Bar Harbor or Washington DC?

Neither is a beach destination, but Bar Harbor at least has swimming close by. Sand Beach in Acadia is a beautiful cove of crushed shell, even if the Gulf of Maine stays bracing all summer, and Echo Lake has warmer, guarded freshwater swimming a short drive away.

Washington has nothing like it within the city. The nearest sand is on the small, brackish Chesapeake beaches around Annapolis, about an hour away. The Atlantic resorts are a weekend trip, so most visitors make do with the hotel pool.

Bar Harbor's food is narrow but memorable: lobster boiled in outdoor pots and eaten at picnic tables, chowder, blueberry pie and popovers at Jordan Pond House. Beyond that the choice is limited, and many kitchens close out of season.

Washington has far more range. There is Ethiopian cooking around Shaw and U Street, Salvadoran pupusas, the half-smoke, Chesapeake crabs and oysters, and grazing at Eastern Market and Union Market. Serious tasting menus in Penn Quarter and Logan Circle cover the top end.

This is where the two differ most. Bar Harbor's culture fills a morning: the Abbe Museum on the Wabanaki, Gilded Age cottages seen from the Shore Path, the Tiffany windows at St Saviour's and the granite bridges of the carriage roads.

Washington could keep a visitor busy for a week on culture alone. The Smithsonian museums along the Mall, the National Gallery of Art, the Capitol, the Library of Congress and the great memorials are mostly free and within walking distance of one another.

Evenings in Bar Harbor end early: a taproom or harbour-view bar near Main Street, perhaps a band at the weekend, and bed in time for sunrise on Cadillac Mountain.

Washington has a proper night out, at least from Thursday to Saturday. The 14th Street and U Street corridor has cocktail bars and rooftops, Adams Morgan runs late and loud, H Street has the dive bars and Dupont Circle is the centre of the LGBTQ+ scene. At weekends bars stay open until two or three in the morning.

Bar Harbor comes out on top here. Acadia's pink-granite mountains rise from the sea at the edge of town. Ocean Path, the climbs up the Precipice and the Beehive, Somes Sound, whale and puffin cruises and about 70km of carriage roads are all on the island.

Washington is unusually green for a capital, with Rock Creek Park, the C&O Canal towpath and the rocky gorge at Great Falls all close by. For real mountains you have to drive out to Shenandoah, though, and the summer heat makes strenuous days hard work.

Washington has the much richer choice of outings. Old Town Alexandria and Mount Vernon are close, and Baltimore is a short train ride away. Gettysburg, Antietam, Harpers Ferry and even Philadelphia each make a full day of American history.

From Bar Harbor the options are quieter coastal places: the harbour villages of Mount Desert Island, a ferry to the Cranberry Isles, and Castine, Blue Hill, Stonington or Camden a longer drive away. They are pretty rather than essential, and you need a car.

Children do well in both, but Washington gives them more to do. The dinosaurs at Natural History, the rockets at Air and Space and the free National Zoo can fill several days in any weather, and lifts at every Metro station make pushchairs easy.

Bar Harbor offers a simpler outdoor vacation: tide pools, the sandbar walk to Bar Island, bike rides on the carriage roads and junior ranger activities in Acadia. It has little for a rainy day, and the cliff trails are too much for small legs.

Both centres are easy to walk, but Washington is much easier to get around beyond them. The Metro runs all year to Arlington, Alexandria and the airport, and bike-share and riverside paths link the monuments, so you do not need a car in the city.

In Bar Harbor the free Island Explorer buses cover the park in season, but outside it you really need a car. In summer the Park Loop Road gets congested and trailhead car parks fill early.

In Bar Harbor, shopping is something you fit in between a hike and dinner. A couple of streets of souvenirs, outdoor gear and fudge make up most of it, and Maine-made wooden bowls and knitwear are about the only things worth the room in your bag. Shops follow the season, so if you visit in winter you will find most of them shut.

Washington has more choice, spread across the city and open all year. Georgetown is good for an afternoon of fashion and antiques, the suburban malls at Tysons Corner and Pentagon City cover the big brands, and the weekend market on Capitol Hill has craft stalls. Few people come to the capital to shop, though, and the best things to take home are often books and prints from the museum shops.

Both are expensive places to stay, but the costs fall differently. Bar Harbor charges resort rates in summer and the leaf season, then gets much cheaper once the season ends, though there are fewer places to eat and sleep by then. Island campgrounds are the main way to save.

In Washington, hotels are costly all year, and restaurants and taxis are priced for expense accounts. The museums, the zoo and the memorials are free, which makes up for some of it, and staying across the river in Arlington cuts the cost of a room.

Washington has a real theatre and concert scene. There are Arena Stage, the Shakespeare Theatre Company, Ford's Theatre and the Folger, along with the National Symphony Orchestra and the Washington National Opera. Touring acts play the Lincoln and Howard theatres around U Street, and Wolf Trap holds concerts on its lawn in summer.

Bar Harbor has summer chamber-music festivals in island churches and shows at the art deco Criterion Theatre, and very little outside July and August.

Neither has a spa tradition, so rest comes from the setting rather than treatments. Bar Harbor has the edge for slowing down, especially in June or late autumn, when the town empties and a porch over Frenchman Bay is enough.

In Washington, calm comes in small doses: hotel spas, an early walk round the Tidal Basin, or the gardens at Dumbarton Oaks and the National Arboretum. Around them the capital keeps up its brisk working pace.