Lake Placid or Ocean City, Maryland?

Ocean City is the clear winner for beaches. It has some 16km of wide, soft sand on the open Atlantic, with access from nearly every street, lifeguards along the whole shore and a sea warm enough for long swims from late June into September. Assateague adds a wild beach backed by dunes for days when the boardwalk end is crowded.

Lake Placid's swimming is in fresh water and is something you add to the day. You get the small lifeguarded beach on Mirror Lake, spots on Lake Placid itself and the Saranac chain, and rocky swimming holes on the Ausable. It is lovely on a hot afternoon, but the season only runs from late June to August.

Ocean City eats better, mainly because it has a local ritual. That means steamed blue crabs on brown paper, crab cakes and local oysters, then boardwalk fries with vinegar, caramel popcorn and frozen custard from long-running family stands. Beyond the seafood it relies on diners and chains.

Lake Placid offers mountain-resort food: brewpubs, big breakfasts, pizza and burgers on Main Street, and lodge dining rooms with lake views. Maple syrup and craft beer are about as local as it gets. In both places, many kitchens scale back out of season.

Neither town is a culture destination, but Lake Placid has more of a story to tell. Two Winter Olympics left the rink from the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" game, the ski jumps and the speed skating oval, and John Brown's Farm adds a real piece of American history.

Ocean City's heritage is the seaside itself. It has the old boardwalk and its piers, the early twentieth-century carousel at the inlet and the Life-Saving Station Museum, all of which you can see in an afternoon.

Ocean City is a summer party town, and Lake Placid is not. Ocean City's huge sand-floored bars on the bayside, its dance bars and sports bars along the Coastal Highway and its loud, young boardwalk evenings run until 2am in season, though most of it shuts down from October.

In Lake Placid the evening means a few Main Street pubs and lakeside hotel bars. They liven up after a ski day, but most people are in bed early before a morning on the trail.

This is where Lake Placid pulls far ahead. The protected Adirondack wilderness starts at its edge. Mount Marcy, New York's highest summit, plus Cascade and Mount Jo are a short drive away, and the area has canoe routes, climbing cliffs at Chapel Pond, fly fishing, and in winter the biggest ski vertical in the eastern United States at Whiteface.

Ocean City's outdoors is flat and open. You get salt marsh, shallow bays for paddleboarding and crabbing, and Assateague's wild ponies and birding trails. Offshore marlin fishing is its one serious draw, but there are no hills at all.

Day trips are about equally limited from both, and you need a car either way. From Lake Placid, most outings lead into the wilderness or to small places like Saranac Lake, Keene and the Wild Center at Tupper Lake. A longer drive reaches Fort Ticonderoga, Burlington by car ferry or, a little over two hours away, Montreal.

From Ocean City the trips are gentler and more coastal. Berlin and Snow Hill are quiet old towns, Chincoteague has its pony herds, and Lewes has the ferry across to Victorian Cape May. Lake Placid is the one that can reach a major city.

Ocean City is the easier choice for a family trip. It has a lifeguarded sandy beach, two old-fashioned boardwalk amusement parks, water parks, go-karts and endless mini-golf. Condos with kitchens make a week with children easy. Peak-weekend crowds and the graduating teenagers in early June are the things to avoid.

Lake Placid suits active families better than very young ones. Skating on the Olympic rinks, the ski jump elevator, bobsled rides, the toboggan chute onto the frozen lake and Santa's Workshop give it plenty of character, but the long drives and the cold take planning.

In both places you will rely on a car, but in different ways. Lake Placid's village is compact, so Main Street, Mirror Lake and the Olympic Center are a short walk apart. Everything that makes the trip, from Whiteface to the trailheads, is spread over winding mountain roads that are snowy for much of the year.

Ocean City is a long, narrow strip split by the busy Coastal Highway. In summer the town bus and the boardwalk tram help if you stay near the sea, but crossing between neighbourhoods on foot is unpleasant and parking fills up on peak weekends.

Neither is worth the trip for shopping, and what each sells reflects what people come for. Lake Placid's Main Street has outdoor outfitters, ski and fly-fishing shops, galleries and rustic Adirondack goods such as balsam pillows and maple products. Ocean City offers boardwalk T-shirts, surf shops and taffy, plus an outlet centre across the bridge for mainstream brands.

Ocean City is somewhat easier on the budget. It is a resort built for middle-income families, with shared condo rentals, cheap boardwalk food, a cheap town bus and a free public beach. Late May and September cut room rates while the sea is still usable.

Lake Placid is priced like a mountain resort in winter, summer and foliage season. Lift tickets, guides and a rental car add up. Its savings come from motels and cabins in the quiet spring and late-autumn weeks, and from trails and lakes that cost nothing.

Neither town has much on stage for most of the year, but the summer evenings are different in kind. Lake Placid has its own small chamber orchestra, with a history going back more than a century. In July and August it moves outdoors to the lakeshore, and some of those evenings by Mirror Lake are free. Now and then the village arts centre adds a film, a play or a recital.

Ocean City's free summer music is also outdoors, at the boardwalk bandstand and on the sand, but it leans towards popular sets rather than chamber pieces. Indoors, the convention centre theatre books touring comedians, tribute acts and family shows, and cover bands play in the bars. It makes an easy night out with children or friends, but there is nothing for anyone after classical music or drama.

Lake Placid is the more restful of the two. It has spas in the larger lodges with saunas and hot tubs, a calm loop around Mirror Lake, and porches over still water or a fire in winter. That suits anyone who unwinds outdoors.

Ocean City in high summer is noisy, with traffic and late bar crowds. Real quiet comes only in the shoulder months, or on an early walk along an empty beach at the northern condo end.