Gatlinburg or Ocean City, Maryland?

Ocean City is a beach town first. It has about 16km of soft sand with lifeguards along the whole shore, moderate surf and summer water warm enough for hours of swimming, and Assateague's undeveloped dunes are a short drive south.

Gatlinburg is a mountain town far from the sea. Summer swimming there means wading or tubing in cold, fast park rivers, or the lakeshore at Douglas Lake. For many visitors the cabin hot tub is the closest they get to the water.

Neither place is a destination for serious eating, but Ocean City has a clearer local dish. A pile of Old Bay steamed crabs with mallets and a pitcher of beer is a proper ritual, backed by crab cakes, oysters and boardwalk fries made by long-running family stands.

Gatlinburg's Parkway mostly serves pancake breakfasts, barbecue and big-volume Southern cooking. Fudge and moonshine tastings add interest. Real Appalachian dishes such as trout, country ham and stack cake turn up only here and there, and keen eaters drive to Knoxville or Asheville.

Neither town has much to see in the usual sense, but what each has is different. Ocean City's heritage is the seaside itself: the old boardwalk, its early twentieth-century carousel and a small life-saving museum. Gatlinburg's heritage is handmade and rural. Weavers and potters work in the Arts and Crafts Community loop, and pioneer cabins, mills and churches stand out in the park at Cades Cove and along Roaring Fork, which you visit as a half-day drive rather than a stroll.

Ocean City is far livelier after dark, at least in summer. Huge sand-floored bars on the bayside fill at sunset, dance bars and sports bars line the Coastal Highway until closing, and the boardwalk crowd is young and loud. The drinking is simple, beer, rum drinks and DJs, and it largely shuts down from October.

Gatlinburg's evening is a walk along the lit Parkway, a moonshine tasting and an early night. There are a few brewery terraces and pubs, but the real social scene is often a hot tub on a cabin deck.

Gatlinburg wins easily. The Great Smoky Mountains begin at the edge of town, with deep hardwood forest, trails ranging from Laurel Falls to the Alum Cave climb up Mount LeConte, black bears, Cades Cove deer and spring fireflies. The trade-off is heavy traffic on park roads in October.

Ocean City's outdoors is flat and open. You get wild ponies and birding on Assateague, paddling and crabbing in the shallow back bays, and strong offshore fishing, but no hills or forest walks to compare.

Gatlinburg has the better outings. Asheville and the Biltmore Estate are a reasonable drive away, and the Newfound Gap road crosses the mountains to Cherokee's museum and village. Knoxville and Bryson City's heritage railway add variety.

Ocean City's day trips are quieter and smaller. They include Berlin's historic main street, Chincoteague's ponies, Rehoboth's restaurants and the ferry from Lewes to Victorian Cape May. These make pleasant days, but there are no major sights among them.

Both towns are built around children, but in different ways. Gatlinburg has a large aquarium, chairlift parks with treetop bridges, alpine coasters and Dollywood a short drive away, plus easy waterfall walks and junior ranger badges in the park. Ocean City has a lifeguarded beach, two old boardwalk amusement parks, water parks and condos with kitchens that make longer stays easy.

The difficulties are different too. In Gatlinburg it's slow Parkway traffic, long queues and steep cabin roads in winter, while Ocean City is crowded on summer weekends and mostly closed outside the season. Choose by whether the children would rather spot bears or dig in the sand.

Both places need a car, and both have one walkable stretch with a seasonal shuttle. In Gatlinburg that is the compact Parkway strip and its trolley to Pigeon Forge, but cabins are on steep hillside roads and every trailhead means driving in slow park traffic. Ocean City is a long, narrow strip where the boardwalk and inlet area are easy on foot or by bike. Moving between neighbourhoods means using the wide, busy Coastal Highway or the summer bus.

Gatlinburg has the more rewarding shopping, thanks to the Arts and Crafts Community, where you can buy quilts, pottery, brooms and woodwork straight from the studios where they are made. Ocean City is mostly T-shirts, surf gear and taffy, with little local craft. Both have outlet malls a short drive away for mainstream brands, and neither offers luxury or fashion.

Gatlinburg comes out slightly cheaper. Shared cabins and older motels are good value, especially midweek and in winter, and the national park costs almost nothing to enjoy, although Dollywood and the Parkway attractions add up quickly for a family. In Ocean City, the beach is free and the town bus is cheap, but summer oceanfront rooms and crab dinners push the costs up. Late May and September are the times to save money there.

Gatlinburg offers more live entertainment. Mountain music runs through the area, with bluegrass played in tasting rooms and on the street, Pigeon Forge dinner theatres open most nights, and Dollywood stages plenty of shows. Ocean City has touring comedians at the convention centre, free summer concerts at the boardwalk bandstand and cover bands in bars. Neither town has orchestra, opera or serious theatre.

Gatlinburg is the better place to rest, as long as you stay up in the hills rather than on the Parkway. A secluded cabin with a rocking chair on the deck and mist settling on the ridges makes for very quiet nights.

Ocean City in high summer is too noisy to slow down, with traffic and late bar crowds. Calm there means a shoulder-season stay in the northern condo stretch and an early walk on an empty beach. Neither town has a bathing tradition, only a few day spas.