Bethany Beach or Lake Placid?

Bethany Beach is a real seaside resort. The pale sand runs the length of the town, lifeguards watch it all summer, and the Atlantic is warm enough to swim from July into September. Wilder dunes lie north towards Indian River Inlet, and the Inland Bays have calm water for toddlers.

Lake Placid's swimming is in fresh water: the small beach on Mirror Lake, spots on the Saranac chain and rocky holes on the Ausable. The water is lovely on a hot afternoon, but the beaches are narrow strips of sand and grass and the season lasts barely two months.

Neither town is somewhere you travel for the food, but Bethany Beach gives you more to remember. You can pick steamed blue crabs at a picnic table, eat sweet corn and peaches from the farm stands, and drive a short way to Rehoboth Beach, which has many more restaurants and its own breweries.

Lake Placid feeds hungry hikers and skiers well. There are brewpubs, big diner breakfasts and a few lakeside lodge dining rooms, but nothing like the Chesapeake crab tradition, and the choice shrinks in the shoulder seasons.

Lake Placid has the more interesting history. It hosted two Winter Olympics, and the 1980 'Miracle on Ice' rink, the ski jumps and the speed skating oval are all still standing in the village. John Brown's Farm adds an important chapter from the abolitionist movement. You can see it all in a day, but it is real heritage.

Bethany Beach has almost nothing in this line beyond its carved totem pole, a small history room and the wartime watchtowers along the shore. For museums you'll have to drive.

Both are early-to-bed places, and neither has clubs. What differs is where you go when you want more. From Bethany Beach you can drive to the late beach bars of Dewey Beach or to Ocean City's boardwalk. Lake Placid has no busier neighbour, but its own Main Street pubs fill up after a ski day or a big sporting event.

Lake Placid is in another league for the outdoors. It sits on the edge of the Adirondack wilderness, with trailheads for New York's highest peak, half-day climbs such as Cascade, canoe country, fly fishing, rock climbing and the biggest ski vertical in the eastern United States.

Bethany Beach's nature is flat and gentle: salt marsh, ospreys and herons, kayaking on the Inland Bays and the wild ponies of Assateague. It is lovely for easy days but has nothing strenuous, and the mosquitoes can be fierce in summer.

Bethany Beach has more towns within easy reach. Historic Lewes, the Victorian main street of Berlin, the larger resorts and the ferry to Cape May all make relaxed half-day or full-day outings along a short stretch of coast.

From Lake Placid most outings head into the woods. Saranac Lake and the Wild Center are close, but Fort Ticonderoga, Burlington and Montreal each take a long drive, so you'll make fewer town trips but go further on each.

Both are safe, small and good for children, and Bethany Beach is a little easier. Its routine of a guarded beach, bike rides, crabbing and free concerts at the bandstand needs almost no planning, and the amusement rides are a short drive away.

Lake Placid suits older, more active children better. They can skate on the Olympic rinks, ride the ski jump elevator, try a bobsled run and go tobogganing onto the frozen lake. In return you face longer drives and serious winter cold.

Both are compact villages you can walk around, and both need a car to go any further. In Bethany Beach the land is flat enough to cycle everywhere, and a summer bus runs along the coast, but summer weekend traffic on the highway is heavy. Lake Placid's trailheads and lakes are spread over mountain roads that call for winter driving skills for much of the year.

Bethany Beach has the stronger shopping thanks to the big outlet malls outside Rehoboth Beach, which are made more tempting by Delaware's lack of sales tax. The town itself has only beach boutiques and surf shops.

Lake Placid's single Main Street is mainly useful for gear, with outfitters, ski and fly-fishing shops, plus Adirondack crafts, maple goods and Olympic souvenirs.

Both are priced as American resorts, so you'll pay a lot at peak times in either. The savings work differently. In Bethany Beach you can split a weekly house rental, use the free beaches and pay no sales tax, and June or September is much cheaper. In Lake Placid the trails and lakes cost nothing, but lift tickets, gear and a rental car add up, and spring and late autumn are the quiet, cheaper weeks.

Lake Placid has a little more to attend. The Lake Placid Sinfonietta, a chamber orchestra with a long history, plays a summer season that includes free concerts by Mirror Lake, and the village arts centre puts on occasional theatre and films.

Bethany Beach offers free summer evenings at the boardwalk bandstand with cover bands and brass groups. Anything more means Rehoboth's small community theatre.

Lake Placid is the better place to unwind. Its larger lodges run full-service spas with saunas and hot tubs, and a cold day outdoors ends well on a porch over the lake or in front of a fire.

Bethany Beach has only a few day spas. Its restfulness comes from leafy, quiet streets, the sound of the surf on an empty boardwalk, and spring and autumn weeks when the town goes almost silent.