Bethany Beach or Williamsburg, Virginia?

At Bethany Beach the beach is right in town. A wide stretch of pale sand with lifeguards runs the length of the town, the Atlantic surf is moderate, and within half an hour you can reach the wilder dunes of Delaware Seashore State Park or the calm Inland Bays for small children.

Williamsburg is inland between two rivers, so swimming means the hotel pool, the small strip of sand at Yorktown or a drive of about an hour to Virginia Beach. The water there is slightly warmer in midsummer, but a beach day is an outing rather than the pattern of the stay.

Neither town is a dining destination, and the difference is mostly in flavour. Bethany eats like the Delaware shore: steamed blue crabs at picnic tables, fried clams and boardwalk fries, with many places open only in season and Rehoboth Beach nearby for a wider choice.

Williamsburg's food is Southern: ham biscuits, peanut soup, Brunswick stew and barbecue, plus candlelit tavern meals in the Historic Area. For a proper sit-down dinner it has a few bistros and wine bars near the college, while Bethany's food is at its best eaten with your hands.

The two towns differ most here. Williamsburg is built around its restored eighteenth-century capital: Duke of Gloucester Street, the Capitol, the Governor's Palace, Bruton Parish Church and the Wren Building of the College of William & Mary, with costumed craftspeople at work and serious collections of folk and decorative art. It is a careful re-creation rather than an untouched old town, but it fills two or three days.

Bethany Beach has its carved totem pole, a small collection on its church-camp origins and the Second World War watchtowers along the shore. For anything more, you have to drive to Lewes or beyond.

Both towns go to bed early, and neither is a place to plan a trip around nights out. Williamsburg has a little more going on, with student pubs near the college in term time, a few taprooms on the edge of town and candlelit ghost walks. In Bethany an evening out is a walk on the boardwalk, and the nearest bars are a drive away in Dewey Beach or Ocean City.

Both sit in flat, humid lowland with plenty of mosquitoes, but Bethany Beach has more to do on the water. Kayaking and paddleboarding on the Inland Bays, surfing and fishing at Indian River Inlet, and the wild ponies of Assateague Island make for a fuller outdoor week.

Williamsburg's Tidewater country is forest and river. You can cycle the quiet Colonial Parkway and the paved Virginia Capital Trail, walk easy forest trails at York River State Park and kayak on the Chickahominy, with a real chance of seeing bald eagles. It is best in spring and autumn rather than in high summer.

Williamsburg has the stronger list, because its two best outings belong to the same history. Jamestown and Yorktown are each less than half an hour away, the James River plantation houses line Route 5, and Richmond's capitol and Civil War sites are about an hour's drive.

From Bethany Beach the outings are pleasant rather than important: historic Lewes, the bigger resorts of Rehoboth and Ocean City, Victorian Berlin, and the ferry across Delaware Bay to Cape May.

Both are built for children, but Williamsburg has more to offer them. Busch Gardens and Water Country USA supply the thrill rides, and the Historic Area, Jamestown and Yorktown turn history into musket firings, fife-and-drum parades and replica ships.

Bethany Beach is simpler and calmer: a guarded beach, bikes, crabbing and free evening events at the bandstand, with mini-golf and water parks along the coast road. It has no big attraction, and the businesses aimed at children close after summer.

In both towns you need a car for the surrounding area, and both have a small centre you can walk. In Bethany Beach that walkable centre covers the whole stay, from rental to beach to shops, and many visitors leave the car parked all week, though the coast highway is heavy with traffic on summer weekends.

In Williamsburg the walkable part is the Historic Area and Merchants Square, and Duke of Gloucester Street is closed to cars during the day. The theme parks, outlets and many hotels are spread out along the highways. It does have an Amtrak station near the centre, which Bethany lacks.

Williamsburg's shopping is more unusual: pewter, pottery, silver and reproduction furniture made in eighteenth-century styles in the Historic Area, gift and book shops in Merchants Square, and an outlet centre on Richmond Road. Bethany's own street has beach boutiques and surf shops. The real reason to shop there is the tax-free outlet malls outside Rehoboth Beach, a short drive north.

Williamsburg is the easier place to stay on a budget. It has long rows of motels and chain hotels that are reasonably priced outside the peak weeks, though entry tickets to the colonial sites and theme parks add up quickly.

Bethany Beach is expensive in July and August, when weekly rentals near the ocean cost a lot and there are few hotels. Coming in June or September and cooking for yourself make it cheaper, and so do the free beach and Delaware's lack of sales tax.

Neither town has a professional theatre or orchestra, but Williamsburg has more to watch in the evening. Candlelit recitals, period theatre, fife-and-drum marches and college concerts in term time give it a programme tied to its history. Bethany's live music happens at the bandstand by the boardwalk, with free summer concerts by cover bands and brass groups that you watch from a blanket.

Neither town has a spa tradition worth travelling for, and both offer a slow pace instead. Williamsburg has the spas at the historic inn and the golf resorts on the James River for massages and treatments. Bethany has only a few day spas, but it is quieter, with leafy residential streets, a calm boardwalk and near silence in spring and autumn. It suits reading and long walks.