Santa Fe or Winter Park, Colorado?

Neither town has a beach, so this is no way to decide between them. The difference is in the water nearby. Around Santa Fe, summer brings real swimming at reservoirs such as Abiquiu Lake and gentle floats on the Rio Grande. Winter Park's lakes are fed by snowmelt and stay cold even in July, so people boat and paddle on them, and the warm water is in the hot springs pools down the valley.

Santa Fe is a place to eat for its own sake. New Mexican cooking, with red and green chile, posole, carne adovada and sopaipillas, is a cuisine you cannot find done this way elsewhere. Old adobe dining rooms around the Plaza, a fine-dining tier unusual for a town this size and the long-running Railyard farmers' market give meals a sense of place.

Winter Park simply feeds an active day. Expect breakfast burritos before the lifts open, burgers and pizza, a couple of breweries and a few steak and trout dinner rooms, and on busy weekends the tables fill early.

There is a wide gap here. Founded as a Spanish colonial capital in 1610, Santa Fe still shows that past in its adobe Plaza, the Palace of the Governors, the cathedral and the old chapels. Museum Hill's folk art and Native American collections, together with the O'Keeffe Museum, can fill two or three full days.

Winter Park grew up around a ski area in the late 1930s. Its heritage comes down to the Moffat Tunnel railway story and a small homesteading museum in Fraser, so a culture day there means driving to Denver.

Both towns go quiet early, but Santa Fe gives a little more to the evening. Here a night out means a long dinner and then a mezcal on a rooftop as the sun sets over the Jemez Mountains, with a few bars around the Railyard after that. Winter Park's evenings are livelier earlier on, when the base-village bars fill with skiers as the lifts close. By late evening the families and first-chair crowd have gone to bed, and neither town has a club worth the name.

Both are mountain towns, but Winter Park lives entirely for the outdoors and has the edge. Its two connected ski mountains, Winter Park's groomed cruisers and Mary Jane's bumps and trees, offer a long season with cross-country tracks and Berthoud Pass backcountry close by. In summer the slopes become a famous lift-served bike park, and moose and high tundra wait in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Santa Fe's appeal is the variety. Sangre de Cristo trails start at the edge of town, aspens turn gold in autumn and the Pecos Wilderness lies beyond. Desert mesas, the Valles Caldera and Rio Grande rafting add landscapes that a pure alpine valley does not have.

Santa Fe has much the richer surroundings. The High Road runs through Chimayo and Truchas to Taos Pueblo, and Bandelier's cliff dwellings, Los Alamos, Pecos and O'Keeffe's Abiquiu could fill a week of outings, though nearly all of them need a car.

From Winter Park the list is shorter. Grand Lake's boardwalk to the north is an easy valley drive. The Victorian mining towns of Georgetown and Idaho Springs, and Denver beyond them, are reached over Berthoud Pass, which winter storms can close or slow.

Winter Park is built with families in mind. It has a big children's ski school, gentle learning slopes and a compact base village, with tubing, sleigh rides and skating in winter and an alpine slide and climbing walls in summer. Rainy days, though, offer little to do indoors.

Santa Fe is safe and relaxed but made for adults. The children's museum, Bandelier's ladders and the folk art toys entertain for a while, and the town suits older children who like history and hiking best. Both towns sit high enough that small children may feel the altitude for the first day or two.

Getting around is about equally easy, and in both towns a car does most of the work beyond the centre. The difference is in what you can manage without one. Santa Fe has a real walkable historic core, with the Plaza, museums, Canyon Road and the Railyard all within a twenty-minute stroll, and the Rail Runner train to Albuquerque. Winter Park has no strolling centre, but its free shuttle links the ski base, town and Fraser, so a ski week can be done car-free. Getting there means a mountain drive over Berthoud Pass.

Santa Fe is one of the few small towns worth visiting partly for its shopping. Native American artists sell turquoise jewellery and pottery under the Palace portal, and galleries crowd Canyon Road and the Railyard. In summer the Indian Market, Spanish Market and International Folk Art Market draw collectors. Winter Park's shops are for the gear you forgot: rentals, tuning, bikes and outdoor clothing.

Both are costly for their size, with Santa Fe slightly less punishing. The expensive seasons differ, though. Santa Fe peaks during the summer markets, the opera season and Christmas, and a hire car adds to the bill year-round, while motels along Cerrillos Road soften the cost. Winter Park is at its dearest in ski season, when lift tickets, rentals and lessons pile up. In summer, with free trails and lower rates, it becomes a much easier place on the budget.

Santa Fe has a real programme. The open-sided opera house on a hill north of town stages new and rarely heard works as the sun sets, and a chamber music festival and a long flamenco tradition fill the summer. The Lensic theatre keeps the rest of the year modestly busy. Winter Park offers free summer concerts in the town park and bands in the après-ski bars, with no theatre or concert hall.

Santa Fe is the better place for a deliberately restful stay. Outdoor soaking tubs in the Japanese mountain style sit in the pines above town, and there is an unusual number of spas, yoga studios and healers. The historic springs at Ojo Caliente are an hour north, and the evenings end early.

Winter Park's calm comes from cold air, quiet forest and the hot tub at your condo after a day outside. The hillside mineral pools of Hot Sulphur Springs are half an hour away. Its busy ski weeks are active rather than restful, so late spring and autumn are the times to unwind there.