Bar Harbor or Lake George?

For swimming, Lake George is far ahead. Its long freshwater lake reaches about 24°C in midsummer, the state beach at the south end of the village has sand, lifeguards and mountain views, and many people swim straight off a rented boat. The beaches are modest in size and fill early on hot weekends, but swimming is what a summer stay there is built around.

Bar Harbor's coast is granite and cold Atlantic. Sand Beach in Acadia is beautiful, but most people manage a quick, gasping dip. The swimming visitors actually enjoy is inland at Echo Lake, so a beach day there is a side trip from hiking rather than the main event.

Bar Harbor eats noticeably better, mostly because it has a real local tradition. You get lobster boiled whole at waterfront shacks, steamed clams and chowder, wild blueberries in everything in late summer, and popovers at Jordan Pond House inside the park. A few more ambitious dining rooms and breweries round it out.

Lake George's village is mostly pizza, pancake houses and decks where you pay for the view. The better tables, serving Adirondack game and New York wines, are up the western shore near Bolton Landing, and keen eaters often drive to Saratoga Springs. In both towns many kitchens close out of season.

Neither town is a culture destination, and in both you can see everything in a morning. What differs is the history. Bar Harbor's story is Native and Gilded Age: the Abbe Museum on the Wabanaki people, the surviving shingle-style summer cottages along the Shore Path, Tiffany windows at St Saviour's, and the hand-cut granite bridges of the carriage roads.

Lake George's story is military. Fort William Henry, a reconstruction of the fort besieged in 1757, has musket demonstrations and the excavated grounds, and a small historical museum fills the old courthouse. Beyond that, the village is mostly motels and arcades.

Lake George has more of an evening, though only in summer. On weekends the bars and lakeside decks along Canada Street fill with boaters and young day-trippers and stay loud until closing.

Bar Harbor goes to bed early. There are a few taprooms and harbour-view bars and the odd band, but it is quiet well before midnight, partly because people are getting up for sunrise on Cadillac Mountain. Neither town has clubs, and out of season both are quiet.

Both are outstanding outdoor bases, but the scenery and activities are quite different. Bar Harbor is coastal: rounded granite peaks rise straight from the sea, Ocean Path runs past Thunder Hole and Otter Cliff, the Precipice and Beehive have iron-rung climbs, and the carriage roads make superb car-free cycling. Tide pools, sea kayaking and puffin cruises add to it.

Lake George is inland and freshwater. You paddle and sail among more than a hundred islands, climb Black Mountain or the Tongue Mountain range for views over the Narrows, and can reach the High Peaks in under two hours. It is also the better winter choice, with downhill skiing at Gore Mountain about an hour away.

Lake George has the stronger day trips. Saratoga Springs, with its springs, racecourse and battlefield, is under an hour south. Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain is about an hour north, and Olympic Lake Placid is under two hours away. The Vermont towns and Albany are also within reach.

From Bar Harbor, outings are gentler. You can visit the harbour villages around Mount Desert Island, take a small ferry to the Cranberry Isles, or drive up to two hours to Castine, Stonington or Camden. Both need a car, but Lake George's list has the bigger sights.

Lake George was built as a family resort, and that shows. It has a theme park and water park nearby, a calm lifeguarded beach, steamboat rides, mini golf and wax museums on Canada Street, and plenty of motels with pools and cottages with kitchens. Peak summer weekends are crowded, though, and most of it shuts after summer.

Bar Harbor suits families who like being outdoors. Children can explore tide pools, walk the sandbar to Bar Island, ride bikes on the flat carriage roads and earn junior ranger badges. Little is designed for small children when it rains, the sea is too cold for real play, and the cliff trails are too much for young legs.

Bar Harbor is the easier place to manage without a car, at least in summer. The harbour, Main Street and the Shore Path are all a few minutes' walk apart. The free Island Explorer buses run to trailheads, Sand Beach and Jordan Pond, so many visitors never drive. Out of season you need a car.

Lake George's village is just as walkable, but its seasonal trolleys mostly go to Glens Falls and the outlets. The western-shore hamlets, the trailheads and every day trip need a car. The nicest way to see the lake itself is by renting a boat.

Shopping is a minor pleasure in both towns, and neither is worth planning a trip around. Bar Harbor's Main Street has outdoor gear, galleries and Maine crafts such as wooden bowls and knitwear.

Lake George's Canada Street is mostly T-shirts and fudge. Its advantage is the outlet centres a short drive down Route 9, and its Adirondack rustic furniture and maple syrup make better gifts than the souvenir shops.

Both get expensive in high summer, but Lake George gives you more ways to save. Older motels along Route 9, cottages where you can cook, and cheaper rooms in Glens Falls or Queensbury make a family stay manageable, and many beaches and trails are free.

In Bar Harbor, rooms are scarce compared with the number of visitors, so even basic motels charge resort rates through summer and the leaf season. Lobster dinners, cruises and the park entry fee add up. Camping is the main way to keep costs down.

Both towns are quiet outside the summer, but Lake George has a little more on. It has free concerts by the water in Shepard Park, a long-running jazz weekend in September, an August chamber music festival and summer theatre. The amphitheatre in Saratoga Springs, under an hour away, brings orchestras and ballet within reach.

Bar Harbor's offer is smaller and more intimate. Chamber concerts are held in island churches in July and August, and the 1932 art deco Criterion Theatre shows films and hosts touring acts.

Lake George is better for a pampered stay. The grand resort hotels near Bolton Landing have full spas, and Saratoga Springs, under an hour away, has its historic mineral baths. The village itself is noisy in July and August.

Bar Harbor has no spa tradition beyond a massage at a larger inn. Its calm comes from a porch over Frenchman Bay and the empty harbour in June or after the leaves fall.