Bar Harbor or New York?

New York has the better beaches, which surprises people. The subway reaches the boardwalk at Coney Island and the long surf beaches of the Rockaways, and by August the Atlantic there is warm enough for a proper swim.

On Bar Harbor's granite coast, Sand Beach is beautiful to look at, but the water is numbingly cold. The swimming worth having is in Echo Lake and Lake Wood, which makes for a pleasant dip but not a beach vacation.

Bar Harbor does one thing well: lobster eaten at picnic tables, chowder, blueberry pie and popovers at Jordan Pond House. The choice is narrow, though, and many kitchens close out of season.

New York offers almost everything else. It has the immigrant cooking of Jackson Heights, Chinatown and Arthur Avenue, a deep fine-dining scene, and cheap staples such as the slice and the bagel. A food-led trip belongs here.

The gap is very wide. In Bar Harbor, culture means the Abbe Museum's Wabanaki collection, the surviving summer cottages along the Shore Path and the Tiffany windows at St Saviour's, which together take a few hours.

New York has the Met, MoMA, the Natural History museum and the Cloisters, plus landmarks from the Statue of Liberty to Grand Central. You could fill a week with museums and still leave whole collections unseen.

In Bar Harbor, going out means a taproom or a harbour-view bar on Main Street, and the town is asleep before midnight. Many visitors turn in early anyway to catch sunrise on Cadillac Mountain.

New York runs all night. It has dive bars in the East Village, cocktail rooms on the Lower East Side, rooftop bars in Midtown, and clubs in Williamsburg and Bushwick that go on past dawn, with trains running the whole time.

This is where Bar Harbor wins outright. Pink-granite mountains rise straight from the sea, there are iron-rung climbs on the Precipice and the Beehive, and you can walk the sandbar to Bar Island at low tide. All of it lies a few minutes from your room.

New York's outdoors is designed parkland, such as Central Park and the High Line, plus birdwatching at Jamaica Bay. The real climbs at Breakneck Ridge are a train ride up the Hudson, worth a day but not a match for Acadia.

From New York, a train reaches Philadelphia's Independence Hall, Yale in New Haven or the Hudson Valley estates and Dia Beacon, so substantial outings are easy without a car.

Bar Harbor's outings are quieter. There are the harbour villages of Mount Desert Island, a ferry to the Cranberry Isles and drives of up to two hours to Castine, Stonington or Camden. They are charming coastal towns, but you need a car and none of them is a major sight.

New York has far more for children: dinosaurs and the planetarium, the Bronx Zoo, the aquarium at Coney Island and a free ferry past the Statue of Liberty. The catch is the subway stairs with a pushchair and Midtown crowds that tire small children quickly.

Bar Harbor is simpler and calmer. It suits families who are happy with tide pools, bikes on the carriage roads and junior ranger badges, but it has little to offer on a rainy day.

New York is far easier without a car. Manhattan's grid is easy to walk, and the subway runs around the clock across four boroughs, with ferries and bike docks to fill the gaps. The awkward part is getting to and from the airports.

Bar Harbor's centre takes minutes to cross on foot, and the free Island Explorer buses reach the trailheads in summer. Outside that season you need a car, and in peak months the Park Loop Road and trailhead car parks get crowded.

New York is a shopping destination in its own right. It has Fifth Avenue flagships, Madison Avenue luxury houses, the boutiques of SoHo and Nolita, and vintage and records in Williamsburg.

In Bar Harbor, shopping is a stroll past fleece, fudge and balsam pillows. The real finds are local pottery, wooden bowls and knitwear, and many shops shut for the winter.

Neither place is cheap, but Bar Harbor is easier on the wallet. Its summer rooms charge resort rates, but once you are there, hiking, cycling and the free park buses cost little. Camping on the island, or coming in spring or late autumn, brings costs down further, though fewer places are open then.

New York is dearer all year. Rooms are small and expensive, and tax and tips are added to every meal. The best savings come from staying in Brooklyn or Queens, eating slices and food from the carts, and using the free parks and the Staten Island Ferry.

Bar Harbor's stage is a summer one. There are chamber concerts in island churches, and the art deco Criterion Theatre shows films and hosts touring acts.

New York has Broadway, the Met Opera, the Philharmonic and New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center, and Carnegie Hall. On top of that come jazz in Village basements, gospel in Harlem and free Shakespeare in the park, so any night offers a choice.

New York has more to offer here, oddly enough. It has an East Village bathhouse with steam, a hot stone sauna and an ice-cold plunge pool, Russian banyas in Brighton Beach and large Korean-style spas a short trip away. The city's noise means you have to go looking for calm, in the Cloisters' gardens or on a ferry.

Bar Harbor has no bathing tradition and little beyond hotel massages. What it offers is quiet: a porch over Frenchman Bay in June or after the leaves fall, when the town empties.