Boston or Portland, Maine?

Neither city is a beach destination, and the main difference is how you reach the sand. Boston's beaches are easier without a car. Revere Beach is a few stops out on the Blue Line, Singing Beach is a commuter-rail ride up the North Shore, and South Boston has small harbour beaches. The long dunes of Crane Beach are best reached by car.

In Portland itself there is only a small patch of sand below the Eastern Promenade. The wide beaches of Cape Elizabeth and Scarborough, such as Crescent and Higgins, are within half an hour by car, and so is the old-fashioned pier and arcade strip at Old Orchard Beach. The Gulf of Maine is a little colder still, so expect to wade rather than swim.

The two eat at much the same level and share a love of oysters, chowder and lobster rolls. The difference is range against focus. Boston adds the cannoli and red-sauce dining rooms of the North End, dim sum in Chinatown and chef-led restaurants in Cambridge and the South End.

Portland makes food the main reason to visit. You can spend the day on Maine estuary oysters, potato-flour doughnuts, serious coffee and the brewery tasting rooms of East Bayside and Industrial Way. International cooking is thin, and in summer the best-known places have queues.

This is where the two differ most. Boston has days of material. There is the Freedom Trail from the Common to the USS Constitution, the gas-lit streets of Beacon Hill and the brownstones of Back Bay, plus two outstanding art museums in the Museum of Fine Arts and the Gardner, with Harvard across the river.

Portland's sights are pleasant but few. The Old Port's brick warehouses rebuilt after the 1866 fire, the Winslow Homer works at the Portland Museum of Art, Victoria Mansion and Portland Head Light can all be seen in a day or two.

In both cities a night out means bars rather than clubs, but Boston has more of them and they stay open later. Irish pubs around Faneuil Hall, game nights near Fenway and student bars in Allston and the Cambridge squares keep even weeknights busy until the 2am close.

Portland has a tight cluster of pubs and oyster bars on Fore and Wharf Streets, taprooms that fill early and quiet wine bars on Munjoy Hill. Last orders come at 1am, and in winter midweek nights go very quiet.

The outdoors is equally good in both, but different in kind. Boston's is parkland: Olmsted's Emerald Necklace, sailing and kayaking on the Charles, and ferries out to the forts of the Harbor Islands. Whale-watching boats from the waterfront head for the humpbacks of Stellwagen Bank.

Portland's outdoors is more about the sea. Ferries go to the quiet lanes of Peaks and Chebeague, and schooners and sea kayaks head out into Casco Bay, with clifftop walks at Two Lights. It is also the closer of the two to the White Mountains for proper hiking.

Boston has the richer choice of day trips, many of them reachable without a car. Salem and Concord are on the commuter rail, Lexington and Plymouth tell the founding story, and Newport's Gilded Age mansions are close enough for a long day out.

From Portland, the trips run up and down the Maine coast: Kennebunkport, the Marginal Way at Ogunquit, the shipbuilding museum at Bath and the windjammers at Camden. These towns are charming rather than grand, and you need a car. Colonial Portsmouth is about an hour from either city.

Boston is far better equipped for children. The New England Aquarium, the Museum of Science, the Children's Museum and the Franklin Park Zoo are all within easy reach, and the swan boats and the bronze ducklings in the Public Garden please younger children. The compact, flat centre makes it easy to get around with a buggy.

Portland is easy-going rather than full of attractions. There are tide pools and forts at Fort Williams Park, the island ferries and the pier rides at Old Orchard Beach. With no zoo or major aquarium, though, it works best as a summer beach-and-boats trip.

Both centres are good for walking, but Boston also has the oldest subway in the country to link Cambridge, Fenway and the airport. Harbour ferries add Charlestown. The network is ageing and stops around midnight, but you can see the whole city without a car.

Portland's peninsula is small enough to walk, though some streets are steep. Once you leave it, buses are thin, and you will want a hire car for Portland Head Light, the beaches and the coast towns. The train between the two cities makes it easy to combine them.

Boston offers more choice. Newbury Street's brownstones hold fashion flagships and galleries, Copley Place and the Prudential Center cover department stores and luxury labels, and Charles Street has antiques.

Portland is all small independents, with Maine-made pottery, woollens and art in the Old Port lanes. The real draw is the outlet town of Freeport, twenty minutes away and built around L.L.Bean, which is good for outdoor gear. A keen shopper will be done in an afternoon.

Both are expensive, but Boston is harder on a budget. Its hotels are among the costliest in the country, and meals and drinks cost well above average. The free parks and the walkable centre are the main ways to save.

Portland charges big-city rates in July, August and on foliage weekends, but hotel prices drop sharply outside those times. Seafood shacks and brewery food trucks also make it easier to eat well for less than in Boston.

Boston is a serious music city. The Boston Symphony plays in the acoustically celebrated Symphony Hall, the Pops play on the Esplanade, the Handel and Haydn Society specialises in early music, and Boston Ballet dances at the opera house. The A.R.T. and the Huntington stage serious drama, and Berklee students fill small jazz rooms.

Portland has enough for a night out: its own symphony at Merrill Auditorium, professional theatre at Portland Stage and touring bands at the historic State Theatre. It is not a reason to choose the city.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, and spas in both are mostly hotel and day spas. The difference is pace. Boston is brisk and businesslike, and you find calm in the Public Garden, along the Esplanade or in the Arnold Arboretum.

Portland is restful in itself. A ferry to a quiet island, a dusk walk on the Eastern Promenade, a waterfront sauna or a cold summer dip in the sea is all it takes to slow down.