Boston or Rehoboth Beach?

Boston has sand within reach, but it is not somewhere to plan a trip around. Revere Beach is a subway ride out, the harbour beaches in South Boston and Dorchester are for quick local dips, and the dunes of Crane Beach lie up the North Shore. The Atlantic stays chilly even in August, so a swim is a quick plunge on a hot day.

Rehoboth Beach is built around its beach. A broad strip of pale sand runs in front of the boardwalk, with lifeguards and usually moderate surf, and in July and August the water is warm enough for long swims. When the boardwalk end gets crowded, Cape Henlopen and Delaware Seashore State Park have wilder, emptier sand.

Boston is the better place to eat. Its New England seafood goes deeper, from Duxbury oysters to whole-belly clams and chowder. It also has the North End's Italian pastry shops and red-sauce dining rooms, late dim sum in Chinatown, and chef-led restaurants in Cambridge and the South End.

Rehoboth Beach eats well for a resort, with more ambitious kitchens than most shore towns. Its flavour is Mid-Atlantic: steamed blue crabs, crab cakes and boardwalk fries doused in vinegar. Its craft beer stands up well against Boston's, but the choice of restaurants thins out once summer ends.

Boston is far ahead here. The Freedom Trail passes the Old State House, Paul Revere's House and the Old North Church, and Beacon Hill and Back Bay keep their nineteenth-century streets intact. The Museum of Fine Arts and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum could each fill a day, and Harvard and MIT are across the river.

Rehoboth Beach has its Methodist camp-meeting cottages, the Rehoboth Art League in Henlopen Acres and a small museum house. Visitors interested in history usually drive over to Lewes for an afternoon.

Neither is a place for nights that run until dawn, but Boston offers more choice. It has Irish pubs around Faneuil Hall and in South Boston, sports bars near Fenway, cocktail lounges in the Seaport, and student bars in Allston and Cambridge that keep weeknights busy throughout the year.

Rehoboth Beach has a character of its own in summer. As a long-established LGBTQ resort it has piano bars and drag nights downtown, while Dewey Beach next door is the place for loud deck bars. Out of season it shrinks to a handful of quiet bars.

Boston has the wider range of outdoor options. Olmsted's Emerald Necklace links parks across the city, and the Charles is good for running, sailing and kayaking. Ferries reach the Harbor Islands, and whale-watching boats head out to Stellwagen Bank to see humpbacks. Cape Ann's rocky shore, the Blue Hills and Walden Pond are all within an hour.

Rehoboth Beach is gentler and flatter. It has the high dunes and trails of Cape Henlopen, a cycle trail through woods and marsh to Lewes, and calm bays for paddling. Dolphins appear offshore in summer, and Assateague's wild ponies are within an hour's drive.

Boston has the richer list. Salem and Concord are short train rides away, and Lexington and Plymouth tell the founding stories of the country. Old harbour towns such as Marblehead and Rockport line the North Shore, and Newport's Gilded Age mansions and Providence make for longer days out.

From Rehoboth Beach, Lewes is just up the road, and the ferry from there to Cape May makes a good day out among Victorian streets. Ocean City, Berlin, Dover and Chincoteague are also within reach. It is a pleasant set, but every trip needs a car, while Boston's two easiest trips run by train.

Both work well with children, but in different ways. Boston has major institutions built for young visitors: the New England Aquarium, the Museum of Science and the Boston Children's Museum. On top of those come the swan boats in the Public Garden and a whale-watching trip, and the indoor museums work in any season, although winter is cold.

Rehoboth Beach offers a simpler summer routine. Lifeguarded sand is steps from the rental houses, Funland has gentle rides on the boardwalk, there is mini-golf outside town and Cape Henlopen has calm bay water for small children. Out of season there is little laid on for families.

Boston is easier to reach and to get around without a car. Downtown, the North End, Beacon Hill and Back Bay are close enough to walk between. The T, the country's oldest subway, reaches Cambridge, Fenway and the airport, although some lines are slow and service stops around midnight.

Rehoboth Beach itself is small, flat and easy on foot or by bike, and a seasonal trolley runs to Dewey Beach. There is no train, though, so almost everyone drives in on a highway that jams on summer weekends, and parking near the beach is hard to find.

Boston is the better place to shop because it has much more variety. Within a short walk of Newbury Street there are fashion flagships, department stores, luxury labels and small independent designers. Beacon Hill has antique dealers, Harvard Square has bookshops, and the SoWa market brings out local makers on summer weekends. Few people travel to Boston for its shops, but in one afternoon you can see far more kinds of shop than Rehoboth offers all week.

Rehoboth Beach's shopping is narrower, but it has one real draw. Delaware charges no sales tax, so a morning at the outlet centres on the highway is worth it for anyone after discounted brand names. In town the choice is mostly resort casual, with boutiques, gift shops and beachwear. For anything more formal or upmarket, Boston is the place.

Neither is a budget destination, but Boston costs more. Its hotels are among the most expensive in the country, and meals and drinks cost well above the national average. There is no cheaper season to wait for, so only the free parks, the Freedom Trail and walking instead of taking taxis soften the bill.

Rehoboth Beach is expensive in high summer too, but there are more ways to spend less. The beach is free, shopping carries no sales tax, and rooms cost far less in spring and autumn.

Boston is much the stronger of the two. The Boston Symphony Orchestra in Symphony Hall, the Pops on the Esplanade, the Handel and Haydn Society and Boston Ballet make it a serious destination for music. Add touring shows in the Theater District, serious drama and premieres at the A.R.T., and Berklee students playing jazz in small rooms.

Rehoboth Beach has free bandstand concerts on summer evenings, musicals and cabaret from a small theatre company, and piano acts in the bars. For bigger concerts you have to drive south through Sussex County.

Neither has a bathing tradition, and both rely on hotel and day spas, so the difference is one of pace. Boston is brisk and busy, and rest means an afternoon in the Public Garden, on the Esplanade or in the Arnold Arboretum, or a quiet evening on Beacon Hill.

Rehoboth Beach is the more restful choice in June, September and on autumn weekends, when the boardwalk empties and the days are for long walks and bike rides under the pines. High summer there is loud and crowded.