Lake Placid or Wilmington?

Wilmington offers the proper beach trip. It has three Atlantic beach towns within about half an hour: Wrightsville with its wide pale sand, Carolina Beach with its boardwalk and Kure Beach for something quieter. The sea stays warm enough for swimming from late May into October. The trade-off is a drive, summer parking and rip currents on rough days.

Lake Placid has freshwater swimming only, at the small beach on Mirror Lake, in the Saranac chain of lakes and in rocky pools on the Ausable. A swim there is lovely after a July hike, but the season lasts barely two months and the beaches are narrow strips of sand and grass.

Neither city is a food destination, but Wilmington has more food that tastes of where you are. Local shrimp, flounder and oysters are on most menus, along with raw bars on the waterfront and vinegar-sauced whole-hog barbecue. Downtown adds modern Southern cooking and a cluster of breweries.

Lake Placid's Main Street mostly has diners, brewpubs, pizza and burgers, plus a few lodge dining rooms by the water. Maple syrup and craft beer are about as local as it gets, and some kitchens cut back between seasons.

Wilmington has more to see. Its large historic district of antebellum and Victorian houses, the Bellamy Mansion, the Burgwin-Wright House and the Battleship North Carolina across the river fill two or three days, and they tell the story of a port built on enslaved labour.

Lake Placid's heritage is almost entirely Olympic. The sights are the rink from the 1980 'Miracle on Ice' game, the ski jumps and the speed skating oval, plus John Brown's Farm, the one notable site that has nothing to do with sport. A day covers it all.

Of the two, only Wilmington has a real night out. Front Street fills up at weekends, with rooftop terraces, students from the university and beach bars in summer, though there are no proper clubs. Lake Placid has a handful of brewpubs and lodge bars that liven up after a ski day, and most people are in bed early for the trail.

Nature is Lake Placid's strongest card. The High Peaks put Mount Marcy, Cascade and dozens of other summits within a short drive, and Whiteface has the biggest ski vertical in the eastern United States. The lakes and rivers add canoeing, fly fishing and climbing, and the leaves turn in late September and early October.

Wilmington's outdoors are flat and wet. You can paddle out to Masonboro Island, surf off Wrightsville, fish from the piers and find wild Venus flytraps in Carolina Beach State Park. It is good for water and wildlife, but there are no hills to climb and the marshes bite in summer.

From Lake Placid, most outings lead into the wilderness rather than to other towns. Saranac Lake, the old tuberculosis cure town, and the Wild Center at Tupper Lake are close by. Fort Ticonderoga, Burlington and Montreal are longer drives, though Montreal gives you a big-city day that Wilmington cannot match.

The choice from Wilmington is wider and more varied. You can go to Southport and take the ferry to car-free Bald Head Island, stop at the Civil War earthworks at Fort Fisher on the way, drive north to colonial New Bern and Beaufort, or head to Myrtle Beach for a resort strip.

Both cities work for families, but in different seasons. Lake Placid suits active families in winter: there is public skating on the Olympic rinks, a lift up the ski jump tower, bobsled rides, a toboggan chute onto the frozen lake and a ski school at Whiteface, with Santa's Workshop nearby.

Wilmington is a summer beach base. It has boardwalk rides at Carolina Beach, plus the aquarium at Fort Fisher, the battleship and the Children's Museum for rainy days, and rental houses near the sand. Heat and rip currents are the worries there, while in Lake Placid it is the cold and the long drives.

Both work the same way: a walkable centre and a car for everything else. In Lake Placid the centre is the short stretch of Main Street and Mirror Lake, and the trailheads and Whiteface are reached on winding mountain roads that need winter driving skills. Wilmington's flat historic district and riverwalk are easy on foot, but the beaches are 15km or more away, and the hassle there is summer beach traffic rather than snow.

In Lake Placid, shopping is mostly for kitting out the trip. There is one stretch of Main Street with outdoor outfitters and ski and fly-fishing shops, plus Olympic souvenirs, balsam pillows and maple products to take home.

Wilmington's shops are better for an afternoon's browsing, and there are more of them. Front Street and the Cotton Exchange have independent boutiques, bookshops and antique dealers, the beach towns sell surf wear, and the suburban shopping centres cover the basics. Neither town has a fashion street worth travelling for.

Wilmington is easier on the budget. Hotel rooms in the city are reasonable out of season, and casual seafood and barbecue are fair value, though beachfront rentals cost more in summer.

Lake Placid charges resort prices on winter weekends, in summer and during the foliage weeks, and lift tickets, guides and gear hire add up. Older motels, cabins and the quiet weeks of spring and late autumn help, and hiking and lake swimming cost nothing. In both places a rental car is an unavoidable cost.

Wilmington has a real scene, if a modest one. There is Thalian Hall, a restored 19th-century opera house, a larger centre for touring shows, a community symphony, outdoor stages by Greenfield Lake and long-running jazz and blues festivals. Lake Placid's live performance is mostly the summer season of the Lake Placid Sinfonietta, including free concerts at the Mirror Lake bandshell, plus occasional events at the village arts centre. Outside summer there is little on.

Neither city has thermal baths, so the difference is in the setting. Lake Placid is restful because it is quiet. There are lodge spas with saunas and hot tubs for after a cold day, a calm walk around Mirror Lake, and porches over still water with fireplaces in winter.

Wilmington has day spas, resort spas near the beaches and yoga studios, and its waterfront moves at a slow pace. But the beaches are crowded on summer weekends, and the humid heat is less soothing than a mountain evening.