Baltimore or Bethany Beach?

The gap here is wide. Bethany Beach is built around a broad, pale Atlantic beach with lifeguards, and Delaware Seashore State Park and Fenwick Island are both close by. In Baltimore the water is a working harbour. The nearest swimming is at Sandy Point on the Chesapeake, which is brackish, has sea nettles in high summer and is sometimes closed after rain.

There is an irony in this. The surf beaches that Baltimore people head to when they want the ocean are on Bethany Beach's stretch of coast, about three hours' drive from the city.

Both places serve steamed blue crabs on brown paper, but Baltimore has much more around them. It has old market halls such as Lexington Market, the Italian restaurants and pastry shops of Little Italy, pit beef stands and chef-led restaurants in Hampden and Harbor East.

Bethany Beach eats like a seaside town, with fried clams, boardwalk fries, taffy and ice cream, and many kitchens open only in season. A wider choice of restaurants means driving to Rehoboth Beach. The town's own treat is the sweet corn and peaches sold at farm stands inland.

Baltimore has enough to fill two or three busy days. There are free art museums with world-class collections, the fort where the national anthem was born, the B&O roundhouse and the USS Constellation, as well as streets of brick warehouses and marble-stooped rowhouses.

Bethany Beach has a carved totem pole, a small local history collection and the wartime watchtowers along the shore. For anything more you have to drive, and the nearest place with real historic streets is Lewes.

Baltimore offers a proper bar night. There are old taverns around the cobbled square in Fells Point, rooftops and sports bars in Federal Hill after Orioles games, and dive bars in Station North. Bethany Beach deliberately offers almost nothing after dinner except a stroll on the boardwalk. Visitors who want to go out drive to the late beach bars of Dewey Beach or Ocean City.

The two are broadly level, but the outdoors is very different in each. Around Baltimore it means wooded river gorges in Patapsco Valley, trout streams on the Gunpowder and sailing on the Chesapeake out of Annapolis. The Blue Ridge hills are within reach for a proper hike.

Bethany Beach is flat barrier-island country. You can paddle the Inland Bays, surf or fish at Indian River Inlet and cycle level paths. The highlight is the wild ponies of Assateague. Ospreys and herons are common in both places, and so are humid summer days that make anything strenuous hard work.

Baltimore is one of the best bases on the East Coast for day trips. Washington and Philadelphia are both about an hour away by train, and Annapolis, Gettysburg and Harpers Ferry are easy drives.

Bethany Beach's outings are pleasant but smaller. You can visit the historic port of Lewes, take the ferry across the bay to Victorian Cape May, or see Berlin's main street and Chincoteague. All of them need a car, and none has the weight of Baltimore's choices.

Both places work well with children, but in different ways. Baltimore offers big attractions: the National Aquarium's shark ring and rainforest, the Science Center, Port Discovery, the zoo in Druid Hill and the locomotives at the B&O. Outside the harbour area, though, getting around is patchy and usually means a car or taxi.

Bethany Beach is the simpler family week. It has a guarded beach, a safe small town to cycle around, crabbing off the docks and free evening shows at the bandstand. It has no aquarium or zoo, and out of season the child-focused businesses close.

Baltimore is a little easier without a car. The harbour neighbourhoods link up along a waterfront promenade and by water taxi, and trains run to Washington and Philadelphia, though the city's own metro and light rail are thin. Bethany Beach is easy on foot or by bike within town, but there is no rail link. You arrive by car and need it for almost everything beyond the beach, often in heavy summer weekend traffic on the coast highway.

Neither place is a shopping destination, and they fall short in different ways. Baltimore's best browsing is the vintage and kitsch on Hampden's Avenue and the antiques and record shops of Fells Point. Bethany Beach has surf shops and beach bookshops in town, and the outlet malls outside Rehoboth Beach are a short drive away, where Delaware's tax-free shopping helps.

Baltimore is the cheaper stay overall. Its hotels cost noticeably less than Washington's, and its two main art museums are free. Restaurant meals and taxis still push the daily cost up.

Bethany Beach is expensive in July and August, when oceanfront houses rent by the week at peak rates. In June or September costs drop sharply, and cooking for yourself in a rental with free beach access keeps the bill down.

Baltimore has a real season. The symphony plays at the Meyerhoff, the Peabody Institute gives frequent free concerts, touring Broadway shows come to the Hippodrome, and indie and punk bands play in Station North. Bethany Beach has cover bands and brass groups playing free on summer evenings at the bandstand, and little else nearby beyond Rehoboth's community theatre and its autumn jazz festival.

Neither place has a spa culture to travel for, but Bethany Beach is the more restful of the two. Its leafy residential streets, the sound of the surf on an evening boardwalk and the near silence of spring and autumn suit long walks and slow reading. Baltimore's pace is urban and gritty. Quiet there means an early walk on the harbour promenade or an hour in Druid Hill Park, and locals who want to unwind tend to leave town.