Catskills or Martha's Vineyard?

This is where the island pulls well ahead. Martha's Vineyard has two kinds of shore: calm, shallow water along State Beach on the Sound, and open Atlantic surf at Katama. On top of that come the dramatic cliffs and sand at Aquinnah and Menemsha, so a summer week can be built entirely around the sea.

The Catskills have no coast at all. Swimming means the sandy lake beach at North-South Lake, Pleasant Pond, and clear but cold rock pools along the Esopus and in the Peekamoose valley. These are lovely for a hot afternoon, but they are a side activity rather than the point of the trip.

For eating the two are about level, but the food comes from very different country. In the Catskills it is dairy and orchard food: farm stands, maple syrup, cider, local cheese, old diners, and breweries and distilleries scattered through the hills. Kingston has the widest choice.

On the Vineyard it is the sea: lobster rolls, chowder, oysters from the island's ponds and steamed lobster eaten on the Menemsha docks, with produce from the West Tisbury farms alongside. In both places restaurants cut back sharply out of season. On the island, alcohol licensing is limited in some up-island towns, so bringing your own wine to dinner is a common habit.

Neither place will hold a culture-focused traveller for more than two or three days, but the stories differ. The Catskills are about art and landscape: Thomas Cole's house, the Hudson River School viewpoints, Woodstock's Byrdcliffe colony, the museum on the 1969 festival field at Bethel, and Kingston's old stone Stockade district.

The Vineyard's heritage is in its townscapes. You see it in the whaling captains' houses of Edgartown, the painted gingerbread cottages of the Oak Bluffs campground, the Flying Horses Carousel, Wampanoag Aquinnah and the African American heritage trail.

Both places are quiet after dark, but the island has a little more going on in summer. Circuit Avenue in Oak Bluffs and the harbour bars of Edgartown fill with visitors and seasonal staff on July and August nights. In the Catskills a big night tends to be a brewery taproom or a Kingston cocktail bar, and most evenings end at a fire pit.

The mountains win this clearly. The Catskill Park offers forested summits over 1,000m, the hard ridge walk of the Devil's Path, deep cloves, fire towers looking over endless ridges, famous trout rivers, tubing on the Esopus and winter skiing. Black bears and bald eagles live in these forests too.

Martha's Vineyard is gentler country of moors, salt ponds and stone walls. Its high points are the clay cliffs of Aquinnah, osprey watching at Felix Neck and the wild barrier beach at Cape Poge. It is lovely for cycling, kayaking and surfcasting, but it offers no climbs or wilderness.

From the Catskills, the Hudson Valley gives a long and varied list of outings. You can see Olana, the antique dealers of Hudson, the Roosevelt home at Hyde Park, the Vanderbilt mansion, New Paltz's stone houses and the art at Beacon and Storm King, with Cooperstown to the west. Nearly all of them need a car.

The Vineyard's outings depend on ferries. In summer you can reach Nantucket, the whaling district of New Bedford and Cape Cod villages such as Falmouth and Sandwich. Off-season most of those boats stop running and the choice shrinks to the island's own towns.

The island is the easier family trip in summer. It has calm, shallow water for small children, flat bike paths between safe and walkable towns, crabbing off the docks and the antique carousel in Oak Bluffs. The ferry and the high-summer rental hunt need planning.

The Catskills give children space and simple outdoor fun: waterfall walks, lake beaches, tubing, apple picking, and beginner ski slopes or summer zip lines at Hunter and Windham. Long drives on winding roads wear thin with young passengers, and in both places a run of rainy days is hard to fill.

On the Vineyard you can manage without a car. Vineyard Haven, Oak Bluffs and Edgartown are compact, and buses and paved bike paths link them, with buses as far as Aquinnah. The catch is summer traffic on the up-island roads and thinner bus services out of season.

In the Catskills a car is effectively essential. Coaches from New York reach a few towns but not the trailheads, swimming holes or rentals. Towns that look close on the map can be up to an hour apart along winding roads through the cloves.

Neither place is for serious shopping, and both offer browsing rather than retail. In the Catskills that means antique barns along Route 28, Woodstock potters and jewellers, and general stores selling maple syrup and honey. The Vineyard has preppy boutiques and galleries along Edgartown's Main Street, island-branded clothing in Vineyard Haven and local crafts at the Chilmark flea market.

The Catskills are the cheaper choice by a wide margin. The popular towns are not cheap on summer and autumn weekends, but there are plenty of ways to spend less. Hiking, swimming holes and scenic drives cost nothing, and there are state campgrounds and older motels. Weekday stays and the western Delaware County side cost much less than the Woodstock area.

On Martha's Vineyard a summer stay is expensive however you do it. Weekly rentals are booked months ahead, even the seafood shacks are pricey, and the ferry adds to the bill. Buses, bikes and picnics from the farm stands help a little, and late spring and autumn cost less.

The Catskills have the deeper music tradition. Woodstock's musician residents fill barns and halls with folk and roots concerts, the Maverick chamber series has played in its wooden hall in the woods since 1916, and big touring acts play the amphitheatre at Bethel. The island's offer is smaller: concerts and sing-alongs at the Oak Bluffs Tabernacle, a little playhouse in Vineyard Haven and bar bands. In both places almost everything happens in summer.

Both places offer slowness rather than spas, though the Catskills have a bit more for anyone seeking real retreat. Beyond the porch-and-wood-stove cabins, there are a Zen monastery at Mount Tremper, a Tibetan Buddhist centre above Woodstock and yoga retreats that take guests.

On the Vineyard, calm means staying up-island among the farm stands and quiet roads of Chilmark and West Tisbury, ideally in September, away from the summer crowds in Edgartown and Oak Bluffs.