New Orleans or Salem, Massachusetts?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Salem comes closer. It has small harbour beaches in town, and Crane Beach's long dunes are about forty minutes away. The catch is the Gulf of Maine, which stays cool even in high summer, so a swim is a brisk dip rather than a soak.

New Orleans has no bathing at all on its lake or river. The nearest sand, around Bay St. Louis, means well over an hour's drive to warm but murky water, so most visitors make do with a hotel pool.

This is one of the widest gaps between the two. New Orleans has a cuisine entirely its own, from century-old Creole dining rooms in the French Quarter to po'boy counters in Mid-City, crawfish in spring and beignets by Jackson Square. Its cocktails are part of the tradition too.

Salem eats well in a modest New England way, with chowder, fried clams and lobster rolls near the wharf, but the choice is narrow. Keen eaters there tend to save their big dinners for Boston.

Both are history towns, and New Orleans has more of it to see. The French Quarter is a complete colonial streetscape around Jackson Square and the Cabildo. The Garden District mansions, the above-ground tombs and the National WWII Museum add depth, though major collections are few.

Salem's story is tighter and easier to cover in two days: the 1692 trials at the Witch House and the memorial, the maritime wharves and the Federal houses of Chestnut Street. Its strongest single asset, the Peabody Essex Museum, is a finer art collection than anything in New Orleans.

New Orleans is built for the night. There is no closing time, you can carry a drink along the street, and the evening drifts from the neon of Bourbon Street to music bars on Frenchmen Street and corner dives in the Bywater. On busy weekends it is loud and best treated with street sense.

Salem winds down early, with a pint or a cocktail and then bed. Only the Halloween season brings crowds out late, and even then it feels like a festival rather than a night scene.

Salem has the more varied outdoors. You can walk the granite shore at Halibut Point and the Marblehead headlands, kayak among harbour islands, watch birds on Plum Island and take whale-watching boats out to Stellwagen Bank. In autumn the leaves turn colour.

New Orleans offers a different, wetter world of cypress swamps and bayous with alligators, plus the old oaks of City Park. The land is entirely flat, and the summer climate keeps outdoor plans to spring and late autumn.

Salem is the stronger base by a distance. Boston is half an hour away by train, Cape Ann's harbour towns are on the same line, and Concord, Lexington, Newburyport and Portsmouth add Revolutionary and coastal history, much of it reachable without a car.

From New Orleans the main outing is the River Road plantations, with the Whitney the most powerful of them. After that come Baton Rouge and the quiet Gulf towns, while Cajun country stretches a single day.

New Orleans gives children more to do. The Audubon Zoo, the riverfront aquarium, City Park's carousel, storybook garden and children's museum, streetcars and paddle-steamers all appeal, and parade days on St. Charles Avenue are a highlight. Parents need to avoid Bourbon Street at night and the summer heat.

Salem is small, flat and easy, and older children enjoy the tall ship and the Salem Willows arcade. The dark witch-trial material can unsettle younger ones, and families often head to Boston for the bigger attractions.

Salem is the simpler place to get around. The whole centre fits into a twenty-minute walk, and the station sits close by with direct trains to Boston and Cape Ann. You need a car only for the beaches and inland towns.

New Orleans has a walkable core of its own in the Quarter, the Marigny and the Warehouse District, plus the much-loved St. Charles streetcar. Distances are longer, though, the trams are slow and the buses are thin, so visitors lean on ride-hailing, especially after dark and in the heat.

New Orleans offers more to browse. Royal Street has antiques and galleries, Magazine Street runs for miles of independent boutiques and vintage shops, and Mardi Gras masks and pralines make souvenirs with real local roots.

Salem's shops are a curiosity rather than a destination, built around tarot, crystals, spell books and Halloween goods on Essex Street, with a few antique dealers and bookshops. Neither city suits anyone after designer labels.

New Orleans is the easier city on the wallet, mainly because its everyday pleasures cost so little. Po'boys and red beans and rice, neighbourhood bars, the streetcar and the street musicians of the Quarter keep the days cheap. Staying along the streetcar lines or coming in the summer heat brings room rates down, while Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest weekends are the costly exception.

In Salem the problem is beds. There are few of them, they carry Boston-area prices, and in October a sensible rate is very hard to find. The walkable centre and the cheap train keep everything else modest, and many visitors save by coming just for the day.

Live music is the main reason many people choose New Orleans. Jazz, brass bands, zydeco and funk play every night on Frenchmen Street and in Tremé, second lines fill the streets on Sundays, and Jazz Fest anchors the spring. The formal stage is modest by comparison.

Salem has a small theatre company, occasional concerts at the Peabody Essex Museum and costumed re-enactments in October. For a real night of music or theatre, you take the train to Boston.

Neither city is a place to come for rest, and neither has a spa tradition beyond hotel day spas. The calm they offer differs in kind. In New Orleans it comes from courtyard mornings and slow streetcar rides under the oaks. In Salem it is quiet harbour walks and a spiritual fringe of meditation and crystal healers, though October crowds break that peace.