Rapid City or Santa Fe?

Neither is a beach destination, but Rapid City at least has good swimming lakes close by. Sheridan Lake, Pactola Reservoir and Sylvan Lake lie among the pines within about half an hour, with small shores and water near 20°C in high summer.

Santa Fe has less to offer. Abiquiu Lake is an hour away and the Rio Grande is for floating, so for most visitors a swim means the hotel pool.

Santa Fe has a cuisine of its own, and that makes the difference. Red or green chile, blue corn, posole and sopaipillas in old adobe dining rooms around the Plaza, an ambitious fine-dining tier and the long-established Railyard farmers' market make eating one of the reasons to go.

Rapid City feeds you well after a day outdoors, with bison burgers, chislic and Indian tacos on fry bread. Beyond the brewpubs around Main Street, though, it is mostly steakhouses and highway chains.

Santa Fe is by far the stronger stop for culture. It keeps the low adobe look of a Spanish colonial capital around its Plaza, with the Palace of the Governors, the Loretto Chapel's spiral staircase and the O'Keeffe Museum close together and Museum Hill a short ride away.

Rapid City's own sights fill a pleasant afternoon: the bronze presidents on the downtown street corners, the Journey Museum and the Badlands fossils at the School of Mines. The landmarks it is famous for lie out in the hills.

Both go quiet early and have almost no club life, so the difference is in tone. Rapid City's evenings mean brewpubs, sports bars and country-music bars around Main Street Square, and they only run loud and late during the Sturgis rally week in early August. Santa Fe's are a long dinner followed by a margarita on a rooftop facing the sunset over the Jemez Mountains, and for anything bigger people drive an hour to Albuquerque.

Both have outstanding country on the doorstep, but of different kinds. The Black Hills offer granite spires, ponderosa forest, trout streams and two great cave systems, with bison in Custer State Park, the Badlands an hour east and the Mickelson Trail for cyclists.

Santa Fe has altitude and desert instead: the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and the Pecos Wilderness, aspen slopes that turn gold in autumn, Valles Caldera, rafting on the Rio Grande and the red cliffs at Abiquiu. The ski area is less than an hour from the Plaza.

Both make good bases, but the country around Santa Fe is more varied. Taos Pueblo, lived in for about a thousand years, the old Spanish villages on the High Road, Bandelier's cliff dwellings, Los Alamos and the Turquoise Trail cover centuries of history, and you can even reach Albuquerque by train.

Rapid City's list is shorter but famous: Mount Rushmore half an hour away, Crazy Horse, gold-rush Deadwood, the Mammoth Site and the Minuteman Missile silo, all reached only by car.

Rapid City is the easier place to bring young children, because its days are spent outdoors doing things rather than looking at them. Children go underground on cave tours, watch wildlife from the car and dig for bones at the Mammoth Site, and motels with pools and campgrounds keep the evenings simple. The cost is time in the car, as most days involve hours of driving, plus summer crowds at Mount Rushmore.

Santa Fe is just as safe and relaxed, but its days are built around adults, with galleries, museums and long dinners. It works best for older children who will hike up to Bandelier's cliff dwellings and climb the ladders, or take ski lessons in winter. Small children can tire at the 2,100m altitude for the first day or two, and most outings still need a car.

Neither is easy without a car, but Santa Fe's centre is easier to walk. The Plaza, Canyon Road, the downtown museums and the Railyard are all within about twenty minutes of each other on foot, and the Rail Runner train goes to Albuquerque.

In Rapid City only the compact downtown works on foot. The city buses don't reach the hills, so you need a hire car or a seasonal tour bus. The driving is easy and scenic, though slow on the tunnels and hairpins in summer.

Santa Fe is a serious place to buy art and craft. Native American artists sell silver and turquoise under the portal of the Palace of the Governors, Canyon Road is lined with galleries, and the summer Indian, Spanish and folk art markets draw collectors from far away.

Rapid City's things to buy are Black Hills gold jewellery, Lakota quillwork, star quilts and Western boots. Beyond those there are souvenir shops in Keystone and Wall and a regional mall.

Rapid City is the cheaper of the two. Motels are reasonably priced and many sights are free, though rooms become very expensive during the August rally.

Santa Fe charges resort rates near the Plaza, especially during the summer markets and the opera season, and its restaurants are priced to match. Staying out along Cerrillos Road costs less. In both places a hire car adds to the bill.

Santa Fe has a real summer season, centred on the Santa Fe Opera in its open-sided theatre north of town, where performances begin as the sun sets. It also has a chamber music festival, a long flamenco tradition and touring shows at the historic Lensic.

Rapid City has the Black Hills Symphony, plays in the pines at the Custer State Park playhouse and, most distinctive of all, the large autumn powwow at the civic centre.

Santa Fe is the better place to unwind, with Japanese-style outdoor soaking tubs in the foothills, plenty of spas and yoga studios, and the mineral springs at Ojo Caliente an hour north. Rapid City's equivalent is the historic spring-fed pool at Hot Springs, an hour south, along with quiet cabin stays in the hills.