Asheville or Rehoboth Beach?

Asheville is high in the mountains, several hours from the sea. Swimming here means a cold plunge under a Pisgah waterfall, a ride down Sliding Rock, a float on the French Broad or the small sandy beach at Lake Lure. These make good summer half-days, but they are not a beach vacation.

Rehoboth is a beach town first and foremost. A wide strip of pale sand runs past the boardwalk, with lifeguards and usually moderate surf, and the beaches at Cape Henlopen and Delaware Seashore State Park are wilder and less crowded. In high summer, days revolve around the towel and the umbrella.

Asheville eats better, and it has more of its own character. Its taprooms cover downtown, the South Slope and West Asheville, and its kitchens cook from Appalachian farms: trout, heirloom beans, ramps, barbecue and biscuits. The WNC Farmers Market shows where the produce comes from. The range of international food is narrow, though.

Rehoboth has more chef-led restaurants than most beach towns, plus Mid-Atlantic shore food: steamed blue crabs, raw bars and boardwalk fries with vinegar. A well-known Delaware brewery started here. Outside summer, much of the scene closes or scales down.

Here the gap is wide. Asheville has the Biltmore Estate, the Vanderbilts' château with gardens by Olmsted, which takes a full day to see. It also has a downtown of Art Deco and Beaux-Arts buildings, including the domed City Hall and the tiled Basilica of St Lawrence, as well as an art museum and the Thomas Wolfe Memorial.

Rehoboth has its Methodist camp-meeting cottages and the Rehoboth Art League's gardens in Henlopen Acres, and not much else. Visitors interested in history usually drive to Lewes.

The two are about level, and both are quiet places by city standards. In Asheville, an evening means brewery taprooms and cocktail bars within walking distance downtown and on the South Slope, local bars on Haywood Road, and on summer Fridays the drum circle in Pritchard Park.

Rehoboth's nights are more about a social scene. It is one of the East Coast's best-known LGBTQ resorts, with piano lounges and drag nights, and big deck bars in nearby Dewey Beach draw a younger crowd. Unlike Asheville, though, it goes quiet once summer ends.

Nature is Asheville's great strength. The Blue Ridge Parkway, Pisgah National Forest, Mount Mitchell and the Great Smoky Mountains all make for hikes, mountain biking, whitewater rafting and October colour on a large scale.

Rehoboth's outdoors is low-lying and coastal. There are high dunes at Cape Henlopen, salt marsh, kayaking on the inland bays, a flat bike trail to Lewes and dolphins offshore. It is lovely for easy days, but it has none of the mountains' drama.

Both have a similar choice of outings, and both need a car. From Asheville, most trips head into the landscape, such as Brevard's waterfall country. There are also small towns like Hendersonville, Black Mountain and Flat Rock, and the Museum of the Cherokee Indian in Cherokee is the strongest cultural outing.

From Rehoboth, trips follow the coast. Historic Lewes is next door, the ferry across Delaware Bay leads to Cape May's Victorian streets, and Chincoteague and Assateague's wild ponies are to the south.

Asheville suits active children: black bears and red wolves at the Nature Center, river tubing, Sliding Rock, zip lines and the Biltmore farmyard. However, families spend a lot of time in the car, and the nearest theme park is two hours away.

Rehoboth is easier with children. Funland's gentle rides, lifeguarded beaches just steps from the rental houses, a water park, mini-golf and Cape Henlopen's calm bay water are all close together in a compact, safe town.

Asheville's downtown is walkable but hilly. Biltmore, the Parkway, the trailheads and the waterfalls are spread along winding mountain roads, and the bus network does not really reach them, so a car is close to essential.

Rehoboth is easier once you have arrived. The beach, the boardwalk and downtown are a short walk apart on a flat grid, there are bikes everywhere, and a seasonal trolley runs to Dewey Beach. The catch is getting there. There is no train, nearly all visitors drive in along a highway that clogs on summer weekends, and parking near the centre is scarce.

The shopping is on a similar scale, but different in kind. Asheville sells Appalachian craft: pottery, glass and weaving in the River Arts District studios and the Folk Art Center, plus independent shops in the Grove Arcade.

Rehoboth's draw is Delaware's lack of sales tax. Large outlet centres line the highway, and the town has resort-casual boutiques, gift shops and the souvenir stands on the boardwalk.

Both are expensive by American standards, roughly to the same degree. In Asheville, the costs are Biltmore admission, a hire car and autumn weekend hotel rates, while the trails, waterfalls and Parkway are free. Midweek and winter stays are cheaper.

In Rehoboth, high-season beach rentals and parking are the main costs, while the beach is free and there is no sales tax. Rooms become much cheaper in spring and autumn.

Asheville has much more live music. Touring rock and Americana acts play its downtown and riverside venues, and bluegrass and old-time jams fill its pubs and porches. Shindig on the Green holds free fiddle-and-clogging evenings, and the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival has run since 1928.

Rehoboth's programme is mostly seasonal and small. There are summer concerts at the bandstand, a local theatre company, an autumn film festival and piano acts in the bars.

Asheville has a long history as a place people came to recover their health. That survives in its retreats, yoga studios, large resort spas and the outdoor mineral tubs on the river at Hot Springs.

Rehoboth has a few day spas and yoga studios, and its main restorative quality is pace. The empty boardwalk and pine-shaded bike rides in June and September are calm, but high summer there is anything but restful.