Detroit or Stowe?

Neither place is a beach destination, but Detroit has a little more to offer a swimmer. Lake St. Clair Metropark has a long, lawn-backed beach with shallow, calm water. Belle Isle adds a small sandy beach without leaving the city.

Stowe's swimming is rockier and more improvised: stream pools in the hills and small unguarded state-park beaches on Waterbury Reservoir and Lake Elmore. Both places treat a swim as a summer extra rather than the point of the trip.

Detroit gives you far more to eat. Beyond its own Coney dogs and square, crisp-edged pizza, there are Saturdays at Eastern Market and the Lebanese and Yemeni grills of Dearborn. Mexicantown and the Polish bakeries of Hamtramck add more, though many of the best meals mean a drive.

Stowe's strength is narrower: Vermont produce and beer. The hazy IPAs from breweries nearby draw beer lovers, alongside farm cheddar, maple syrup and cider doughnuts. The farm-to-table and après-ski restaurants along Mountain Road are good but limited, and the choice shrinks in the quiet weeks.

There is no real contest here. Detroit has the Detroit Institute of Arts, with Rivera's Detroit Industry murals filling a courtyard, plus the Charles H. Wright Museum and the small house where Motown began. Add a full day at the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn, and the Guardian and Fisher Buildings, and you have several days of sights.

Stowe offers a postcard village, with a white steeple, clapboard buildings and covered bridges. Beyond that there are a ski museum and the von Trapp family's hillside estate, and that is about the whole list.

Detroit has an actual night scene with its own identity. As the birthplace of techno, it still holds warehouse parties and small, serious clubs, alongside the dive and cocktail bars of Corktown and Midtown. The catch is that these are spread out, so a night usually means taxis between areas.

In Stowe, evenings mean après-ski in base-lodge bars and brewery taprooms on Mountain Road, which are busy in peak ski weeks and quiet otherwise. There are no clubs, and almost nothing is open late.

This is where Stowe pulls far ahead. Mount Mansfield, Vermont's highest peak at 1,339m, rises right above the village, with ski runs and backcountry routes in winter. The rest of the year brings the Long Trail, the boulder-strewn pass of Smugglers' Notch, waterfalls and mountain-bike trails, and in early October the whole valley turns red and gold.

Detroit's outdoors are flat and centred on water. You can walk or cycle the RiverWalk, explore the Olmsted-designed woods and lagoon on Belle Isle, kayak or sail on Lake St. Clair, and follow birdwatching trails in the outer metroparks.

Both places offer pleasant car trips rather than essential ones, and Detroit's list is a little more varied. It includes the university town of Ann Arbor, Toledo's excellent art museum, Bavarian-themed Frankenmuth and the roller coasters of Cedar Point, and with a passport you can cross the river to Windsor in Canada.

From Stowe, the best outing is the Shelburne Museum near Burlington, with its village of historic buildings and a lake steamboat. Burlington's lakefront, Montpelier's gold-domed statehouse and the cider mills of Waterbury fill out the rest.

The two are about equal for families, but they offer different kinds of trip. Detroit has ready-made attractions: the large zoo in Royal Oak with its polar bear tunnel, the small aquarium on Belle Isle, the hands-on science centre, and the steam trains and horse-drawn rides of Greenfield Village.

Stowe is for active families. It has a big ski school with gentle beginner slopes, a resort built around children beyond Smugglers' Notch, a flat riverside path for bikes and pushchairs, and sugarhouses where children can watch maple syrup being made. Both places mean a lot of time in the car.

Detroit is a bit easier to manage without a car, at least in the centre. The elevated People Mover loops downtown, and the QLine streetcar runs up Woodward Avenue to the Midtown museums and New Center. Dearborn, the zoo and everything beyond still mean a hire car or ride-hailing.

Stowe stretches along an 11km valley road. In winter a free shuttle runs along it, and in the warmer months the riverside path links much of the valley for walkers and cyclists. Otherwise a car is essential, starting with the drive from Burlington's airport, and winter brings steep, icy roads.

Detroit has more to buy, though it is no shopping city. The independent boutiques of Midtown and Corktown sell Detroit-made watches, leather goods and prints, and Eastern Market adds local crafts. For big brands you drive to a suburban mall.

Stowe's shops are almost all outdoor gear, galleries, and crafts such as pottery and wool, plus maple syrup and cheddar to take home. There is no fashion or luxury shopping.

Detroit is far kinder to the wallet. Rooms cost less than in most large American cities, except on big event weekends, and Coney dogs, square pizza and Dearborn's Middle Eastern food make cheap, good meals. The extras are the usual American ones: tips, sales tax added on top of listed prices, and a hire car with parking.

Stowe charges what a leading eastern ski resort can. Lodging, lift tickets, ski rental and resort dining all add up quickly. Rooms are scarcest and dearest over Christmas and New Year, the winter school vacations and the October foliage weeks. If you come in summer, or better still in spring or November, stay in a motel on the valley road and spend your days on the free trails, the bill becomes manageable.

The real difference is how often something is on. Detroit's music doesn't depend on a tourist season. On a sleety weeknight in midwinter you can still find a classical concert, a big touring production or a soul, blues or jazz band in a small room, and the players on those small stages come out of the city's own Motown and gospel roots rather than being booked in for visitors. Theatre is its one thin spot, since there is little beyond the touring shows.

Stowe's arts calendar follows the skiers and the summer crowds. Village theatre and concerts on the hillside lawns, a nod to the von Trapp family, fill the warm months, and the resort stage draws touring acts in ski season. In the weeks between there is very little. It works for one good evening during a mountain trip, but a vacation built around live music belongs in Detroit.

Stowe is built for slowing down in a way Detroit is not. Here rest comes as much from the setting as from the treatment rooms. Once the lifts close or the trail is done, the valley empties, and in the quiet spring and late-autumn weeks a country inn with a fire feels like a real retreat. All of this is private resort comfort, though, with no public baths or hot springs to fall back on.

Detroit's days are shaped by work, ball games and late music, and unwinding is something you fit in around them. That might mean a day spa out in the suburbs, or an unhurried hour on Belle Isle or the RiverWalk between museums.