Chicago or Lake Placid?

Both cities swim in fresh water, and in both the season runs only from late June to around the end of August. Chicago has much more of it, though: over twenty sandy city beaches along Lake Michigan, from Oak Street Beach under the Gold Coast towers to the volleyball crowds at North Avenue.

Lake Placid's swimming is on a smaller scale and set in woodland, at the little lifeguarded beach on Mirror Lake, along the Saranac chain and in the rocky pools of the West Branch of the Ausable. It is a cooling dip after a hike, not a day spent on the sand.

Chicago is one of the great eating cities in America. It has its own canon of tavern-cut pizza, Italian beef and the dressed hot dog, tasting-menu kitchens in the West Loop, and whole neighbourhoods built on Mexican, South Asian, Vietnamese and Polish cooking.

Lake Placid feeds hungry hikers and skiers well enough, with diners, brewpubs, burgers and a few lodge dining rooms looking over the water. Beyond maple syrup and local beer there is little that is its own, so food is a reason to choose Chicago and nothing more than fuel in Lake Placid.

Chicago's sights tell the story of modern building. The skyscraper took shape in the Loop after the Great Fire of 1871, and a river cruise passes early steel frames, the Rookery's light court and Mies van der Rohe's glass towers. Wright's Prairie houses are out in Hyde Park and Oak Park. Add the Art Institute and the Museum Campus and a sightseer has several full days, though little stands from before the fire.

Lake Placid's history is about sport. The main sights are the rink where the 1980 'Miracle on Ice' was played, the ski jumps above the town and the speed skating oval. John Brown's Farm, where the abolitionist is buried, is just outside the village. There are no galleries or old quarters of note, so a single day covers it.

Chicago keeps late hours, with bars pouring until 4am, cocktail and dive bars in Wicker Park and Logan Square, clubs in River North that draw on the city's house music roots, and Northalsted for gay nightlife.

Lake Placid has a handful of pubs on Main Street and hotel bars by the lake. They fill up after a ski day, but nothing much happens after midnight. Most people there go to bed early because the trail starts at dawn.

Lake Placid wins this easily, because the Adirondack wilderness starts at the edge of the village. You can climb Mount Marcy or a half-day peak like Cascade, ski the biggest vertical in the eastern United States at Whiteface, paddle the St. Regis canoe area, fly fish the Ausable and climb the Cascade cliffs.

Chicago's outdoors is its lakefront path of about 29km, the lagoons of Lincoln Park and kayaking among the towers. Real landscape such as Indiana Dunes or the canyons of Starved Rock needs a drive of an hour or more.

Neither city has an especially strong list of day trips, but the outings are quite different. From Chicago they are urban and easy: Milwaukee's breweries and lakefront museum by train, Oak Park's Wright houses at the city edge, and Lake Geneva or the Michigan harbour towns by car.

From Lake Placid, the trips mostly go deeper into the woods or to small places like Saranac Lake and Keene. The longer drives reach further: Fort Ticonderoga, Burlington by car ferry, or Montreal over the Canadian border. You will need a car for every one of them.

Chicago gives children far more to do. There is a whole day at the Museum of Science and Industry, dinosaurs, belugas and a planetarium side by side on the Museum Campus, a free zoo in Lincoln Park and the Ferris wheel at Navy Pier.

Lake Placid suits active families who like to be outdoors. Children can skate on the Olympic ice, ride the ski jump elevator, take a bobsled run and toboggan onto the frozen lake, and the village is small enough to let older children roam. There is less to fill a rainy day, though, and the drives are long.

Chicago can be done without a car. The L runs from both airports into the Loop, and the main sights sit within walking distance of each other on a flat grid. The only snags are long bus rides between neighbourhoods and the January wind.

In Lake Placid you can walk between Main Street, Mirror Lake and the Olympic Center, but everything else needs a car. Buses are scarce, the nearest train is an hour away, and the mountain roads see proper winter driving for months.

Chicago is a real shopping city. It has the flagships and vertical malls of the Magnificent Mile, luxury labels on Oak Street, the old Marshall Field's building under its Tiffany ceiling, and independent boutiques in Wicker Park and Andersonville.

Lake Placid has a single stretch of Main Street with outfitters, fly-fishing shops, galleries and balsam-scented Adirondack gifts. It is good for buying gear or a souvenir, but there is nothing in the way of fashion.

Both are expensive, for different reasons. In Chicago the costs are big-city ones: downtown hotel rates, high taxes and restaurant bills. Taquerias, the L and the free lakefront, beaches and zoo help keep a budget under control.

In Lake Placid you pay resort prices, and they peak on winter weekends, in summer and in foliage season. Lift tickets, guides and the rental car you cannot do without push the bill up further. Self-catering cabins and the quiet weeks of spring and late autumn save the most money there.

Almost any night in Chicago, there is something serious to book. You can choose from the Symphony Center on Michigan Avenue, a Lyric Opera production by the river, a play at Steppenwolf, the Goodman or one of the small storefront stages, or improv at Second City. Blues clubs and late jazz sets play music the city helped shape, and summer adds free concerts at the Pritzker Pavilion.

In Lake Placid the stage is mostly a summer bandshell. The Sinfonietta gives free concerts there by Mirror Lake, the village arts centre puts on an occasional concert or play, and in summer a few bars have small bands. For the rest of the year there is little to go to.

Lake Placid is the more restful place, and the calm comes from the setting more than from any spa. There is the walk around Mirror Lake, lodge porches over still water and a fireplace after a cold day, with massages and saunas in the larger lodges.

Chicago actually has the better bathing: the old Russian-and-Turkish bathhouse in Wicker Park, a Korean-style jjimjilbang in the suburbs and warm conservatories in winter. Around them, though, the city keeps a busy pace that is hard to switch off from.