Snowbird or Steamboat Springs?

Neither place is for swimming. Snowbird's water means the resort's heated pools or an hour's drive to the cold reservoirs of the Heber Valley, and the Great Salt Lake is somewhere to look at, not somewhere to swim. Steamboat has Steamboat Lake and Stagecoach for a brief, chilly summer dip, and it also has the Yampa running through town, so floating downstream on a tube is a short walk from your room rather than a drive away.

Steamboat has the better food, mainly because it is a town rather than a resort. Lincoln Avenue and the ski base offer steakhouses using Colorado lamb and beef, Mexican places, pizza and local breweries, and you can wander between them. The range is still narrow, but it is a choice.

At Snowbird you eat in the lodges, the tram-top dining room or the slopeside cafeterias, at captive-audience prices. Its advantage is Salt Lake City's restaurant districts about forty minutes down the canyon, which offer far more variety than anything within reach of Steamboat, as long as someone is willing to drive.

Neither is a culture destination, but Steamboat at least has a history you can see. Its western storefronts, the Tread of Pioneers Museum in a Victorian house and Howelsen Hill, one of the oldest ski areas in North America, fill an hour or two. Snowbird was built from nothing in 1971, its concrete lodges designed for avalanches rather than charm, and the canyon's mining past has almost disappeared. At Snowbird, culture means a trip down to Temple Square and the museums of Salt Lake City.

Steamboat gives you more of an evening. Après-ski at the gondola moves on to saloons and brewpubs downtown, and in season some stay busy into the late evening. At Snowbird the lodge bars and the sunny deck at the base are the whole of it, and most people are in bed early to be ready for the first tram. Neither has clubs, and at Snowbird a proper night out means driving to Salt Lake City or Park City.

Both are outstanding mountain destinations, and the difference is in the type of terrain. Snowbird is steeper and higher. The tram climbs to Hidden Peak at about 3,350m, the deep snow feeds chutes, bowls and the run through Mineral Basin towards Alta, and the season often lasts into late spring. In summer there are the wildflowers of Albion Basin, wilderness trails and granite walls for climbing.

Steamboat is broader and gentler. Its Champagne Powder falls on aspen glades, Howelsen Hill adds night skiing and Nordic trails, and Rabbit Ears Pass offers backcountry and snowmobiling. In the warmer months there is fly fishing on the Yampa, backpacking in the Mount Zirkel Wilderness, elk and moose, and the aspens turning gold in autumn.

Snowbird is much better placed for days away from the slopes. Salt Lake City, with Temple Square, the domed State Capitol and its museums, is about forty minutes away, and Park City's Victorian Main Street is about an hour. Midway, Sundance and Ogden's 25th Street are further options for a quiet day.

From Steamboat, the nearby towns are small ranching places worth a coffee stop. Vail and Grand Lake are about two hours of mountain driving and Denver about three, so in practice a day out from Steamboat means heading into the hills.

Steamboat is the more family-friendly of the two. It has a strong ski school with gentle beginner terrain, a quieter town hill for first lessons, and the Old Town Hot Springs complex with slides and a climbing wall. In summer there are river tubing, short waterfall walks and the rodeo, all in a small, relaxed town where restaurants are used to children.

Snowbird's car-free base makes children easy to keep track of, and its summer coaster, alpine slide and ropes course are good fun. The mountain itself is built for experts, though, so it suits teenagers better than toddlers. Neither has a zoo or aquarium nearby, but Snowbird at least has Salt Lake City's within a short drive.

Both are easy on foot once you are there and harder beyond that, but Steamboat is a little more flexible. A town bus links the walkable downtown with the ski base, so you can get around without a car, although the hot springs and trailheads still need one.

Snowbird's lodges and lifts are a short walk apart, but everything depends on one winding canyon road that jams on powder mornings and is sometimes closed for avalanche control. On the other hand, the airport is only about forty minutes away, whereas reaching Steamboat means the small Hayden airport or a long drive over the mountains from Denver.

Steamboat has the only shopping worth an hour of your time. Lincoln Avenue's western-wear stores sell boots, hats and saddle-blanket goods, and there are galleries and a family outfitter that has been trading since the early twentieth century. Snowbird's base shops are for replacing lost goggles or renting skis, and anyone who wants to browse has to go down to Salt Lake City's malls or Park City's main street.

Both are expensive, with resort prices for lifts, rooms, rentals and meals, and both are noticeably cheaper in summer. They differ in how you can save. At Snowbird, staying in a Salt Lake City hotel and driving up each day cuts costs, though you lose the slopeside stay. Steamboat is too remote for that, so savings come from self-catering condos, free town buses and trails, and the cheaper spring and late-autumn weeks, when some places close.

Steamboat has a real summer music season. The Strings Music Festival puts on chamber music, jazz and bluegrass in its pavilion, there are free outdoor concerts downtown, and Perry-Mansfield, founded in 1913, stages student theatre and dance. Snowbird has plaza concerts and weekend oompah bands at its Oktoberfest, and otherwise little beyond an après-ski band. For symphony, opera or theatre, Snowbird guests have to go down to Salt Lake City.

Steamboat is a hot-springs town, named after a spring that chugged like a steamboat. Its spring-fed pools in town are used all year, and Strawberry Park, about 11km up a mountain road, has rock-lined pools in a wooded creek valley that are at their best on a snowy evening.

Snowbird's offering is one large spa on top of its main lodge, with a rooftop pool, hot tubs and steam rooms looking at the canyon walls. It is excellent after a hard day's skiing, but for natural warm water you need to drive about an hour to the limestone crater at Midway.