Mammoth Lakes or Vail?

Neither town has a beach, but Mammoth Lakes at least gives you a summer dip. In July and August people swim at Horseshoe Lake in the Lakes Basin, and Crowley Lake, larger and lower down, gets a little warmer, though both stay cold. Vail's nearby lakes and reservoirs are for paddling and lying in the sun, and a swim there usually means a hotel pool.

Eating out is much the same in both, filling resort food with no local cuisine behind it, but the style differs. Mammoth Lakes cooks for hungry skiers and hikers: big breakfasts, burgers, tacos, steakhouses and beer brewed in town.

Vail is more polished and aimed at richer guests. You'll find fondue rooms, sushi counters, hotel dining rooms with long wine lists, and Colorado lamb, elk and trout on the menus. In both towns some kitchens close in the quiet spring and autumn weeks.

Sightseeing is thin in both. Mammoth Lakes has a small history museum in a log cabin about its mining and settler past. Vail adds a little more: the Colorado Snowsports Museum, with the story of the Tenth Mountain Division, and the Betty Ford Alpine Gardens in summer. Its gabled village was built in the 1960s as an imitation of a Tyrolean town, while Mammoth's lodges and condominiums make no attempt at that look.

Vail gives you more of an evening out. On winter weekends its slopeside terraces in Vail Village and Lionshead fill as the lifts close, and a few bars and a small club stay open past midnight.

In Mammoth Lakes the après-ski crowd moves between brewery taprooms and pubs. Apart from busy long weekends, the town is asleep well before midnight because most people are up early for the trails or slopes. Neither town is a place for clubbing.

Both are top-class mountain bases, but the landscapes are very different. Around Mammoth Lakes the Sierra is volcanic and dry: the basalt columns of Devils Postpile, Rainbow Falls, Mono Lake's tufa towers, and the steaming water of Hot Creek. In summer Tioga Pass opens the way to Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite.

Vail's strength is its huge ski area. The Back Bowls and Blue Sky Basin get dry Rocky Mountain powder, and summer brings high hiking in the Gore Range and Holy Cross wilderness areas, fly fishing on Gore Creek and rafting on the Colorado. Both towns sit at about the same altitude, so take the first day gently.

Vail has more towns within easy reach. Beaver Creek and Breckenridge's Victorian main street are close, Leadville makes a good half day, and Glenwood Springs is about an hour down the canyon. Aspen and Denver are possible for those who don't mind a longer drive.

From Mammoth Lakes the outings are fewer and further apart along a single highway. They are memorable though: Bodie's ghost town, the internment camp at Manzanar and the Mono Lake shore at Lee Vining. In winter the closed passes cut the choice further.

Families who ski or love the outdoors will do well in either. Mammoth Lakes has more summer variety for younger children, with rowing boats, trout fishing and picnic spots in the Lakes Basin. Kitchen-equipped condominiums make the logistics easier, but getting between trailheads usually means driving.

Vail's car-free village is easier to stroll with a pushchair. At the top of its gondola there are ropes courses, a mountain coaster and tubing. In both towns, though, there is little to do on a bad-weather day.

Vail is easier without a car. The pedestrian core of Vail Village and Lionshead, gondolas leaving from town and a free bus running the length of the valley mean many visitors spend a whole week without driving.

Mammoth Lakes is spread out along a few roads. Winter shuttles and the Village gondola cover a ski trip, and a summer trolley and the Reds Meadow shuttle help in the warmer months. To see the rest of the Eastern Sierra you need a car, and in winter you may need snow chains.

Vail's pedestrian lanes have more to browse. They are lined with upmarket ski clothing, jewellery, fur and leather, Western boots and hats, and mountain-landscape galleries, though there is little that is cheap or independent.

In Mammoth Lakes, shopping is about equipment: good ski, climbing and fly-fishing shops, rental outlets and a few photography galleries. Neither is a reason to go if shopping is the point.

Both are expensive. Mammoth Lakes is the cheaper of the two, mainly because summer is cheap: hiking, the lakes and scenic drives cost little beyond a park pass, and self-catering in a condominium is normal.

Vail charges premium prices for almost everything: slopeside rooms, ski school, equipment hire and dinners. Staying further down the valley saves something, but a trip here is still never cheap.

Vail is clearly ahead, but only in summer. Bravo! Vail brings orchestras in residence to the open-air amphitheatre for weeks, the Vail Dance Festival brings top ballet and contemporary dancers, and jazz fills the late summer. In winter you get little more than après-ski bands.

Mammoth Lakes offers more modest evenings. A community theatre company performs on the college campus through the year, and summer adds a jazz festival and chamber concerts in a meadow.

Both are calm places to unwind, but in different ways. Mammoth Lakes' volcanic ground fills undeveloped hot springs out in the sagebrush, reached by dirt road and facing the Sierra. They are basic and can get crowded at sunset, and the lodges in town have spas for tired legs.

Vail has only the resort kind of wellness: polished hotel spas, saunas and outdoor hot tubs under the peaks. For natural mineral water you drive about an hour to the pools and vapour caves at Glenwood Springs.