Lake George or Ocean City, Maryland?

In both places the water reaches about 24°C in midsummer, but the beaches are very different. Lake George is fresh, calm and clear. There is a broad lifeguarded state beach at the south end of the village and smaller beaches at Shepard Park and Bolton Landing, and you can swim from a boat among the islands of the Narrows.

Ocean City is the bigger beach vacation. It has one continuous band of soft Atlantic sand about 16km long, with surf for bodyboarding and lifeguards along the whole shore. Assateague, close by, has wild beach backed by dunes, and the sea stays swimmable into September, a little longer than the lake.

Neither town is a destination for serious eating, but Ocean City at least has a local tradition worth the trip. That means steamed blue crabs piled on brown paper with Old Bay, crab cakes and local oysters, plus boardwalk fries, taffy and custard from family businesses that have run for generations.

Lake George has no dish of its own. The village runs on pizza, pancakes and waterfront decks where you pay for the view. The more careful cooking, with Adirondack game and lake fish, is up the shore at Bolton Landing, or a drive away in Saratoga Springs.

Lake George's past is military and Ocean City's is the seaside, and the fort gives Lake George slightly more to see. Fort William Henry is a reconstruction of the British fort besieged in 1757, the siege behind The Last of the Mohicans, with exhibits and excavated grounds. The old county courthouse holds a small history museum, and a few Gilded Age estates stand along the shore, best seen from a boat.

Ocean City's heritage is the boardwalk itself, with its old hotels and wooden piers. There is also the early twentieth century carousel at the inlet and the Life-Saving Station Museum, which tells stories of shipwrecks and lifeguards. In both towns, anyone wanting serious museums or historic architecture has to drive out for them.

Ocean City is the place for a night out. In summer its sand-floored bars on the bayside fill up at sunset, and the Coastal Highway has a long run of sports bars and dance bars with DJs that are loud, young and busy until closing.

At Lake George the evening is a handful of bars and decks on Canada Street and by the water, mostly beer with a view of the lake, and the hamlets along the shore go to bed early. Both towns go quiet from autumn to spring.

Lake George is far stronger outdoors. The lake runs between forested ridges, with island campsites to paddle to. Prospect Mountain rises right over the village, and Black Mountain and the Tongue Mountain range give some of the best views in the Adirondacks. The High Peaks and the slopes of Gore Mountain are a drive away.

Ocean City's landscape is low and open: salt marsh, shallow bays for paddleboarding and crabbing, and the dunes and wild ponies of Assateague. It does have one thing Lake George cannot offer, which is offshore sport fishing for marlin.

Lake George has the better day trips, though every one needs a car. Saratoga Springs, with its racecourse, mineral springs and battlefield, is under an hour south. Fort Ticonderoga sits above Lake Champlain an hour north, and Lake Placid and the Vermont towns make longer outings.

From Ocean City the outings are to quiet small towns: Berlin's historic main street, the pony village of Chincoteague, and Lewes and Rehoboth up the coast, with the ferry from Lewes to Victorian Cape May. They make pleasant afternoons, but none has a sight to set beside the Saratoga racecourse or the walls of Ticonderoga.

Both are traditional American family resorts, with mini golf, arcades and rentals with kitchens, and both largely shut after summer. Ocean City has the edge for children who want the sea. It has a wide lifeguarded beach, two old amusement parks on the boardwalk and water parks and go-karts along the highway, although graduating teenagers crowd parts of town in early June.

Lake George's attractions are gentler: shallow, calm water at the state beach, paddlewheel steamboat cruises, musket firing at the fort, and The Great Escape theme park a short drive south.

You need a car for both, but Ocean City is a little easier once you arrive. A summer bus runs the length of the Coastal Highway and a tram rolls along the boardwalk, so if you stay near the sea you can leave the car parked for days. Walking between neighbourhoods beside the highway is unpleasant, though.

At Lake George only the village centre is walkable, from Canada Street to the steamboat pier and the fort. Seasonal trolleys reach Glens Falls and the outlets, but the western shore, the trailheads and every day trip need a car. A rented boat is the best way to see the lake.

Neither is a place to travel to for shopping. Each has a souvenir strip of T-shirts and fudge, with an outlet centre a short drive away. The difference is in gifts: Lake George sells Adirondack crafts, rustic furniture, maple syrup and balsam pillows, while Ocean City's boardwalk leans towards surf shops, sunglasses and saltwater taffy.

Costs are much the same. Both charge full American resort prices for waterfront rooms on summer weekends, and both are cheaper in older motels away from the water and in rentals with kitchens. At Lake George you save by staying in Glens Falls or Queensbury and by using the free trails and parks. In Ocean City you save with shared condos, the town bus and the free beach, and late May and September are the cheapest times to go.

Lake George has a little more to hear, all of it in summer. There are free concerts by the water in Shepard Park, a long-running jazz weekend in September, a chamber music festival in August and summer theatre. Orchestras and ballet play at the Saratoga amphitheatre, under an hour away.

Ocean City's entertainment is lighter: touring comedians and tribute bands at the convention centre, free concerts at the boardwalk bandstand and cover bands in the bars.

For rest, Lake George is the better pick, as long as you stay away from the village centre. The resort hotels on the islands and points near Bolton Landing have full spas, lakeside cottages are slow and quiet, and the historic mineral baths of Saratoga Springs are under an hour away.

Ocean City has no bathing tradition and only a few day spas, and in summer the traffic and bar crowds make it noisy. The closest it comes to a retreat is an early walk on the northern beaches in the shoulder months.