Bar Harbor or Portland, Maine?

Neither is a beach destination, because the Gulf of Maine stays cold, but the beaches differ in kind. Bar Harbor's coast is granite, and its one sea beach, Sand Beach in Acadia, is a shell-sand cove between headlands where few people last long in the water. The swimming worth having is in freshwater, at Echo Lake's guarded beach, where summer water is far kinder than the sea.

Portland has proper sandy strands within half an hour, from Crescent and Higgins beaches to the long resort beach at Old Orchard with its pier and arcades. The sea there is a few degrees less punishing, though most people still wade rather than swim.

Portland is clearly the better place to eat. Beyond the lobster rolls and steamers it adds raw bars shucking local oysters, chef-run restaurants built on farm and fishing produce, good bakeries, potato-flour doughnuts and a whole circuit of craft breweries in East Bayside and along Industrial Way.

Bar Harbor eats the same sea, but more simply: whole lobsters from outdoor pots at picnic tables, chowder, blueberry pie and the long-standing popovers at Jordan Pond House. The range is narrow, and many kitchens shut between late autumn and spring.

Portland gives you more to see, though neither is a major cultural stop. Its Old Port of brick and granite warehouses rebuilt after the 1866 fire, the Winslow Homer holdings at the Portland Museum of Art, Victoria Mansion and Portland Head Light fill a day or two comfortably.

Bar Harbor's interest is narrower and takes a few hours: the Abbe Museum on the Wabanaki peoples, the Gilded Age cottages along the Shore Path, the Tiffany windows at St Saviour's and the granite bridges of Acadia's carriage roads.

Portland has a real evening out, Bar Harbor barely one. The Old Port's pubs, oyster and cocktail bars along Fore and Wharf Streets, early-evening brewery taprooms and quieter wine bars in the West End and Munjoy Hill keep things going until last orders, even without a club scene.

In Bar Harbor a few pubs and taprooms on Main Street and Cottage Street serve hikers and cruise passengers in summer, and the town goes quiet well before midnight, with many visitors in bed early for sunrise on Cadillac Mountain.

This is Bar Harbor's great strength. Acadia rises from the edge of town, with granite mountains running straight to the sea, cliff climbs such as the Precipice and the Beehive, Ocean Path past Thunder Hole, the tidal crossing to Bar Island and some 70km of carriage roads for cycling, plus whale and puffin cruises.

Portland's outdoors is softer and mostly maritime: ferries to Peaks and Chebeague for quiet lanes, schooner and kayak trips on Casco Bay, and clifftop rambles at Two Lights. For mountains you have to drive about two hours to New Hampshire's White Mountains.

Portland sits better for outings, in the middle of the southern Maine coast with good towns in both directions. Kennebunkport, Ogunquit's Marginal Way and colonial Portsmouth lie south, while Freeport, shipbuilding Bath with its maritime museum and Boothbay Harbor lie north.

Bar Harbor's trips mostly stay on Mount Desert Island, to the harbour villages and the small ferries to the Cranberry Isles. Castine, Blue Hill and Stonington are pleasant but take a long drive, and Camden is within reach of both towns.

Both work about equally well with children, in different ways. Bar Harbor is all outdoors: tide pools, walking the sandbar to Bar Island, bikes on flat carriage roads and Acadia's junior ranger activities, with little to fall back on in the rain.

Portland has a little more under a roof, with the Children's Museum and Theatre of Maine, plus ferry rides, lighthouses and forts, and the amusement pier at Old Orchard Beach. Neither has a zoo or theme park.

Getting around is equally manageable, with the effort in different places. In Bar Harbor the compact town is easy on foot, and in season the free Island Explorer buses reach trailheads, Jordan Pond and the island villages, so you can manage without a car until the service stops and you need one.

Portland's peninsula is walkable year round, with some steep streets, and has island ferries and a train to Boston. The beaches, Portland Head Light and the coast towns, though, really need a hire car.

Portland is clearly the better place to shop, though neither is worth building a trip around. Bar Harbor's shopping is a summer wander past souvenir and outdoor-gear shops, with a few galleries where local crafts are the only real finds, and much of it closes once the season ends.

Portland gives you a proper afternoon of browsing, with independent shops tucked into the Old Port's brick lanes, galleries along Congress Street and, a short drive north, the outlet town of Freeport, which grew up around the L.L.Bean flagship and is the place for outdoor clothing. Even so, it rounds off a day out rather than filling a shopping vacation.

Neither is cheap in summer or during the autumn colour, and both drop sharply out of season. Bar Harbor's small supply of rooms keeps even plain motels pricey, but campgrounds, free park shuttles and days spent hiking can bring the cost down. In Portland the savings come from walking the peninsula and eating at seafood shacks and brewery food trucks rather than in its chef-run dining rooms.

Portland has a proper season for its size: the Portland Symphony Orchestra at Merrill Auditorium, professional theatre at Portland Stage and touring bands at the historic State Theatre on Congress Street.

Bar Harbor's live culture is mostly a July and August affair, with chamber concerts in island churches and halls and films and touring acts at the 1932 Criterion Theatre. Out of season there is almost nothing on.

A porch above Frenchman Bay and a day set by the tides is how Bar Harbor helps you unwind. It is most restful in June or after the autumn colour fades, when the town empties and the harbour goes still. In high summer, cruise passengers and traffic fill Main Street, so the quiet has to be found further out.

In Portland, unwinding means getting out on the water: a ferry to a quiet Casco Bay island, a long lunch by the harbour, dusk on the Eastern Promenade and perhaps a waterfront sauna after a bracing summer dip. For treatments, both offer only hotel massages and day spas.