Lake Placid or Rehoboth Beach?

Lake Placid's swimming is all fresh water: the small beach on Mirror Lake, the Saranac chain and rocky swimming holes on the West Branch of the Ausable. They are lovely on a hot afternoon, but a swim is something you add to a day of hiking, not a reason to come.

Rehoboth Beach exists for its sand. The wide, lifeguarded beach in front of the boardwalk, with emptier stretches at Cape Henlopen and Delaware Seashore State Park, makes it the real beach destination of the two. Both are swimming places for summer only.

Neither town is a food destination, but Rehoboth eats noticeably better. Lake Placid has brewpubs, big diner breakfasts and a few lodge dining rooms with lake views, and its local touches are maple syrup and craft beer.

Rehoboth's long role as a summer escape from Washington has brought chef-led kitchens to Rehoboth Avenue, and the Mid-Atlantic shore gives the food real character: steamed blue crabs, crab cakes, raw bars and boardwalk fries soaked in vinegar. Kitchens in both towns cut back out of season.

Culture is thin in both towns, but Lake Placid has more to see. Its Olympic past is still in use: the rink of the 1980 'Miracle on Ice', the ski jumps above town and the speed skating oval. John Brown's Farm adds a serious chapter of American history.

Rehoboth's story begins with a Methodist camp meeting in the 1870s, which you can still see in its old cottages. Add the galleries of the Rehoboth Art League and a small museum house, and most visitors interested in history end up driving to Lewes.

Rehoboth Beach has far more sociable evenings. As one of the East Coast's long-established LGBTQ resorts, it has piano lounges, drag nights and bars around Baltimore Avenue. Next door, Dewey Beach adds loud deck bars for a younger summer crowd.

In Lake Placid a night out means a beer in a Main Street brewpub or a lakeside hotel bar. These get busier after a ski day, then everyone heads to bed before an early start.

Lake Placid wins by a wide margin. It sits against the Adirondack High Peaks, with Mount Marcy at 1,629m and half-day climbs such as Cascade. There is canoe country around the Saranac Lakes and St. Regis, fly fishing on the Ausable, and Whiteface has the biggest ski vertical in the eastern United States.

Rehoboth's outdoors is flat and gentle: dunes and pine woods at Cape Henlopen, the bike trail to Lewes, kayaking on the inland bays and dolphins offshore in summer. It is pleasant, but there are no hills at all.

Rehoboth has more good outings. Lewes, Delaware's oldest town, is ten minutes away, and its ferry crosses to the Victorian streets of Cape May. Ocean City, Berlin and Chincoteague lie along the coast to the south.

From Lake Placid most trips head into the wilderness. The main stops are Saranac Lake, the Wild Center at Tupper Lake and Fort Ticonderoga, while Montreal and Burlington are each a couple of hours away. Every trip from either town needs a car.

Both work with children, but Rehoboth is the easier family resort. Lifeguarded sand is steps from the rental houses, and there is an old amusement park on the boardwalk, mini-golf, a water park and calm bay water at Cape Henlopen.

Lake Placid suits families who like to keep moving. Children can join public skating on the Olympic rinks, ride a bobsled at Mount Van Hoevenberg, slide down the toboggan chute onto the frozen lake and learn at the Whiteface ski school. The cold winters and long drives take more planning.

Away from Main Street, Lake Placid is car country. The village centre, Mirror Lake and the Olympic Center are a short walk apart. Whiteface, the High Peaks trailheads and the neighbouring towns are spread along winding mountain roads with few local buses, and for much of the year those roads need proper winter driving.

Rehoboth is much easier to get around once you have arrived. The grid is flat and full of bikes, the cycle trail runs on to Lewes, and a seasonal trolley and local buses reach Dewey Beach and the outlets. Getting there is harder: there is no train, the highway clogs on summer weekends and parking in the centre is scarce.

Rehoboth gives shoppers far more reason to stop. Delaware has no sales tax, which draws people from several states to the outlet centres on the highway, and downtown mixes independent boutiques, bookshops and galleries with the beachwear stores.

Lake Placid's single Main Street sells outdoor and fly-fishing gear, Olympic souvenirs and Adirondack balsam pillows and maple products. It is handy for kitting out and offers little else.

Both are American resorts and charge resort prices, so neither is cheap. What differs is where the money goes. In Lake Placid, lift tickets, guides and gear rental add up, but hiking and paddling are free, and motels and cabins on the edge of the village keep costs down.

In Rehoboth the beach is free and shopping is tax-free, but rooms near the sand and parking are expensive in summer. In both towns the quiet spring and autumn weeks are much cheaper, and in both you will want a car.

In Lake Placid, live music mostly means summer evenings at the bandshell by Mirror Lake. That is where the Lake Placid Sinfonietta, a chamber orchestra with roots in the early 1900s, gives free concerts during its season. For the rest of the year there is little beyond the occasional show at the village arts centre.

Rehoboth gives you a little more to see across the year. A local theatre company stages musicals and cabaret well beyond the summer, and the autumn film festival brings screenings to town. In summer there are bandstand concerts and piano acts in the bars.

Lake Placid is the more restful of the two. Its calm comes from the setting: a quiet village, a walk round Mirror Lake, porches over still water and fireplaces in old Adirondack lodges. The lodge spas have saunas and hot tubs for after a cold day outdoors.

Rehoboth has day spas and yoga studios, and it slows down pleasantly in June, September and on autumn weekends, with walks along an empty boardwalk and bike rides under the pines. In high summer it is crowded and noisy, so whether you get any rest there depends on when you go.