Atlantic City or Boston?

Atlantic City is far ahead here, because the beach is the reason the town exists. A broad, flat, free strip of sand runs under the Boardwalk for the length of Absecon Island and carries on south through Ventnor and Margate. In late summer the sea is warm enough to stay in for a long swim, though you should swim between the flags.

In Boston the beach is more of an outing. Revere Beach is easy to reach on the Blue Line and Crane Beach has fine dunes, but the water is several degrees colder, so a swim is a treat on a hot day rather than a plan for the week.

Boston eats noticeably better. Oysters, steamed and fried clams, lobster rolls and chowder are done well everywhere from harbour shacks to Seaport raw bars. The North End adds red-sauce dining and cannoli, and Cambridge and the South End have the more ambitious kitchens.

Atlantic City has its own Italian-American tradition in Ducktown and honest crab shacks around Gardner's Basin, but most of its dining is inside casino resorts that could be anywhere. Its strengths are cheaper and simpler: subs on soft rolls, boardwalk pizza and saltwater taffy.

The gap here is wide. Boston keeps the Revolutionary story in its streets, from the Old State House and Paul Revere's House to the USS Constitution. Add Beacon Hill and Back Bay, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Gardner and the Harvard museums, and it takes several days.

Atlantic City's heritage is the American seaside resort itself: the original Boardwalk, the street names from the Monopoly board, Art Deco Boardwalk Hall with its giant organ, and Lucy the Elephant down in Margate. It is charming Americana, and one day covers it.

The two are fairly evenly matched for evenings out, but the nights are very different. Atlantic City runs on its casinos, where the bars and gaming floors never close and summer weekends bring resort nightclubs and pool parties. The streets between the towers are empty, though, and it all goes quiet midweek and in winter.

Boston is a pub city, with Irish bars around Faneuil Hall, sports crowds near Fenway and student bars in Allston and Cambridge, and it stays lively even on weeknights. Bars close by 2am, so it suits a long evening rather than a night that runs until dawn.

Boston has more to do outdoors. The Emerald Necklace parks, paddling on the Charles, ferries to the Harbor Islands and whale-watching on Stellwagen Bank are all close by. Cape Ann's rocky shore, Walden Pond and the autumn foliage are within an hour.

Atlantic City's setting is flat barrier island and salt marsh. The Forsythe refuge is excellent for herons and shorebirds, the back bays suit kayaking and crabbing, and the Pine Barrens lie inland, but nature there is a pleasant extra rather than a reason to come.

Both cities are well placed for days out, Boston rather more so. Salem and Concord are easy by train from Boston, and Lexington, Plymouth, the North Shore fishing towns and the Newport mansions make a long list of distinct New England outings.

Atlantic City's two best days out are excellent: Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia in one direction, and Victorian Cape May in the other. Beyond Batsto, Smithville and the neighbouring boardwalk towns the choice thins out, and apart from Philadelphia you will need a car.

Boston is much the better choice with children. The aquarium, the Museum of Science and the Children's Museum are major institutions, the Public Garden has the swan boats and the bronze ducklings, and the compact, flat centre is easy to get around with small legs.

In Atlantic City the beach does most of the work, helped by the rides on the Steel Pier and Lucy the Elephant. Casino floors are closed to under-21s and some blocks are rundown, so families often stay down the coast in Ocean City instead.

Boston is the easier city without a car. Its historic districts sit close together and are best seen on foot, and the T, the oldest subway in the country, reaches Cambridge, Fenway and the airport, though it stops around midnight.

Atlantic City is simple only along its spine: walk the Boardwalk or ride the jitneys that run on Pacific Avenue around the clock. Off the island, the refuge, Cape May and the shore towns are really car territory. In Boston it is the other way round, and a car is a burden in town.

Boston has a real shopping street in Newbury Street, with boutiques and galleries in Back Bay brownstones, plus antiques on Charles Street, bookshops in Harvard Square and the SoWa makers' market in summer. Atlantic City has an outlet district of familiar brands, shopping arcades in the casinos and souvenirs on the Boardwalk. A box of saltwater taffy is the only thing to take home that is truly its own.

Atlantic City is the cheaper of the two, though a lot depends on when you go. Midweek and out of season, casino hotels cut room rates to fill them, and the beach and Boardwalk are free. Summer weekends and long weekends push prices up sharply, and resort fees and parking add to the bill.

Boston costs more all year round. Hotel rates peak in the autumn foliage season and around graduations in late spring, and ease off in the quieter months outside those peaks. Even then, rooms, seafood and drinks stay well above what Atlantic City charges off-season. The free Freedom Trail and parks help, and so does a centre small enough to walk, but a careful trip to Boston still costs more.

Boston is the place for a serious night out. The Boston Symphony Orchestra in Symphony Hall, Boston Ballet, the Handel and Haydn Society and drama at the A.R.T. give it real depth, and students from Berklee keep the small jazz rooms busy.

Atlantic City offers big touring names instead: rock and pop acts, comedians and boxing in the casino arenas and Boardwalk Hall, plus free beach concerts in summer. There you plan a trip around one show rather than a season.

Neither city is really a place to unwind, and neither has a bathing tradition. In Atlantic City, relaxing means a casino-hotel spa with an indoor pool, or the empty winter Boardwalk early in the morning. In Boston it means a quiet afternoon in the Public Garden, along the Esplanade or in the Arnold Arboretum, with day spas in Back Bay.