moab essentially has one event, its chamber music festival at the end of summer. It is memorable for concerts in canyon grottoes reached by boat.

Keystone is the better place to unwind. It has resort spas and an outdoor hot tub at almost every lodge, best enjoyed with snow falling, and natural hot springs are a drive over the pass at Idaho Springs. Moab has only a few small massage studios, and its days start early and stay active. The rest it offers comes from quiet desert evenings and watching the cliffs turn red at sunset.