Asheville or Virginia Beach?

Asheville can't compete here. Its swimming is cold mountain water: waterfall pools in Pisgah, the rock slide at Sliding Rock, tubing on the French Broad and a small beach on Lake Lure. All are good for a hot afternoon, but none of it adds up to a beach vacation.

Virginia Beach has a wide strip of Oceanfront sand with lifeguards and a boardwalk behind it, plus surfing by the fishing pier. The calmer bay beaches at First Landing suit small children, and the dunes of Sandbridge are there for a quieter stay.

Asheville eats and drinks far better. Its breweries are a reason to visit in themselves. Its kitchens turn Appalachian produce such as trout, ramps and heirloom corn into anything from barbecue and biscuits to chef-led dinners, and the tailgate markets are worth a browse.

Virginia Beach has one strong suit, which is seafood. Lynnhaven oysters and Chesapeake blue crab are best eaten dockside by the inlet rather than on the resort strip, where chains dominate. For more variety, people drive to Norfolk.

Asheville has more to see. The main draw is the Biltmore Estate, a full day of Vanderbilt château and Olmsted gardens. Downtown adds Art Deco and Beaux-Arts buildings around the domed City Hall and the Grove Arcade, and the art museum and the Thomas Wolfe house fill a second day.

Virginia Beach's sights make a short list: the 1607 landing site at Cape Henry and its 1792 lighthouse, the Adam Thoroughgood House and King Neptune on the boardwalk. Its serious history is up the peninsula, on a day out.

Neither city is made for late nights, and they differ more in feel than in depth. Asheville's evenings are spent in brewery taprooms, cocktail bars and dives within walking distance of each other downtown and on the South Slope. In summer there is also the Friday drum circle in Pritchard Park, and most places are quiet by midnight.

Going out in Virginia Beach is mainly a summer thing: loud, casual beach bars and rooftop decks along Atlantic Avenue, full of vacationers and sailors. Town Center has calmer lounges, and out of season the strip shuts down early.

Asheville is one of the great mountain bases in the eastern United States. The Blue Ridge Parkway runs along its edge and Pisgah forest begins just south of town. Mount Mitchell and the Great Smokies are each about an hour away, with ridge hikes, mountain biking and whitewater in reach.

Virginia Beach is flat coastal country, and its pleasures are on the water and in the marsh. There are cypress swamp trails at First Landing, the empty barrier spit of Back Bay and False Cape, and kayak trips out to the dolphins. It is good for a gentle paddle, but there are no summits.

From Asheville, most outings go into the landscape or to small mountain towns: Hendersonville, Brevard's waterfall country and Black Mountain. Cherokee, with its museum and the Oconaluftee village, is the strongest of them.

Virginia Beach has the bigger draws. Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown are about an hour away and make a superb history day. Norfolk's battleship and art museum and the Wright brothers' site at Kitty Hawk are also within easy reach.

Asheville suits active children. It has bears and red wolves at the Nature Center, short waterfall walks, river tubing, zip lines and the Biltmore farmyard. There is no zoo or theme park, though, and a lot of the day goes on driving.

Virginia Beach is the easier family trip. It is built around a lifeguarded beach and calm bay water for toddlers, with the Virginia Aquarium, a water park and mini-golf. A large amusement park and the costumed trades of Colonial Williamsburg are about an hour away.

You need a car in both. Asheville's walkable part is a compact, hilly downtown with the South Slope close by. The Parkway, the trailheads and Biltmore all mean driving on slow, winding roads.

Virginia Beach is flat and easy at the Oceanfront, where the boardwalk suits a bike and a summer trolley runs along Atlantic Avenue. Beyond that it is suburban sprawl and highways.

Asheville is the better place to shop if you like handmade things. Pottery, glass, weaving and woodwork come from the River Arts District studios and the Folk Art Center. There are also independent shops and vintage clothing around the Grove Arcade and Lexington Avenue.

Virginia Beach offers a regional mall, chain stores at Town Center and surf shops, which have real local roots, but little you couldn't buy at home.

The two cost about the same, and both are cheapest out of season. Asheville is priciest on autumn weekends, when the leaves turn and inn rooms climb, and Biltmore is an expensive day out. The trails and the Parkway are free.

Virginia Beach is costliest in summer, which is exactly when you want the sea, and rooms fall sharply after that. Its free pleasures are the sand, the boardwalk and the state parks. In either city a hire car adds to the bill.

Asheville has the richer music life by some way. Touring rock and Americana acts play its downtown venues, and there are bluegrass jams and buskers in the streets. Shindig on the Green holds free summer evenings of fiddle music and clogging, and the folk festival has run since 1928.

Virginia Beach relies on summer: a large outdoor amphitheatre for touring rock and country acts, and free concerts on stages along the boardwalk. For opera or a symphony you go to Norfolk.

Asheville has been a place to recover since its nineteenth-century days as a health resort. It still has retreats, yoga, massage and large resort spas, and there are outdoor mineral tubs by the river at Hot Springs, about forty minutes away.

Virginia Beach has hotel spas and a few day spas. Rest there comes from an early walk on the boardwalk or a spring or autumn visit, because in high summer the resort is crowded and loud.