I can only offer a summer perspective. I’m not a skier, and have only vacationed in mountain towns during the summer. This was my first trip to Park City, and I’ve also been to Breckenridge and Crested Butte. Compared to each other, they have their pros and cons.
Park City is by far the easiest to get to. It’s a 2.75 hour direct flight from Austin, the rental cars are on site at the SLC airport, and it’s an easy 40-minute drive to Park City. Breckenridge is a tougher haul. When you get to Denver, you shuttle practically to a different town for a rental car, and then it’s a 2-hour drive to Breck. Crested Butte is somewhere in between – layover in Denver to catch a small plane to Gunnison, and from there about a 40-minute drive to CB.
I think Crested Butte has more charm, but that’s purely a matter of personal taste. It’s the smallest of the towns, so the dining options aren’t as plenty. There’s much more to do in Breckenridge and Park City, and the Olympic Park in Park City is far better than the adventure park in Breck. The hiking in CB is great, but it seems like there are more options in Breck and PC.
Regarding the whiteness in PC, yes, that’s generally true for most mountain towns. But I noticed a lot more nonwhites in PC, perhaps because it wasn’t ski season. It took me a couple days to get over the fact that I was in the state of Utah. But I didn’t get a sense of “Mormonness” around town. It seems like most of the locals – the rafting guides, servers, bartenders, art gallery staff – are from places other than Utah, and wanted to retreat to a mountain/ski town. If it’s any indication, there were pride flags hanging along Main Street. The beer flows abundantly in PC.
I could go the rest of my life without returning to Breckenridge. But I’ll want to go back to Crested Butte and Park City.