Atlantic City or Rehoboth Beach?

The beaches are much the same: wide, pale, free sand with lifeguards and the same short summer season. What sets them apart is the setting. In Atlantic City you lie on the sand beneath the casino towers and the Boardwalk, and the surf and rip currents mean swimming between the flags.

At Rehoboth the beach is usually gentler, and it backs onto a small town instead of high-rise resorts. A short way north, the beaches of Cape Henlopen State Park feel wild and open even on a summer weekend. In Atlantic City, the quieter sand lies down the island in Ventnor and Margate.

The food is equally good in both towns but different in style. Atlantic City splits between polished casino steakhouses and buffets on one side and the Italian-American Ducktown, huge subs and boardwalk pizza on the other.

Rehoboth has more chef-led cooking because of its long role as Washington's summer escape. It also has the shore classics of steamed blue crabs and vinegar fries, plus a real craft beer culture. Both sell saltwater taffy, and neither has much in the way of markets.

Neither town is a cultural trip, but Atlantic City has more to see. The original Boardwalk, the street names from the Monopoly board, the Art Deco Boardwalk Hall with its giant pipe organ, the climbable Absecon Lighthouse and Lucy the Elephant fill a satisfying day.

Rehoboth's heritage is quieter: Methodist camp-meeting cottages, the Rehoboth Art League's garden galleries and a small museum house. For more history, visitors drive to Lewes.

Atlantic City has more going on after dark, and it never stops. Casino bars and gaming floors stay open all night, and summer weekends bring nightclubs and pool parties that draw crowds from Philadelphia and New York. Away from the resorts, though, the streets are empty and uneasy.

Rehoboth's evenings are smaller and more sociable. Piano lounges, drag nights and the bars of one of the East Coast's best-known LGBTQ resorts fill the downtown blocks, and Dewey Beach adds loud deck bars for a younger crowd. It is mostly over earlier than in Atlantic City.

Both sit on flat coastal land, but Rehoboth has more of it right on its doorstep. Cape Henlopen's tall dunes and trails start at the edge of town, a bike trail through woods and wetland runs to Lewes, and the inland bays are good for paddling. The ponies of Assateague are about an hour away.

Atlantic City's best nature is a short drive north at the Forsythe wildlife refuge, which is excellent for herons and shorebirds. The Pine Barrens, about an hour inland, add forest trails and canoeing rivers.

Atlantic City has the bigger day out. Philadelphia, with Independence Hall and its major museums, is about an hour and a half away by train or car. Cape May's Victorian streets, the boardwalks of Ocean City and Wildwood, and Batsto village in the Pine Barrens are all closer.

Rehoboth's trips are smaller in scale. Lewes is ten minutes away, the ferry crosses to Cape May, and Berlin, Dover and Chincoteague are within a drive. Every one of them needs a car.

Rehoboth is built for children in a way Atlantic City is not. Funland's gentle rides on the boardwalk, lifeguarded beaches by the rental houses, mini-golf, a water park and the calm bay water and nature centre at Cape Henlopen make easy days. The compact, safe town helps too.

In Atlantic City the beach, the Steel Pier rides and Lucy the Elephant do their part. Still, casinos are off limits to under-21s, and many families end up staying in Ocean City instead.

Rehoboth is easier to get around on foot. Downtown, the boardwalk and the beach are a few minutes' walk apart, and the flat grid and the trail to Lewes make bikes the natural way to move. Getting there is harder: there is no train, and the highway clogs on summer weekends.

Atlantic City has the rail link and regional buses Rehoboth lacks, and jitneys run along Pacific Avenue around the clock. Away from the Boardwalk, though, the streets are unpleasant to walk, and anything off the island needs a car.

Rehoboth is the better place to shop, helped by Delaware's lack of sales tax. Large outlet centres draw shoppers from several states, and Rehoboth Avenue has independent boutiques, bookshops, galleries and home stores.

Atlantic City has an outlet district near the Boardwalk and shopping arcades in the casinos. Beyond those it is T-shirts, beachwear and taffy, with no boutique streets.

Atlantic City is easier on the wallet, provided you avoid summer weekends. Casino hotels slash midweek and off-season rates, and much of the entertainment is free, though resort fees, parking and tips add up.

Rehoboth's beach-side rooms and rental houses carry steep summer premiums, and meals cost what they do in a well-off resort. Spring and autumn bring prices down sharply, and tax-free shopping helps a little.

Atlantic City is the place to see a big show. Casino arenas and showrooms book touring pop and rock acts and comedians, and Boardwalk Hall hosts major concerts, boxing and the occasional recital on its historic organ. Many visitors plan the whole weekend around one event.

Rehoboth works on a smaller scale. Free summer concerts at the bandstand, musicals and cabaret from a local theatre company, an autumn film festival and piano bars fill its calendar. Bigger names mean a drive south.

Neither town has a bathing tradition, so rest here means different things. Atlantic City has the larger spas, with saunas and indoor pools inside the casino hotels, but the flashing gaming floors around them are hardly calm.

Rehoboth's appeal is its pace. In June, September and on autumn weekends the town slows to empty boardwalk walks and bike rides under the pines, which is a better kind of rest than an afternoon of treatments.