Keystone or Vail?

Neither has anything resembling a beach. Keystone looks down on Dillon Reservoir, which is good for boating and views but mostly closed to swimming. Around Vail, people paddle and sunbathe at small mountain lakes, but the water stays cold through the summer. In both places, hotel pools and hot tubs are where you will actually get wet.

At Keystone you mostly eat at slopeside grills, pizza counters and burger-and-beer après spots, with one more ambitious room reached by gondola at the summit. Plenty of visitors cook in their condo or drive to Frisco or Breckenridge for more choice.

Vail eats noticeably better. Its two villages have Alpine fondue, sushi, steak and game, and hotel dining rooms with serious wine lists, plus mountain lodges for lunch between runs. Neither place has a cheap end, and Vail's kitchens thin out in the spring and autumn lulls.

Sightseeing is thin in both, and the difference is one of kind. At Keystone the history is outdoors: mining-era ruins and old cabins along the Snake River valley above Montezuma, reached on foot or by car rather than through a museum door.

In Vail the history is indoors and on show. The Colorado Snowsports Museum tells the story of the Tenth Mountain Division ski troops, the Betty Ford Alpine Gardens make a gentle summer visit, and the chalets and covered bridges of the village are a 1960s imitation of the Tyrol rather than the real thing.

Keystone's evenings centre on the decks at River Run, which fill with skiers still in their boots and then empty soon after dinner, since most guests are families or early risers. For a real night out, people take the bus to Breckenridge's Main Street.

Vail keeps going longer. Terraces in Vail Village and Lionshead are packed as the lifts close, and on winter weekends a handful of bars and a small club run past midnight, with a crowd that is festive and well-heeled rather than rowdy. Out of season, both towns are quiet by ten.

Both are first-rate mountain bases, so the question is what kind you prefer. Keystone is the higher and better-connected of the two. It has bowls above 3,600m, Arapahoe Basin minutes up the road and four other big ski areas within an hour, and in summer Grays and Torreys Peaks and the tundra of Loveland Pass are close by.

Vail puts its scale into one mountain. The groomed front side, the open Back Bowls and Blue Sky Basin could fill a week without moving your car. In summer the Gore Range and Holy Cross wilderness give serious hiking, Gore Creek is known for fly fishing, and the aspen slopes turn gold in autumn.

Keystone sits more centrally, and it shows. Breckenridge's Victorian streets are half an hour away, and over the Continental Divide are Georgetown and Silver Plume with their historic loop railway, plus the old mines of Idaho Springs. Denver is about an hour and a half off when the traffic allows.

From Vail the range is narrower and the drives longer. Beaver Creek and Leadville are easy, and Glenwood Springs, an hour down the canyon, is the best day out. Aspen and Denver each take around two hours, and nearly every trip needs a car.

Keystone is built around children in a way Vail is not quite. There is the huge outdoor skating rink on the frozen lake at Lakeside, a snow fort up on the mountain, tubing and gentle terrain low down, and condos with kitchens close to the lifts, all of which make the days simpler.

Vail's ski schools are large and well run, and its car-free village is safe to wander. In summer the area at the top of the gondola has ropes courses and a mountain coaster. Long days in gear and the polished, adult tone make it harder work with toddlers.

Vail is the easier place to stay without a car. Its pedestrian core runs from Vail Village to Lionshead, gondolas leave straight from town, and a free bus runs the length of the valley, so many visitors manage a week without driving.

Keystone is spread over three bases, River Run, Mountain House and Lakeside, so you depend more on shuttles, though free county buses do reach Breckenridge and Frisco. It is closer to Denver, which shortens the drive in on the same snowy I-70 corridor that both resorts rely on.

Vail is the place to browse. Its lanes are lined with upmarket ski clothing, fur and leather, jewellery, Western boots and hats, and galleries selling mountain landscapes, which suits anyone after a luxury souvenir. Keystone has little beyond rental shops and gear at River Run. Its real draw is the big outlet centre in Silverthorne ten minutes away, the better bet for brand-name outdoor wear at outlet prices.

Neither is cheap, but Keystone hurts less. Condos with kitchens, supermarkets in Dillon and Silverthorne, and free buses make self-catering realistic, and summer brings costs down noticeably.

Vail sits at the very top of North American resort pricing, from lift access to dinner, and peak winter weeks are steeper still. Staying further down the valley or coming outside winter softens it, but only a little.

Vail's summer is in another league. Bravo! Vail brings major orchestras to the open-air Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater for weeks of concerts, with picnics on the lawn, and the Vail Dance Festival and a late-summer jazz festival follow. In winter there is no season at all.

Keystone's own offer is lighter: village-stage festivals and concerts at Dillon's reservoir-side amphitheatre, with Breckenridge's classical festival nearby. Its quiet advantage is year-round theatre, since the professional company in Silverthorne stages plays and musicals through the winter, when Vail has only après-ski bands.

Vail does the spa side with more polish. The large hotels in Vail Village and Lionshead have proper saunas and steam rooms alongside massage and hot tubs, and Glenwood Springs, with its mineral pools and vapour caves, is about an hour away.

Keystone's version is simpler: resort spas and a hot tub at almost every condo complex, where sitting in steaming water as the snow falls rounds off the day. Natural hot springs mean the drive over the pass to Idaho Springs.