Nantucket or Outer Banks?

The Outer Banks have more beach and better swimming. Well over 100 miles of open sand, a sea that gets properly warm and a season running from June into September put them ahead, and the undeveloped national seashore around Buxton and Ocracoke is the place to find a stretch of dune-backed sand to yourself. Rip currents are the price, and the calm water lies on the sound side rather than on the ocean beaches.

Nantucket's strength is its variety in a small space. Sheltered harbour-side swimming at Jetties and Children's Beach is a short ride from the surf at Surfside and Cisco, and Madaket has the sunsets. But the water stays cooler and the swimming season is squeezed into high summer.

Nantucket eats better. Cooking for a wealthy summer crowd, its kitchens serve local oysters, autumn bay scallops and striped bass as refined New England dishes in old town houses, and there is an island brewery, distillery and winery on the Madaket road.

The Outer Banks keep seafood plain and casual: steamed shrimp, soft-shell crab and fried baskets with hushpuppies at dockside shacks, or fish from the Wanchese and Hatteras markets cooked at the rental house. That suits a self-catering week well, but serious restaurants are confined to Nags Head and Duck.

The two are broadly level, but the history takes a different shape in each. On Nantucket it is the town itself: a preserved whaling port of Federal houses and church spires that you take in on foot, with the Whaling Museum as the main stop and two days enough to see it all.

On the Outer Banks the history is in separate landmark sites a drive apart: the Wright Brothers memorial on the dunes where powered flight began, Fort Raleigh and the Lost Colony story on Roanoke Island, and a chain of lighthouses including the striped tower at Cape Hatteras. Each is worth a morning, but there is no historic town centre to wander.

Both are early-to-bed places with almost no clubs. The difference is the setting: on Nantucket the summer pubs and hotel bars cluster around the harbour and Main Street, so you can walk from dinner to a drink, while on the Outer Banks evenings are spread along the bypass in brewery taprooms and on sound-side decks at sunset, and usually end on the porch of the rental house.

The Outer Banks offer more to do outdoors. The giant dunes at Jockey's Ridge, wild mustangs on the beaches north of Corolla, migrating birds at Pea Island and turtles nesting on the seashore give the coast real wildlife interest. The shallow sounds around Rodanthe and Avon are world-class for kiteboarding and windsurfing, and the offshore fishing from Oregon Inlet and Hatteras is serious.

Nantucket's nature is quieter: protected moors, cranberry bogs and ponds seen from the bike paths, grey seals out at Great Point, and harbour sailing. It is lovely in late spring and autumn, but gentler and smaller in scale.

The Outer Banks give you more outings. A free car ferry from Hatteras reaches the remote village of Ocracoke, and inland lie colonial Edenton on Albemarle Sound and, within a couple of hours, Norfolk and Virginia Beach.

From Nantucket, being far out at sea leaves essentially one easy day out, the summer ferry to Martha's Vineyard's harbour towns. A trip to Cape Cod via Hyannis is possible but turns into a long day once the crossings are counted.

The Outer Banks are the more complete family vacation. A big rental house with a pool, crab-catching, mini-golf, the aquarium on Roanoke Island, wild-horse tours, lighthouse climbs and sliding down Jockey's Ridge give children plenty to do, and the sound side is safe for toddlers.

Nantucket keeps things simple: lifeguarded calm water at Children's Beach right by town, flat traffic-free bike paths, and a small, safe town where older children can roam a little. Family rooms are expensive and scarce, though, and on both coasts the ocean surf is too rough for small swimmers.

Nantucket is far easier once you arrive. The town is walkable, paved bike paths fan out to Sconset, Madaket and the south shore beaches, and a summer shuttle fills the gaps, so most visitors never need a car. The effort lies in getting there, by ferry from Hyannis or a short flight.

On the Outer Banks a car is essential. There is no public transport, Corolla to Hatteras village takes a couple of hours on one highway, and changeover Saturdays can jam the bridges for hours. Cycling only works within the closely spaced towns from Kitty Hawk to Nags Head.

Nantucket is the better place to browse. Main Street's preppy boutiques, interiors shops, jewellers and galleries sit together in a few lanes, and the island's own crafts, woven lightship baskets and scrimshaw, make distinctive things to take home.

The Outer Banks offer beach-town shopping strung along the highway: surf and kite shops, big souvenir stores and a small outlet centre in Nags Head. The galleries selling pottery and decoys around the Duck boardwalk and Manteo waterfront are the pleasantest part.

Neither is a bargain in summer, but the Outer Banks cost a good deal less. Weekly house rentals shared by a big group, home cooking with fish from the docks, and free pleasures such as the national seashore and the Ocracoke ferry keep a trip manageable.

Nantucket is in another bracket, among the most expensive summer destinations in the country, with island prices on rooms and meals and a costly ferry fare if you bring a car. June and September soften the bill, but only the beaches and bike paths come close to free.

Both have little on outside summer, and in season each has a modest programme of a different kind. Nantucket offers plays by two local theatre companies, chamber music and readings at the Atheneum and in the churches, and its June film festival. The Outer Banks have one signature evening, The Lost Colony, an outdoor drama performed on Roanoke Island since 1937 on the ground where the settlers lived.

Nantucket is the more restful of the two. With no traffic lights and an easy rhythm of bike, beach and dinner, the island slows you down without effort, and town has a few day spas and summer yoga. The Outer Banks offer the slowness of a porch and the sound of the surf, at its best on Hatteras Island and Ocracoke, but long drives and summer traffic interrupt the calm. Neither is a place to go for treatments.