Adirondacks or The Hamptons?

The Hamptons have true beaches: wide, pale ocean sand backed by dunes at Southampton, East Hampton and Amagansett, with surf and lifeguards, plus calm bay beaches on Peconic and Gardiners Bays. Outside high summer the sea is too cold, and parking permits make it worth staying within cycling distance of the sand.

Adirondack swimming is freshwater, from the sandy public beaches at Lake George to town beaches and docks on Mirror Lake and the Fulton Chain. It is clear, calm and good for a summer of rafts and picnics, but there is no surf or salt, and the season is shorter.

The Hamptons eat far better. Bay scallops, Peconic oysters, striped bass, lobster rolls in Montauk's harbour shacks, sweet corn from the farm stands and North Fork wines make a genuine food trip. The catch is a gap between farm stand and white tablecloth, with little casual eating in the polished village restaurants.

Adirondack meals are hearty fuel after a hike: diner pancakes with maple syrup, summer burger stands, brewpubs and lodge dinners of trout and steak. Lake Placid and Saranac Lake have a few ambitious kitchens, and Champlain Valley cider and cheese help in autumn.

Neither is a museum destination, and they are about level, but the heritage differs. The Adirondacks tell stories of war and wilderness: Fort Ticonderoga and Fort William Henry, the Gilded Age Great Camps, the Olympic venues at Lake Placid and Saranac Lake's cure cottages. These sights lie far apart, so each one takes a drive.

The Hamptons offer old English village greens, windmills and Sag Harbor's whaling streets, along with an art story centred on the Pollock-Krasner House and the Parrish Art Museum. All of it sits close together along the South Fork.

In high summer the Hamptons have a real night scene. Montauk's bars stay loud late, and Southampton and Bridgehampton have lounges with door policies, though much of the famous partying happens at private houses. Adirondack evenings mean campfires and porches. Lake George's weekend bar strip and party boats, plus a few pubs on Lake Placid's Main Street, are the only exceptions.

This is where the Adirondacks pull far ahead. A vast protected wilderness of High Peaks, with Mount Marcy rising above the treeline, thousands of lakes and spruce forest supports long hikes, canoe trips lasting several days, and skiing and ice climbing in winter. The one drawback is blackflies in late spring.

The Hamptons landscape is gentler and centred on the water. You get bluff trails at Montauk Point and the Walking Dunes, marsh walks on Shelter Island, sport fishing, surfing and flat roads for cycling. It is pleasant, but it is never wild.

The Adirondacks have a slight edge for outings. Saratoga Springs' racecourse and mineral springs and Albany's capitol are close to Lake George, ferries cross Lake Champlain to Burlington, and Montreal is a long but possible day from the northern lakes.

From the Hamptons, the best outing is by the small ferries via Shelter Island to the North Fork's tasting rooms and Greenport's working harbour, with Block Island by summer ferry from Montauk. New York is too far to make a good day trip.

The Adirondacks give children more to do. Lake George has a theme park and water park, Old Forge has another water park, the Wild Center has its treetop walkway, older children can ride the Olympic bobsled at Lake Placid, and calm lake beaches sit right by rented cabins.

The Hamptons suit a slower family routine of bay beaches for toddlers, ocean beaches with lifeguards for older children, pick-your-own fields and the lighthouse climb. There is no theme park, though, and outings mean slow traffic.

You need a car for either, but Adirondack driving is the easier of the two. The two-lane forest roads are long and winding but mostly quiet, with queues only around Lake George on summer weekends.

In the Hamptons, everything funnels onto Montauk Highway, where summer traffic crawls and taxis are scarce. The Long Island Rail Road helps with arriving from New York, and bicycles work well on the flat lanes to the beach.

The Hamptons are the place to shop. East Hampton's Main Street and Southampton's Jobs Lane hold resortwear and jewellery boutiques, Sag Harbor has bookshops, and the antiques and interiors dealers around Bridgehampton and Water Mill are the real draw. Adirondack shopping is about craft: twig furniture, pack baskets, balsam pillows and maple syrup, plus outdoor gear on Lake Placid's Main Street.

Neither is a bargain in summer, but the gap is wide. Lake Placid and the Lake George waterfront charge resort rates. Still, motels and state campgrounds around the quieter central and western lakes, and trails and summits that cost nothing, keep an Adirondack trip within reach.

The Hamptons sit at the very top end: weekly or seasonal rentals, almost no cheap rooms, and even deli sandwiches priced for the wealthy. Going in June or September, or staying on the North Fork, softens the bill, but only partly.

Both have summer-only stages, and the Hamptons offer a little more within easy reach. Guild Hall and Bay Street Theater put on plays and concerts, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival fills the churches, and the autumn film festival stretches the season.

The Adirondacks have lakeside chamber concerts, a young singers' opera programme near Schroon Lake and Lake Placid's arts centre. Saratoga's open-air amphitheatre, with its orchestra and ballet seasons, is a drive away from the southern lakes.

Both restore you through pace rather than spas, and they are fairly level. The Adirondacks offer stillness: a canoe at dawn, Saranac Lake's tradition of resting in mountain air, and Saratoga's mineral baths just south of the park. The Hamptons have the better resort spas, with seawater pools in Montauk and Southampton and yoga classes in every village, but midsummer weekends there can feel anything but calm.