Baltimore or Bar Harbor?

Neither is a beach destination, and Bar Harbor has a slight edge only because of the setting. Baltimore's harbour is not for swimming, and the nearest sand is Sandy Point on the Chesapeake, about forty minutes away. The water there is warm in summer but brackish, and sea nettles drift in during the hottest weeks.

Bar Harbor has the scenery but not the warmth. Sand Beach in Acadia is a beautiful shell-sand cove where the cold Gulf of Maine allows little more than a quick dip, and the swimming people enjoy is at Echo Lake and Lake Wood, which warm up properly by midsummer.

Both towns eat from the water, but Baltimore gives you more to choose from. Steamed blue crabs with Old Bay lead in summer and early autumn, and crab cakes carry on all year. Around them are the old market halls such as Lexington Market, Little Italy's red-sauce kitchens and pastry shops, pit beef stands and a fair number of chef-led restaurants in Hampden and Harbor East. Its cooking is about local specialities rather than wide range, but there is enough for several days of varied meals.

Bar Harbor does a few things well: lobster from outdoor pots, chowder, wild blueberry pie and popovers at Jordan Pond House. Beyond those the choice is narrow, summer evenings bring queues, and many kitchens shut from late autumn to spring.

There is a wide gap here. Baltimore can fill two or three full days with the Cone Collection's Matisse works, the Walters' antiquities, Fort McHenry and the national anthem, the B&O roundhouse and the historic ships of the Inner Harbor, and the brick and cobbles of Fells Point and Mount Vernon are worth walking in their own right.

Bar Harbor has the Abbe Museum's Wabanaki collections, the Gilded Age cottages along the Shore Path and the Tiffany windows of St Saviour's. That makes a good rainy morning, but nothing more.

Baltimore is a real bar town. You can spend evenings in the old taverns around the Fells Point square, on the rooftops and in the sports bars of Federal Hill after a game, or in the dive bars of Station North, with last call at 2am. Bar Harbor offers a pint in a taproom with tired hikers, the odd weekend band and an early night before sunrise on Cadillac Mountain.

This is Bar Harbor's strength. Acadia's pink-granite mountains rise straight from the sea within walking distance of town, with cliff routes such as the Precipice and the Beehive, Ocean Path past Thunder Hole and around 70km of carriage roads for bikes. Sea kayaking, puffin cruises and the low-tide walk to Bar Island add to it.

Baltimore's outdoors are gentler. It has the wooded gorges of Patapsco Valley, trout streams on the Gunpowder Falls, a large urban forest at Leakin Park and sailing out of Annapolis. These are pleasant, but they are a break from the city rather than the reason for the trip.

Baltimore's position on the East Coast corridor gives it far more to reach. Washington's Smithsonian museums and Philadelphia's Independence Hall are each about an hour by train, and by car you can reach colonial Annapolis, the Gettysburg battlefield, Harpers Ferry and the maritime villages of the Eastern Shore.

From Bar Harbor the outings are quieter: the harbour villages around Mount Desert Island, a ferry to the Cranberry Isles, and longer drives to Castine, Stonington or Camden. They are pleasant coastal towns rather than major sights, and every one needs a car.

Both work well for children, in different ways. Baltimore offers a classic attractions break, with the National Aquarium's shark ring and rainforest, the Science Center, Port Discovery and the zoo, all useful on a wet day, though the hot summers and patchy streets beyond the harbour mean more taxis.

Bar Harbor is an outdoor family vacation of tide pools, junior ranger activities, bikes on the flat carriage roads and whale-watching from the town pier, in a small and easy town. When the weather turns, there is little indoors to fall back on.

Both are easy on foot in the centre and harder beyond it, but the gaps are different. Baltimore's waterfront promenade and water taxis link the harbour districts, its rail links to Washington and Philadelphia are excellent, and Hampden, the art museum and the zoo need a bus or a taxi.

In Bar Harbor, the free Island Explorer buses reach Acadia's trailheads in season, and many visitors never drive. Out of season a car is essential, and in summer the park roads and trailhead car parks fill early.

Neither is a shopping trip, though Baltimore has slightly more texture. Hampden's Avenue has vintage clothes, kitsch and local art, and Fells Point adds antiques and record shops. Bar Harbor's Main Street sells fleece, fudge and lobster souvenirs, with Maine wooden bowls, knitwear and gallery pottery as the worthwhile finds, and much of it closes for the winter.

Baltimore is the cheaper stay. Its hotels cost less than those in Washington or New York, which is why many visitors to the capital sleep here, and its two big art museums are free. Restaurant meals and taxis still add up, as in any American city.

Bar Harbor has few rooms for the number of visitors, so even plain motels charge resort rates from July through the leaf season, and lobster dinners and boat cruises add more. Hiking and the free shuttle cost little, and camping on the island is the main way to keep costs down.

Baltimore has a year-round stage. The symphony plays at the Meyerhoff, the Peabody Institute gives frequent concerts in Mount Vernon, many of them free, and touring Broadway shows come to the Hippodrome. Indie and experimental bands play the small rooms of Station North, and the best programming runs from autumn to spring.

Bar Harbor's offer is mostly summer chamber concerts in island churches and halls, plus films and touring acts at the art deco Criterion Theatre.

Neither has a spa culture, but Bar Harbor is the more restful place. It offers a porch over Frenchman Bay, a still harbour in June and the empty weeks after the autumn colour, when the days follow the tides. Baltimore's pace is urban and gritty, its calm limited to hotel spas, Druid Hill Park and quiet galleries, and locals who want to unwind head for the Eastern Shore.