Lake George or New York?

Lake George has the better swimming for a relaxed day. The water is clear, calm and fresh, the state beach at the south end of the village has sand and lifeguards, Shepard Park and Bolton Landing have small beaches, and you can reach islands in the Narrows by boat to swim from. There are no waves, and the season is short.

New York's beaches are on the ocean, with salt water, the Coney Island boardwalk and surfers at the Rockaways, all reachable by subway. They're livelier and much more crowded, and most visitors treat them as an afternoon away from the city rather than a reason to come.

Lake George eats like a summer resort: pizza, burgers, pancake houses and waterfront decks where you pay for the view. A few more careful dining rooms around Bolton Landing serve Adirondack game and lake fish, and visitors who care about food tend to drive to Saratoga Springs for dinner.

In New York, food is a reason to travel in itself. There's Fujianese cooking in Flushing, Tibetan in Jackson Heights and Italian on Arthur Avenue, tasting-menu counters at the top end, and slices, bagels and deli pastrami on every block. The lake has nothing to compare.

Lake George's history comes down to Fort William Henry, a reconstruction of the fort besieged in 1757, and a small museum in the old courthouse. The region's bigger sites, Fort Ticonderoga and Saratoga, are a drive away.

New York could fill a week with museums alone, from the Met and MoMA to the Natural History museum and the Cloisters, before you even get to the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the Brooklyn Bridge. If you're travelling to see things, New York is far ahead.

At Lake George, a night out means beer on a deck over the water along Canada Street on a summer weekend, and even that goes quiet once the season ends.

New York has the full range every night of the year: cocktail bars and dives in the East Village, rooftops above Midtown, the Village gay bars whose history goes back to Stonewall, and warehouse dance floors in Bushwick and Williamsburg that keep going past dawn.

Lake George lies inside the Adirondack Park, so wild country starts at the door. You can kayak and sail among more than a hundred islands, take the summit trails on Prospect, Black and Tongue Mountains, reach the High Peaks within two hours and ski at Gore Mountain in winter.

New York's nature is mostly in its parks: Central Park, Prospect Park, the waterfront walks of the High Line and Brooklyn Bridge Park, and birdwatching at Jamaica Bay. For a real climb, such as Breakneck Ridge in the Hudson Highlands, you take the train up the river. Both are at their best in the autumn colour.

New York has more day trips, and they're easier because trains do the work. You can reach Philadelphia's colonial old town, Princeton and New Haven, home of Yale, and up the Hudson there are the estates at Hyde Park, Dia Beacon and the Storm King sculpture park.

The outings from Lake George are good too: the spa town and racecourse at Saratoga Springs, Fort Ticonderoga above Lake Champlain and Olympic Lake Placid. Every one of them needs a car.

Both work well with children, in different ways. Lake George is the easier, more outdoor version, with a gently sloping lifeguarded beach, paddlewheel steamboat cruises, the Great Escape theme park and mini golf on Canada Street. The catch is crowded summer weekends and attractions that close after the season.

New York gives children more to learn from: the dinosaur halls and planetarium, the Bronx Zoo, the aircraft carrier museum on the Hudson and the free Staten Island Ferry. Subway stairs, small hotel rooms and Midtown crowds wear young families out faster.

In Lake George you can walk from the steamboat pier to Fort William Henry in minutes. The western shore, the trailheads and every day trip need a car, though, and summer parking is a nuisance. A rented boat is the best way to see the lake.

New York is the opposite. Manhattan's grid is made for walking, and with the round-the-clock subway, ferries and Citi Bike, a car is more trouble than it's worth. The frustrations are rerouted weekend trains, stations with only stairs and awkward airport links.

Lake George has souvenir and fudge shops on Canada Street, outlet centres on Route 9 and a few good Adirondack gifts such as maple syrup, balsam pillows and rustic furniture.

New York is a shopping destination at every level. There are flagship stores on Fifth Avenue, luxury houses on Madison Avenue, the historic department stores, fashion brands in SoHo, boutiques in Nolita, and vintage, records and young designers in Williamsburg.

Neither is cheap in high summer, but Lake George costs much less. Older motels on Route 9, cottages with kitchens and free beaches and trails keep costs down, and weekdays and the months outside July and August are much cheaper. Staying in Glens Falls or Queensbury saves more.

New York is expensive all year. Hotel rooms are small and costly, meals come with tax and a tip, and museums and theatre charge high prices. The free ferry, parks and bridges, cheap slices and a room in Brooklyn or Queens help, but they don't close the gap.

Lake George has free concerts in Shepard Park, a jazz weekend in September, a chamber music festival in August and summer theatre, and very little in winter.

New York has Broadway, the Metropolitan Opera, the Philharmonic and City Ballet at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and a century of jazz in Village basements and Harlem, on any night of the year. If seeing a show is part of the plan, New York is the obvious choice.

Neither is a spa destination, and the calm comes from different places. At Lake George it comes from the water: the resort spas near Bolton Landing, a lakeside cottage, and a quiet early-autumn morning on the lake. The historic mineral baths at Saratoga are under an hour away.

New York has its own bathing culture instead. There are the century-old Russian and Turkish baths in the East Village, banyas in Brighton Beach and Korean-style spas in Queens, and for quiet you can spend a slow morning in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden or the gardens of the Cloisters.