Lake Placid or Williamsburg, Virginia?

Neither town is a beach destination, and swimming is something you fit around other plans in both. In Lake Placid that means fresh water: the little lifeguarded beach on Mirror Lake, nearby ponds and rocky holes on the Ausable, all good for a cool dip in July and August.

Williamsburg's swimming is salt water and takes a drive. The calm strip at Yorktown and the Chesapeake shore at Hampton are close, and the Atlantic surf at Virginia Beach is about an hour away. The season is longer and the water warmer, though jellyfish-like sea nettles can turn up in high summer.

Williamsburg gives you a little more to eat that tastes of the place. Ham biscuits, peanut soup, Chesapeake crab and oysters and Southern barbecue are real regional dishes, and Merchants Square has a few decent bistros and wine bars.

Lake Placid's eating is mountain-resort food: brewpubs, hearty breakfasts, pizza and a few lakeside lodge dining rooms with good views. It does the job after a day on the trails, but beyond maple syrup and craft beer there is little that is local.

This is where Williamsburg pulls well ahead. Colonial Williamsburg is a whole restored eighteenth-century capital. You can walk Duke of Gloucester Street from the Capitol to the Wren Building, stopping at the Governor's Palace, working craftsmen and serious collections of American decorative arts on the way. It rewards several days.

Lake Placid's heritage is sporting and much smaller in scale. The 1980 'Miracle on Ice' rink, the ski jumps and John Brown's Farm make an interesting day, but there is no historic district or art collection to linger over.

Both are early-night towns, and Williamsburg has slightly more going on. Student pubs near the college fill up in term time, there are taprooms on the edge of town, and a candlelit ghost walk is a pleasant way to end the evening.

In Lake Placid the evening is a beer on Main Street or in a lakeside hotel bar, livelier after a ski day in winter, and most people turn in early for the trail.

Lake Placid is in another league for the outdoors. The Adirondack High Peaks rise right behind the village, with Mount Marcy, Cascade and dozens of other summits to climb. Whiteface has the biggest ski vertical in the East, the Saranac and St. Regis waters make for long canoe trips, and in late September the forests turn red and gold.

Williamsburg's landscape is low Tidewater forest, marsh and broad rivers. It is lovely for a bike ride along the Colonial Parkway or a paddle among ospreys and herons, but there is nothing to climb, and summer brings humidity and mosquitoes.

Williamsburg is the better base for excursions. Jamestown and Yorktown, the other two corners of the Historic Triangle, are each under half an hour away, and you can add the James River plantations, Richmond and the maritime museums of Hampton Roads.

From Lake Placid, most outings lead further into the wilderness. Saranac Lake, the Wild Center at Tupper Lake and Fort Ticonderoga are worthwhile. Montreal and Burlington are possible at the edge of a long day's drive.

Lake Placid's appeal for families depends on the season. In winter there are the Olympic rinks, the chairlift and lift up the ski jump tower and the ski school at Whiteface. In summer the draws are the Mirror Lake beach, easy hikes and the Wild Center at Tupper Lake. Santa's Workshop at North Pole, about 20 minutes away, suits small children, but the cold and the long drives between places take some planning.

Williamsburg keeps children busy for longer and makes the practical side easier. Restaurants are used to young diners, motels with pools are everywhere, and in the Historic Area children can help in a colonial garden or ask a costumed blacksmith questions. The drawback is that summer, when most families come, is hot and humid, and the main attractions are a drive apart.

In both places you can walk the centre and need a car for everything else. Lake Placid's walkable part is Main Street and Mirror Lake. Beyond them lie winding mountain roads that call for winter driving skills for much of the year.

Williamsburg's flat Historic Area is car-free by day and has a shuttle around its edge, and Amtrak stops near the centre. Its theme parks, outlets and hotels sprawl along easy but busy highways.

Williamsburg offers more variety. Colonial workshops sell pewter, pottery and hand-printed books, Merchants Square has gift and clothing stores, and Richmond Road adds a large outlet centre and a long-established pottery and homeware store.

Lake Placid's shopping is one stretch of Main Street, where outdoor outfitters, fly-fishing shops, balsam pillows and maple products are useful for gear and souvenirs, and not much more.

A Lake Placid trip spends most of its money on a bed and on getting up the mountain. The lodges by the lake and the hotels on Main Street charge what a resort charges, and they are dearest exactly when most people want to come: the snow season, midsummer and the weeks of autumn colour. A Whiteface lift pass, a guide for the High Peaks or hired skis and boats then push the bill higher. You save through timing and doing things yourself, with a cabin where you cook, a plain motel outside the village, a spring or late-autumn visit, and your own canoe on lakes that cost nothing to paddle.

Williamsburg works the other way round. A room is the easy part, because the roads into town are lined with chain lodging at sensible rates, and only the busiest summer weeks push it up. The money goes at the ticket desk instead. The colonial capital, the other two corners of the Historic Triangle and Busch Gardens each charge their own entry, so it pays to plan your days around a combined pass. Even so, Williamsburg is the easier of the two on a budget, and in both places a hire car is part of the cost from the start.

Neither town has much live performance, and Williamsburg has a bit more of it all year round. There are candlelit eighteenth-century recitals, period theatre, fife-and-drum corps, college concerts in term time and theme-park stage shows.

Lake Placid's offering is mostly summer: the Lake Placid Sinfonietta's free concerts at the Mirror Lake bandshell, occasional shows at the arts centre, and little outside that season.

Lake Placid is the more restorative place. Its calm comes from the mountains, with porches over still water, a quiet walk around Mirror Lake, lodge spas with saunas and hot tubs, and fireplaces after a day in the snow.

Williamsburg can be peaceful too, on early mornings on the empty greens or at the riverside golf resorts and their spas. Still, the theme-park crowds and summer heat make a truly quiet stay there harder to arrange.