Page, Arizona or Steamboat Springs?

Page has real summer swimming and Steamboat essentially has none. Lake Powell's surface warms through the hot months, and you can drive onto the sand at Lone Rock or take a boat into sandstone coves and jump into deep water. There are no lifeguards, and the shoreline shifts with the lake level.

In Steamboat, getting in the water in summer mostly means floating down the Yampa on a tube. Steamboat Lake and Stagecoach take a few brave swimmers in July and August, but at that altitude the water never really warms up.

Neither town is somewhere you travel to eat, but Steamboat has more choice. Lincoln Avenue and the ski base have steakhouses using Colorado lamb and beef, local breweries and one or two more ambitious kitchens, and the hearty western cooking suits a day on the slopes.

Page eats for function: diners, barbecue, Mexican food and chains along the strip, and most places close early. The one thing it has that Steamboat lacks is the Navajo taco, frybread loaded with beans and meat, sold at roadside stands on the reservation.

Both towns are thin on sights, so the difference is in what kind of history each tells. Page is a dam town from the 1950s, and its main attraction is engineering: the Glen Canyon Dam visitor centre and the Powell museum, with the much older culture of the Navajo Nation all around it. Steamboat's story is ranching and skiing, and you can see it in the old storefronts on Lincoln Avenue, the Tread of Pioneers Museum and Howelsen Hill, where generations of Olympians trained.

Steamboat gives you more to do after dark, though only within limits. In ski season, après-ski begins at the gondola base as the lifts close and then moves to the saloons and brewpubs on Lincoln Avenue, some of which stay lively into the late evening.

Page has a brewpub and a few bars and is quiet long before midnight, partly because many visitors are up before dawn for the canyons. Its best night out is the extremely dark desert sky.

Both are outstanding outdoor destinations, but in entirely different landscapes. Page is red rock and water: the glowing walls of Antelope Canyon, the river bend at Horseshoe Bend, boat trips to Rainbow Bridge, rafting from Lees Ferry and the Wave in the Vermilion Cliffs. The scenery is so dramatic that every day there is about sightseeing.

Steamboat is alpine and green, and it changes with the seasons: dry powder snow and aspen tree skiing in winter, then mountain biking on Emerald Mountain, backpacking in the Mount Zirkel Wilderness, fly fishing on the Yampa and elk and moose in summer and autumn. The outdoors there is more about doing than looking.

Page gives you more places to drive to, although most of them are landscapes or monuments rather than towns. Betatakin's cliff dwellings at Navajo National Monument, the pioneer ranch at Lees Ferry, the film-set history of Kanab and Monument Valley all make good outings.

Steamboat is more isolated. The nearby ranching towns are worth a coffee stop at most, and Vail and Denver are long mountain drives away, so excursions there almost always mean heading into the hills.

Steamboat is the easier choice with children. It has a strong ski school and quiet beginner slopes in winter, and pools, slides and a climbing wall at the in-town hot springs all year, with tubing, the gondola and a rodeo in summer. Restaurants are used to families, although the altitude can tire young children for the first day or two.

Page suits outdoorsy older children who will enjoy a day of splashing at Lone Rock or a canyon tour. The fierce summer sun, sheer unfenced drops at the viewpoints and long hours in the car make it harder going with toddlers.

Steamboat is noticeably easier to get around. The town bus links the flat, walkable downtown with the ski base, and many skiers can walk from their lodging to the gondola. You still need a car for the hot springs, waterfalls and mountain passes, and snow tyres in winter.

In Page, a car is essential from the start. The strip is walkable, but Horseshoe Bend, the marinas and every park are beyond it, and the major airports are hours away, so most people arrive on a road trip.

Neither town is a shopping destination, but Lincoln Avenue in Steamboat makes for a better browse, with western-wear outfitters selling boots and hats, a few art galleries and good ski and outdoor gear. Page has one real attraction for shoppers: Navajo silver and turquoise jewellery, rugs and pottery, often bought directly from the people who made them at trading posts and roadside stalls.

Page is the cheaper of the two, though it is no bargain. Ordinary meals and fuel cost what they do in any small American town, and camping at Lone Rock or Wahweap or coming in winter saves a good deal, but rooms are scarce in the busy months, and the guided canyon tours and boat hire soon add up.

Steamboat runs on resort pricing, especially in the ski season, when lift access, equipment hire and slopeside condos are expensive, and most of all around Christmas, New Year and the spring school breaks. Summer and the shoulder seasons are easier on the wallet, and self-catering helps.

Steamboat has a real summer music season and Page has almost nothing. The long-running Strings Music Festival brings chamber music, jazz and bluegrass to its pavilion, there are free concerts downtown, and Perry-Mansfield, founded in 1913, stages student theatre and dance in Strawberry Park.

In Page, the closest thing to a show is a Navajo dance presentation put on for visitors or a local band in a bar.

Steamboat is clearly the place to unwind. The town grew up around its mineral springs: locals swim at the spring-fed pools in town all year, and the rock-lined pools at Strawberry Park, up a wooded creek about 11km away, are especially memorable when it is snowing. There are also resort spas, and the slow pace of a small town helps.

Page has motel pools and the stillness of the desert at night, but a typical stay there is full of early starts and long drives rather than rest.