Steamboat Springs or Breckenridge?

Neither town is a place to swim, and they lack water in different ways. In Breckenridge, Lake Dillon is for sailing and paddling rather than swimming, so most swimming happens in the recreation centre's indoor pools.

Steamboat's warmer summers make a dip in Steamboat Lake or Stagecoach just about possible in July and August, and floating down the Yampa on an inner tube through town is a proper summer pastime.

The two towns eat in much the same resort way, with hearty food built for people coming off the mountain. Breckenridge has a slightly wider range, with sushi counters and chef-led kitchens cooking elk, trout and bison, plus beer and whiskey made in town.

Steamboat's cooking leans harder towards the ranching Yampa Valley, with steakhouses, Colorado beef and lamb, and casual Mexican food. In neither place is eating out a reason to make the trip.

Breckenridge has more history to walk through. Its gold-rush district of painted Victorian storefronts and miners' cabins is one of Colorado's largest, and a mine tour and the old river dredges fill in the story.

Steamboat's heritage is ranching and skiing: a few western facades on Lincoln Avenue, the Tread of Pioneers Museum and Howelsen Hill, where generations of Olympians trained. In both towns, sightseeing takes up an afternoon at most.

Breckenridge goes out harder. On a winter Saturday, crowds still in ski boots move from the lift bases to Main Street's brewpubs and saloons, and a couple of dance bars keep going past midnight.

Steamboat follows the same pattern on a smaller scale, from gondola-base bars to a handful of places on Lincoln Avenue, and it is usually quiet before midnight. Neither town has real clubs, and both go quiet in the shoulder seasons.

Both towns are serious mountain bases, and they differ in character rather than quality. Breckenridge is the high-alpine option, with skiing across five peaks above the treeline, Keystone, Copper and Arapahoe Basin nearby, and Quandary Peak for a 4,000m summit. The altitude, almost 3,000m, takes a day or two to adjust to.

Steamboat is lower and greener. It has famously light Champagne Powder and tree runs through aspen glades, and in summer it offers fly fishing on the Yampa, backpacking in the Mount Zirkel Wilderness and frequent sightings of elk and moose.

This is where Breckenridge pulls well ahead. Leadville's silver-boom streets are less than an hour over Hoosier Pass, Georgetown and Idaho Springs offer a narrow-gauge railway and hot springs, and Vail Village and Denver can both be done in a day.

From Steamboat, the nearby towns are small ranching places, and Vail and Denver are two to three hours away by mountain road. Days out there mean heading into the hills, not visiting other towns.

Both towns work well for families who like the outdoors, and both have good ski schools and gentle beginner slopes. Breckenridge turns its mountain into a summer activity park with an alpine coaster, climbing walls and mazes, but its higher altitude is harder on small children.

Steamboat adds the Old Town Hot Springs, with its slides and climbing wall, quieter first ski turns on Howelsen Hill, river tubing and the summer rodeo. It is the more relaxed small town of the two.

Breckenridge is the easier town to manage without a car. A free gondola links Main Street to the slopes, and free buses run around town and to Frisco, Keystone and Copper Mountain. The catch is reaching it, a two-hour drive from Denver's airport that snow can stretch.

Steamboat's buses connect downtown with the ski base, but Strawberry Park, Fish Creek Falls and the lakes all need a car, often on winter roads. In return, flights into the regional airport at Hayden land much closer to town.

Shopping is a pleasant evening browse in both towns, but the goods are different. Breckenridge leans towards ski gear, technical clothing and Western landscape art, and the Silverthorne outlets are a short drive away for bigger shopping trips.

On Steamboat's Lincoln Avenue, the thing to buy is western wear: boots, hats and saddle-blanket goods, led by a family outfitter that has been trading for over a century.

Both are expensive, but Breckenridge is the dearer of the two, especially when lift tickets, lessons and slopeside condos are added up over the Christmas and spring-break weeks. Staying in Frisco or Silverthorne and using the free buses helps.

Steamboat is a little gentler, mainly in summer and the quiet seasons, though some places close then and you will usually need a car.

Both towns keep their best music for summer, and the difference is in what fills the bill. Breckenridge is the choice for an orchestral evening: its riverside concert hall gives July and August over to symphonic and chamber programmes from a festival orchestra and an academy of young professional players.

Steamboat's Strings festival casts a wider net, putting jazz, bluegrass and touring acts alongside chamber music, with free outdoor concerts downtown and dance and student theatre from the long-established Perry-Mansfield camp. Outside summer the towns still differ: Breckenridge has its local company staging plays and musicals, while Steamboat has a small community orchestra and the odd touring show, with live bands in the bars in both.

Steamboat is far better for rest. The town is named after its mineral springs, and you can soak in the spring-fed pools downtown or drive 11km up to Strawberry Park to sit in rock-lined pools in the snow.

Breckenridge has no springs of its own, so relaxing there means a hotel spa or a condo hot tub. The nearest natural springs are about an hour away, and the thin air and early ski starts leave many visitors tired rather than rested.