Lake Placid or Milwaukee?

Neither is a beach destination. Both mean fresh water and a short season from late June to the end of summer, so the difference lies in the setting. Lake Placid has small strips of sand and grass on Mirror Lake and the quiet ponds, plus rocky swimming holes on the Ausable, all surrounded by forest.

Milwaukee's Bradford Beach is a proper city beach below the bluffs, with volleyball, cabanas and weekend crowds, and it faces a lake so big it looks like the open sea. The water there is less reliable, though, because an offshore wind can chill it overnight. The shallow Adirondack lakes warm up more steadily.

Milwaukee's food has far more character. Its German, Polish and Serbian roots show in the Friday fish fry, the bratwurst, the cheese curds and the supper club. Beer is the city's oldest trade, and the Public Market and the Mexican kitchens of the South Side add range.

Lake Placid feeds hungry hikers and skiers well enough with diners, brewpubs and a few dining rooms in the lakeside lodges. It has no regional cooking to seek out, though, and some kitchens cut back outside the main seasons.

Lake Placid's sights are about sport: the rink of the 1980 'Miracle on Ice' game, the ski jumps and the speed skating oval. John Brown's Farm is the one historic detour, and a day covers it all.

Milwaukee gives you two or three days of real sightseeing. The Calatrava pavilion of the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Harley-Davidson Museum, the Pabst Mansion, the Basilica of St Josaphat and the warehouses of the Third Ward tell the story of a brewing city that had money to spend.

A night out in Lake Placid is dinner and a beer on Main Street or in a lakeside hotel bar. It gets livelier after a ski day but is quiet by midnight.

Milwaukee has a real bar culture. It runs from the corner tavern with its pool table and regulars to the Water Street strip, the cocktail bars of Brady Street and the LGBTQ bars of Walker's Point. Neither city is a clubbing city, but only Milwaukee makes a whole night of it.

This is where Lake Placid pulls far ahead. It sits on the edge of the Adirondack High Peaks, with Mount Marcy, the highest summit in New York, and dozens of other climbs close by. There are also chains of lakes to canoe, the Ausable for fly fishing and Whiteface for serious downhill skiing.

Milwaukee's outdoors is gentler and more urban: Olmsted's Lake Park with its bluffs and ravines, long flat cycling trails and a kayak route through the centre. For hills and forest you drive an hour to the Kettle Moraine.

Milwaukee has the better range of day trips. Chicago is about an hour and a half away by train and Madison is an easy outing. Cedarburg, Kohler, Frank Lloyd Wright's buildings in Racine and Lake Geneva fill the shorter days.

From Lake Placid, most outings lead into the wilderness. The main towns and sights are Saranac Lake, the Wild Center in Tupper Lake and Fort Ticonderoga. Montreal and Burlington are around two hours away, and you need a car for all of them.

Both work well with children, in different ways. Lake Placid suits active families, with public skating on the Olympic rinks, bobsled rides, the toboggan chute onto the frozen lake, the ski school at Whiteface and Santa's Workshop nearby.

Milwaukee offers the classic city attractions: a large zoo, the aquariums at Discovery World, a children's museum and the Domes for cold days, plus baseball and lakeside festivals in summer. Lake Placid makes more of winter, while in Milwaukee the cold mostly keeps families indoors.

In both places the centre is walkable and you need a car for the rest, but Milwaukee gives you more options. The Hop streetcar, bus routes, ride-hailing, bike-share and the Riverwalk cover the centre and reach the zoo and the East Side.

Lake Placid's Main Street is a short stroll from end to end. The trailheads, Whiteface and the lakes, though, are spread along mountain roads with few buses, and for much of the year that means winter driving.

Milwaukee gives you more to browse. There are boutiques and design shops in the Third Ward warehouses, vintage and record shops on Brady Street, and cheese and sausage from the Public Market to take home. For big brands, though, you would have to drive out to the suburban malls.

Lake Placid's shopping is one stretch of Main Street, and it's best for outdoor gear, fly-fishing tackle, balsam pillows and maple syrup. That's handy if you need boots rather than clothes.

Milwaukee is the easier city on a budget. Hotels cost well below what the coastal cities charge, tavern beer and fish fries are cheap, and the lakefront and many festivals cost little. Big summer weekends do push room rates up.

Lake Placid is priced as a resort, especially on winter weekends, in summer and during the foliage weeks, and lift tickets, guides and a rental car add up. Cabins, the quiet weeks of spring and late autumn, and free hiking and paddling bring the cost down.

Milwaukee has a full season from its resident companies, with a symphony, an opera, a ballet and a repertory theatre. The ornate Pabst Theater hosts touring acts, and Summerfest fills the lakefront with music for several weeks each summer.

Lake Placid has the Sinfonietta's summer season, which includes free concerts at the Mirror Lake bandshell, and occasional shows at the arts centre. That makes for a pleasant evening in July, but for most of the year there is little on stage.

Neither has a bathing tradition, and both rely on hotel spas. Lake Placid is the more restful of the two: the village is quiet, there is the walk around Mirror Lake, and the lodges have porches over still water and fires in winter.

Milwaukee offers walks along the lakefront and the Riverwalk and an unhurried pace. For a proper spa day, though, you drive to Kohler, and the city draws people for its taverns and festivals rather than for quiet.