Atlantic City or Williamsburg, Virginia?

In Atlantic City the beach is the whole point. Wide, free sand with lifeguards runs under the Boardwalk the length of Absecon Island and carries on into quieter Ventnor and Margate. The catches are a short season and Atlantic surf, so swim between the flags.

Williamsburg is inland between two rivers, and a swim there usually means the hotel pool or Water Country USA. The small strip of sand at Yorktown is calm, and Virginia Beach is about an hour's drive away, so plan one beach day rather than a beach trip.

Neither is worth travelling to for the food, but Atlantic City offers more choice. There is Italian-American cooking in Ducktown, oversized subs on local rolls, crab shacks around Gardner's Basin and casino steakhouses for a dressed-up night.

Williamsburg's food is more limited and more regional: ham biscuits, peanut soup, Chesapeake crab and candlelit tavern dinners, which you go to more for the setting than the cooking. Away from Merchants Square, Richmond Road is mostly pancake houses and chains.

For history and sights, Williamsburg is far ahead. Its restored eighteenth-century capital fills two or three days, with costumed tradespeople along Duke of Gloucester Street, the Governor's Palace, the Wren Building and serious museums of folk and decorative art.

Atlantic City's heritage is that of the American seaside resort itself: the original Boardwalk, the street names from the Monopoly board, the giant organ in Boardwalk Hall and Lucy the Elephant down in Margate. It is fun and very American, but a day covers it.

Of the two, only Atlantic City offers a real night out. The casinos never close, and on summer weekends the big resorts run nightclubs and pool parties. Midweek and in winter it is much quieter, though, and the blocks between the resorts feel uneasy after dark.

In Williamsburg, most visitors call it a night after a tavern dinner or a ghost walk. There are a few student pubs near the college and taprooms on the edge of town, and for anything more people drive to Norfolk or Richmond.

Both are in flat coastal country with no hills, and in each the outdoors is a pleasant extra rather than the main draw. Atlantic City's landscape is salt marsh and back bay. You can watch herons and shorebirds at the Forsythe refuge, go crabbing or kayaking, or walk the sandy trails of the Pine Barrens inland.

Williamsburg's surroundings are greener and more wooded. The almost traffic-free Colonial Parkway and the Virginia Capital Trail are good for cycling, and on the tidal creeks you may see ospreys and bald eagles. Humid summers and mosquitoes push outdoor plans into spring and autumn.

Both have plenty of day trips, but of different kinds. From Atlantic City the biggest draw is Philadelphia, about an hour and a half away by train or car. Victorian Cape May and the boardwalk towns of Ocean City and Wildwood are closer.

Williamsburg's day trips are nearly all history: Jamestown and Yorktown are within twenty minutes or so, followed by the James River plantations and Richmond, about an hour away. A car is needed for almost all of them.

Williamsburg is the clear choice with children. Busch Gardens and Water Country USA are close to a Historic Area where children can watch musket firings and march with the fife and drum, and at Jamestown they can climb aboard replica ships. The town is safe and relaxed, with motels with pools everywhere.

Atlantic City has the beach, the rides on the Steel Pier and Lucy the Elephant, but it is built for adults, and the casino floors are closed to under-21s. Many families stay in Ocean City instead.

You need a car in both once you leave the centre, but the centres themselves work differently. Atlantic City's is long and narrow: you walk the Boardwalk, jitneys run along Pacific Avenue around the clock, and trains go to Philadelphia. The streets behind the Boardwalk are unpleasant on foot at night.

Williamsburg's centre is a compact colonial district, closed to cars by day, that you can cross on foot in about twenty minutes, with a shuttle running round its edge. The theme parks, outlets and battlefields are spread out along highways.

Williamsburg has the more interesting shopping, even if the range is narrow. Shops in the Historic Area sell pewter, pottery, silver and reproduction furniture made in eighteenth-century styles. Merchants Square has brick-fronted stores, and there is an outlet centre on Richmond Road.

Atlantic City has outlets and casino shopping arcades too, but beyond those it is T-shirts, beachwear and boxes of saltwater taffy and fudge from the Boardwalk.

The two cost about the same, and in both prices swing with the season. In Atlantic City the calendar matters most: casino hotels discount heavily midweek and out of season, and the beach and Boardwalk are free, but resort fees and parking add up.

In Williamsburg, rooms are the easy part of the budget and admissions are the big cost. Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown and the theme parks each charge a substantial fee, and a hire car is close to essential.

Atlantic City has the bigger stages. The casino arenas and Boardwalk Hall host touring pop and rock acts, comedians and boxing, and summer adds free beach concerts and fireworks. It is a place to plan a weekend around one show.

Williamsburg's performances are smaller and tied to its history: candlelit recitals of eighteenth-century music, period theatre and fife-and-drum corps, plus student concerts at the college in term time. Neither town has an orchestra or opera company of its own.

Neither has a bathing tradition of its own, and in both, wellness means hotel spas. The difference is the setting. Atlantic City's spas are inside casinos whose flashing, sleepless atmosphere is hard to escape, and the real calm comes on an empty Boardwalk in winter.

Williamsburg's spas are at the historic inn and the golf resorts on the James River. Early mornings on the colonial greens and slow drives along the Colonial Parkway make it the more restful stay of the two.