Moab or Telluride?

Neither town is anywhere near a coast, so neither works for a beach trip. Moab's summer heat at least makes a swim welcome, and there are spots close to town: the shallow pools of Mill Creek, Ken's Lake and the sandbars of a cold, fast Colorado River. Telluride's nearest real swimming is a reservoir near Ridgway an hour's drive away, where the mountain water stays cool even in midsummer.

Telluride eats noticeably better. Ski-resort money supports a few ambitious kitchens on Colorado Avenue and in Mountain Village, cooking Colorado lamb, elk and trout, and the wine lists are deeper than you would expect in a town this size.

Moab's Main Street exists to refuel hikers and bikers, with big portions of burgers, tacos and pizza and a couple of breweries. Utah's alcohol rules also make a drink with dinner more formal than across the state line in Colorado. Neither town has a local cuisine to seek out.

Telluride has more to look at in town. Its grid of clapboard houses and false-fronted mining-boom storefronts survives almost intact as a National Historic Landmark. The museum in the old miners' hospital and the Sheridan Opera House fill a pleasant hour or two.

Moab's own streets are low-rise and plain, and the small Museum of Moab is the only indoor sight. Its real cultural interest lies outside town and is far older: Ancestral Puebloan and Fremont rock art on the cliffs along Potash Road and Kane Creek, plus dinosaur trackways nearby.

Telluride stays up later. Its historic saloons on Colorado Avenue, with wooden bars and Victorian back rooms, fill with skiers and seasonal workers after the lifts close, and in peak weeks the main street stays lively late. Moab's few brewpubs are full of rafters and riders swapping stories, but the town is mostly asleep by eleven and the real night-time draw is the very dark, starry sky. Neither has clubs.

Both are among the great outdoor bases in North America, but the landscapes are opposites. Moab is red-rock desert: more than two thousand arches in the park next to town, the canyon maze seen from Island in the Sky and Dead Horse Point, the Slickrock and Whole Enchilada bike trails and rafting on the Colorado.

Telluride is high alpine country, with peaks above 4,000m rising from the end of the main street, Bridal Veil Falls, summer wildflower meadows, a via ferrata and golden aspens in autumn. Unlike Moab, it also has skiing. Expect rock scrambling in Moab and waterfalls, high basins and altitude in Telluride.

Telluride has better places to visit for a day. Ridgway, the Victorian canyon town of Ouray and Silverton at the end of the Durango narrow-gauge railway are all within a mountain drive, and Mesa Verde's cliff dwellings sit at the far edge of a long day.

From Moab, the towns within reach are small: Green River, Monticello and the pioneer stone houses of Bluff. Its best cultural outing is south to the Ancestral Puebloan ruins at Edge of the Cedars and Hovenweep. Both need a car, and Telluride's passes can close in winter.

Both suit active families and suit those with toddlers poorly, but for different reasons. Moab appeals to children who like scrambling: short walks to Sand Dune Arch, dinosaur tracks, calm river floats and Junior Ranger programmes. The drawbacks are summer heat and long unfenced drops at viewpoints.

Telluride offers the free gondola as a ride in itself, a well-regarded ski school with gentle slopes and easy waterfall walks. Altitude can disturb young children's sleep for the first few days, and the cost weighs heavily on a family budget.

This is where the two differ most once you have arrived. In Telluride you can cross the historic grid on foot in a quarter of an hour, the free gondola climbs to Mountain Village and free buses fill the gaps, so many visitors never drive at all. The drawback is the journey there, from airports one to two hours away.

Moab's Main Street is walkable, and a paved path runs north to the Arches entrance. Everything else involves long desert roads and dirt tracks, so you need a car, ideally high-clearance, or seats on outfitters' shuttles and tours.

Telluride is the nicer place to browse, with art galleries, Western clothing and jewellery boutiques and a couple of good bookshops on Colorado Avenue, all at resort prices. Moab's shops are practical: bike and climbing gear, plus rock shops selling geodes and fossils and a few galleries with Navajo jewellery and weavings. Nobody plans either trip around shopping.

Moab is the more affordable of the two, though its motels still charge resort rates in spring and autumn, and activities like rafting and jeep tours add up. You can save a great deal by camping in public campgrounds or on surrounding public land, many of the best hikes are free, and winter is much cheaper.

Telluride is among the most expensive places to stay in North America, with scarce rooms priced for second-home owners and lift tickets and meals at the top of the market. Staying further out in Ridgway saves money at the cost of a daily drive.

Moab's live music comes down to a single event, the Moab Music Festival at the end of summer, when chamber concerts are held in town and in canyon grottoes reached by boat. It makes a memorable evening if your dates line up. The rest of the year offers little beyond a weekend band in a brewpub, and there is no theatre or concert hall.

Telluride is a festival town on a different scale. The Bluegrass Festival has filled Town Park beneath the canyon walls since the 1970s, jazz, blues and chamber music follow through the summer, and the film festival arrives over the Labor Day weekend. Concerts, theatre and comedy at the Sheridan Opera House keep a thread going through the year, so if music shapes your trip, Telluride is the one to plan around, booking well ahead.

Moab tires you out in a way Telluride does not. Telluride has proper spas and hot pools within reach, but Moab has only a few small massage rooms, mostly used by cyclists with sore legs, and its days revolve around dawn starts and long hours in desert heat. Moab's restful side comes after dark: still evenings, a deep starry sky and red cliffs at sunset. If rest is the main point of the trip, you would need to base yourself well outside town, on an outlying ranch or up in the La Sals.

Telluride builds rest into the trip more naturally. After a day on the slopes, the Mountain Village hotels have full spas, and the public pool at Ouray and the springs near Ridgway make an easy afternoon off the trails. Cool summer evenings and the empty streets of the shoulder seasons keep the town calm. The thin air works against this at first, and many people sleep badly for their first night or two.