Palm Desert or Winter Park, Colorado?

Neither town has a beach, and both are far from the sea. In Palm Desert the water that matters is the resort pool, often heated in winter and set among palms, and the Pacific beaches of Orange County are about two hours away over the mountains.

Winter Park is more than a thousand kilometres from any coast. Grand Lake and the Granby reservoirs stay cold with snowmelt even in July, so they suit paddling and boating better than swimming, and a warm soak means a hotel pool or the hot springs down the valley.

Neither is a place to travel to for the food, but Palm Desert offers more range. It has polished steakhouses and Californian patio restaurants on El Paseo, family-run taquerias and bakeries in Indio and Coachella, and date shakes from the groves. Palm Springs is twenty minutes away when the resort menus start to repeat.

Winter Park eats like a ski town: burgers and green chile at the lodges, breakfast burritos before the lifts open, brewery pints, and a few dinner rooms serving elk and trout. It feeds a day outdoors well enough, and on winter weekends the tables fill early.

Palm Desert has a little more to fill a morning. There is the Palm Springs Art Museum's branch with its sculpture garden and the public art along El Paseo, and the mid-century modern houses and main museum in Palm Springs are close by.

Winter Park's heritage comes down to the railway story of the Moffat Tunnel and a homesteading ranch museum in Fraser, so a proper museum day means the drive to Denver. Neither suits a trip built around sightseeing.

Both towns go to bed early. In Palm Desert evenings mean wine bars and patio happy hours around El Paseo for a crowd of retirees and golfers. In Winter Park they mean loud après-ski at the base village and then brewery taprooms on the main road.

The real difference is what lies beyond the town. From Palm Desert, the valley's tribal casinos and the bars of downtown Palm Springs, with its well-known gay scene, carry on into the small hours. Around Winter Park there is nothing that stays open late.

Winter Park is an outdoor base in every season. In winter there are two linked mountains, the groomed cruisers of Winter Park and the bumps and trees of Mary Jane, plus cross-country track in the valley and backcountry on Berthoud Pass. In summer there is a lift-served bike park, singletrack around Fraser, and the moose and high tundra of Rocky Mountain National Park.

Palm Desert's landscape is a real draw too. The Santa Rosa Mountains rise from the edge of town, the Indian Canyons have palm oases, Joshua Tree's boulders are an hour away and golf courses are everywhere. But its outdoor season shuts down in summer, when only the hours around dawn are usable.

Palm Desert has the longer and more varied list, on dry, open roads. Palm Springs and its mid-century neighbourhoods are twenty minutes away, and a fuller day reaches Temecula's tasting rooms, the cool mountain village of Idyllwild, the Western film set at Pioneertown or the painted folk art of Salvation Mountain.

Winter Park's outings are fewer. Grand Lake, an old summer resort with a wooden boardwalk, lies north through Granby on the same side of the mountains. Georgetown and Idaho Springs, with their Victorian brick main streets, and Denver beyond them are all over Berthoud Pass, so in winter those trips depend on the weather on the pass.

Winter Park works better with children because the whole resort is arranged around them. It has a large ski school, gentle slopes at the base and a compact village, with tubing and skating in winter and an alpine slide and climbing walls in summer. The altitude can cost a poor night or two at the start.

Palm Desert has one excellent outing in the Living Desert zoo, plus resort pools and the tramway for older children. Beyond that the valley is set up for golf and adults, every outing means a drive, and summer middays are too hot for small children.

Winter Park is easier without a car. A free shuttle links the ski base, the town and Fraser, and the base village is walkable, so a ski week can be done without driving. You still need a car for trailheads and the national park, and the drive up from Denver crosses a high pass that calls for winter tyres in snow.

Palm Desert expects you to drive. It sprawls along wide boulevards, the buses are slow and infrequent, and only a few blocks of El Paseo invite a walk. On the plus side, the roads are uncongested and parking is easy.

Palm Desert is a genuine shopping stop. It has El Paseo's fashion boutiques, jewellers and galleries, a large mall for the familiar chains, a big designer outlet half an hour west, and vintage and mid-century furniture shops in Palm Springs.

Winter Park sells what you need for the mountain, from ski tuning and bike repairs to outdoor clothing and souvenirs, and for anything more the answer is Denver.

Neither is cheap, but Palm Desert is easier on the wallet. Chain hotels and rentals keep costs down all year, and in the hot months resort rooms fall to a fraction of their winter rates. The hire car is the constant extra, and golf and spa treatments are where the money goes.

A winter week in Winter Park adds lift tickets, rentals, lessons and resort-priced meals on top of lodging, though it costs less than Colorado's glamour resorts. Summer is the bargain here too: a condo in Fraser with a kitchen and free trails keeps the bill modest.

Palm Desert has a real stage in the McCallum Theatre, with touring Broadway shows, ballet, orchestras and comedians through the winter. The casinos and an arena add big-name concerts, and each spring the Indio polo grounds host Coachella and Stagecoach.

Winter Park offers free summer concerts in the town park with the mountains behind, and bands in the après-ski bars. It has no theatre or concert hall at all.

Palm Desert was made for unwinding, with resort spas, long afternoons by the pool and an unhurried winter pace. Half an hour north, in Desert Hot Springs, small spa hotels fill their pools straight from natural mineral springs.

Winter Park rests you in a different way, with cold, clean air, quiet forest and a hot tub after a hard day. The hillside pools of Hot Sulphur Springs above the Colorado River are half an hour west. In ski season the days are active, so the quieter weeks of late spring and autumn suit a restful stay best.