Palm Springs or Vail?

Neither is a beach destination, and both send you to a pool. In Palm Springs the pool is the vacation, warm for most of the year and part of almost every place to stay, with the ocean two hours west over the mountains. In Vail a pool is a hotel extra, and the mountain lakes stay cold even in July.

Eating out is middling in both, and the real difference is style. Palm Springs is relaxed and sunny, with brunch on shaded patios, cocktails by the pool, date shakes from the groves around Indio and simple Mexican taquerias further down the valley, which also give it a cheaper end.

Vail offers formal resort dining, with steakhouses, fondue rooms, and elk, lamb and trout on the menus, plus lunch at mountain lodges between runs. It is polished but has little below the top end, and in both towns some kitchens close for the off-season.

Palm Springs gives you a genuine reason to look around. It has one of the densest collections of mid-century modern architecture anywhere, from Albert Frey's angular houses to the Alexander homes of Twin Palms, and they are best seen on a self-guided tour by bike or car. The Art Museum and the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum round out the day.

Vail has very little to compare. Its Tyrolean-style village is a 1960s imitation, and the Colorado Snowsports Museum and the Betty Ford Alpine Gardens take a couple of hours at most.

Neither suits a big night out, but Palm Springs has the more distinctive scene. It centres on the LGBTQ bars, patios and drag nights of Arenas Road, with retro cocktail lounges along Palm Canyon Drive. Vail's evenings are après-ski, with crowded slopeside terraces as the lifts close and a handful of bars open past midnight on winter weekends. Each goes quiet in its off-season: Palm Springs in the summer heat, Vail in spring and autumn.

Both are good bases for the outdoors, but Vail is in another league. It has a vast ski area, from the groomed front side to the Back Bowls and Blue Sky Basin. In summer there are trails among the lakes and 4,000m peaks of the Gore Range and Holy Cross wilderness, as well as fly fishing and rafting.

Palm Springs offers desert drama instead. There are palm oases in the Indian Canyons, the tramway up to pine forest on Mount San Jacinto, and Joshua Tree an hour away. It is superb from autumn to spring, but the summer heat rules out most hiking.

Palm Springs is the place for odd, offbeat outings: the lived-in Western film set of Pioneertown, the pine village of Idyllwild, and the abandoned resorts and Salvation Mountain on the eastern shore of the Salton Sea. They make memorable afternoons but they are small, and Los Angeles and San Diego are too far for a comfortable day out.

Vail's outings carry more weight. Breckenridge's Victorian main street is a little under an hour away and the silver town of Leadville makes a good half day. Glenwood Springs, down the Colorado River canyon, gives the fullest day out, and Aspen and Denver are just within reach. Wherever you go from either town, you will need a car.

Vail is the easier choice with children, provided they will ski or play outdoors. Large ski schools, children's terrain and a car-free village keep a family busy in winter, and in summer there are ropes courses and a mountain coaster at the top of the gondola. The altitude and cold can wear out toddlers, though.

Palm Springs leans towards adults, with many adults-only boutique hotels and a social life built around pool parties. The Living Desert, the Air Museum and the tramway make good outings. From late spring, though, the midday heat keeps children indoors or in the pool, and families do better in the big resorts down the valley.

Vail is far easier on the ground. The village and Lionshead are pedestrian, the lifts leave from town and a free bus runs the length of the valley, so many visitors manage a week without a car. Getting there, though, means a shuttle from a distant airport.

Palm Springs is the reverse. The airport is on the edge of town, but beyond the compact downtown strip almost everything needs a car, from the tramway and the canyons to Joshua Tree. Summer heat also rules out walking at midday.

Palm Springs has the clearer identity for shoppers. The consignment shops of the Uptown Design District specialise in mid-century furniture, lighting and vintage clothing, and the outlets at Cabazon and the luxury street of El Paseo are within easy reach.

Vail's village lanes sell ski gear, furs, Western boots and mountain art to a wealthy clientele. That is fine for a souvenir but narrow, and serious shoppers head to Denver.

Neither is a cheap trip, but Palm Springs gives you far more ways to control the bill. A plain motel with a pool and picnic meals work in any month. In summer the heat empties the town and room rates fall sharply, so a traveller with flexible dates can do the desert for much less than in winter. The hire car is the one cost you cannot avoid.

Vail has no such escape route. On a ski week the mountain itself adds to the bill, with passes, lessons and gear on top of the room and every meal, and there is no cheap tier to fall back on. Its quieter seasons and beds further down the valley trim the cost only slightly, so in Vail the destination sets the budget far more than the dates you choose.

Neither has a year-round programme. Each has one short, strong season, and they fall at different times of year. Palm Springs peaks in April, when Coachella and Stagecoach fill the polo grounds in Indio. Through the rest of the cooler months there are shows at the McCallum Theatre, casino concerts and drag cabaret.

Vail is the place for classical music and dance. In July and August, Bravo! Vail brings orchestras in residence to the open-air Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, alongside the Vail Dance Festival and a jazz festival. Winter there offers little beyond après-ski bands.

Palm Springs is built for this. The town grew up around the sacred Agua Caliente spring, and Desert Hot Springs fills its spa motel pools with mineral water straight from the ground. The whole day, with the pool, a late breakfast and a drink at sunset, is made for switching off.

Vail offers polished hotel spas, hot tubs under the peaks and massage after a day on the slopes, but no bathing tradition of its own. For natural hot springs you drive an hour to Glenwood Springs, and the altitude means the first days are best taken gently.