Lake Placid or Virginia Beach?

Lake Placid only has freshwater swimming. There is the small lifeguarded beach on Mirror Lake in the village, a few grassy spots along the Saranac chain and rocky pools on the Ausable. These are pleasant for a cool dip after a hike in July or August, but they are not a beach vacation.

Virginia Beach is built around its beach. A long, wide strip of sand with lifeguards runs beside the boardwalk, there are surf breaks near the fishing pier, and there is a choice of settings. The calm Chesapeake Bay beaches suit toddlers, and Sandbridge has quieter dunes.

Neither town is a food destination, but Virginia Beach has a regional speciality. Lynnhaven oysters and Chesapeake blue crab, served as crab cakes, steamed with Old Bay or in she-crab soup, are worth looking for at the dockside places around Lynnhaven Inlet rather than on the resort strip.

Lake Placid offers mountain-town comfort food: big diner breakfasts, brewpub burgers, maple syrup and the occasional lakeside lodge dining room. It is satisfying after a day on the trails, but it has nothing comparable to the Chesapeake seafood.

Lake Placid's sights are about its two Winter Olympics. You can stand in the rink where the 'Miracle on Ice' was played in 1980, look round its small museum, see the ski jumps rising over the edge of town and the speed skating oval, and visit John Brown's Farm, the abolitionist's home and grave just outside the village. Most visitors see it all in about a day.

Virginia Beach has a little more depth, and its story is far older. Cape Henry marks where English colonists first landed in 1607 before sailing on to found Jamestown. A memorial cross and the old Cape Henry Lighthouse, one of the earliest built by the young United States, stand nearby, and the Adam Thoroughgood House is a rare early colonial brick home.

Virginia Beach has much more going on after dark, at least in summer. Beach bars, rooftop decks and sports bars line Atlantic Avenue and fill with vacationers and sailors from the navy bases, and Town Center has quieter cocktail lounges. Downtown Norfolk is about half an hour away.

In Lake Placid, an evening out is a beer at a Main Street brewpub or a drink in a lakeside hotel bar. It livens up after a ski day, but most people are in bed early before a dawn start on the trail.

This is Lake Placid's strongest category. It sits at the edge of the Adirondack High Peaks, with Mount Marcy and dozens of other summits a short drive away and quick climbs such as Cascade and Mount Jo. Whiteface has the deepest ski vertical in the eastern United States, and in summer and autumn there are canoe routes, fly fishing on the Ausable and climbing at Chapel Pond.

Virginia Beach's outdoors is gentler and flat. You can walk the cypress swamp and dune trails of First Landing State Park, cycle out to the empty barrier shore at Back Bay and False Cape, surf, or kayak out to watch dolphins in summer. It is good for easy days, but there are no hills.

Virginia Beach has far better outings. Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown are about an hour away and make an exceptional history day. Norfolk's battleship and art museum are closer still, and the Wright brothers' site at Kitty Hawk is within reach on the Outer Banks.

From Lake Placid, most trips lead into the wilderness. The towns nearby are small: Saranac Lake, Keene, and Tupper Lake with the Wild Center. The bigger days out are Fort Ticonderoga, Burlington across Lake Champlain and Montreal, each a long drive.

Both work for families, but Virginia Beach is easier with young children. It has the Virginia Aquarium with its sea turtles and otters, a water park, mini-golf, the bike-friendly boardwalk and calm bay beaches. Within an hour there is also a large amusement park and Colonial Williamsburg's hands-on trades.

Lake Placid suits older, active children best. They can skate on the Olympic rinks, ride a bobsled at Mount Van Hoevenberg, take the toboggan chute onto the frozen lake and go to ski school at Whiteface, with Santa's Workshop nearby. It has fewer rainy-day options and no large attractions.

In both places you will want a car, and both are walkable only in a small central area. Lake Placid's centre is a compact village where Main Street, Mirror Lake and the Olympic Center are a short stroll apart. The catch is mountain driving, often on winter roads, to reach trailheads and Whiteface.

In Virginia Beach the walkable part is the Oceanfront strip, helped by the boardwalk and a summer trolley. Beyond it lies suburban sprawl with slow buses and heavy summer traffic.

Lake Placid's shopping is one stretch of Main Street. It is good for ski, outdoor and fly-fishing gear, and for balsam pillows, rustic Adirondack décor and maple products, but there is little beyond that.

Virginia Beach has more choice, if mostly the American suburban kind. There is a large regional mall, chain stores on the outdoor streets of Town Center, and surf shops with long roots along the Oceanfront among the T-shirt stalls. Independent boutiques and local crafts are scarce.

Both are seasonal resorts and expensive at peak times, but Virginia Beach is usually easier on the budget. Its beach, boardwalk and state parks cost almost nothing, and rooms become much cheaper once summer ends.

Lake Placid is pricier overall. Lift tickets, guides and gear rental add up, and lodges fill and raise their rates for ski weekends, summer and the foliage weeks. Older motels, cabins and the quiet spring and late-autumn weeks help, and in both places you will pay for a rental car.

Virginia Beach has more to go to. Touring rock and country acts play its outdoor amphitheatre in summer, there is an arts centre at Town Center and there are free stages along the boardwalk. Norfolk's opera, symphony and spring arts festival are a short drive away.

Lake Placid's performing arts are mostly the summer season of the Lake Placid Sinfonietta, including free concerts at the Mirror Lake bandshell, plus occasional shows at the village arts centre. Outside summer there is little on.

Lake Placid is the more restful choice. The village is quiet, the path around Mirror Lake is calm, and the old Adirondack lodges have porches over the water, log fires in winter and spas with saunas and hot tubs for after a cold day outdoors.

Virginia Beach has hotel spas and suburban day spas, and its calm moments are early mornings on the boardwalk and the shoulder months. In high summer the resort is too crowded and loud for a restful break.