New York or Ocean City, Maryland?

Ocean City is built around its beach. About 16km of wide, soft sand runs the length of the island, with public access from almost every street, lifeguards all along the shore and moderate surf for bodyboarding. When the boardwalk end gets crowded, the northern condo stretches and the wild dunes of Assateague offer more space.

New York's beaches are real but secondary. Coney Island, Brighton Beach and the Rockaways are reached by subway, and Jones Beach is about an hour away. They make an enjoyable summer afternoon away from the streets rather than the point of the trip.

New York is one of the world's great places to eat. You can find Fujianese food in Flushing, Tibetan in Jackson Heights and Italian on Arthur Avenue, and above that sits a deep fine-dining scene, with cheap slices, bagels and deli pastrami everywhere in between.

Ocean City does one thing well: a paper-covered table of steamed blue crabs with Old Bay, followed by crab cakes and boardwalk fries. Beyond seafood and snacks the choice is mostly diners, chains and bar food, and many kitchens close or cut back outside summer.

The gap here is enormous. New York has the Metropolitan Museum, MoMA, the Natural History Museum and the Cloisters, along with landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the Brooklyn Bridge, and streets of brownstones and cast-iron buildings.

Ocean City's heritage is the boardwalk itself, a small Life-Saving Station Museum and an early twentieth-century carousel at the inlet. Anyone who wants serious sightseeing would have to drive inland or north to find it.

New York's nights have huge range: speakeasy-style bars and dives in the East Village, quiet wine bars in the West Village, rooftop bars with skyline views, and warehouse parties in Bushwick that go on past dawn. The trains run all night to get you home.

Ocean City is a summer party town of a simpler kind. Expect sand-floored bayside bars at sunset, sports and dance bars along the Coastal Highway, a 2am close, and a loud, young crowd in early June. Out of season it fades to a few locals' bars.

New York's outdoors are on land. It has the big designed landscapes of Central Park and Prospect Park, long waterfront walks, birding at Jamaica Bay, and a train ride up the Hudson to the steep, rocky climbs of Breakneck Ridge, which are at their best in October colour.

Ocean City's outdoors are on the water, and the land is completely flat. Paddling and crabbing in the back bays, offshore marlin fishing and the dunes and grazing ponies of Assateague make up its version of the outdoors.

From New York, trains reach real destinations easily. Philadelphia's colonial old town is about an hour and a half away, and Princeton, Yale at New Haven, the Hudson Valley estates, Dia Beacon and Storm King make good days out too.

Ocean City's surroundings are quieter and need a car. Options include the old main streets of Berlin and Snow Hill, the pony village of Chincoteague and livelier Rehoboth Beach, with the Chesapeake towns at the limit of a day. No big city is within comfortable reach.

Ocean City is easier with children because everything they want is close together: a lifeguarded beach, boardwalk amusement parks with an old carousel, water parks, go-karts and mini-golf on almost every block. Condos with kitchens make long stays simple. Avoid early June, when graduating teenagers arrive, and remember that most of this closes after summer.

New York has bigger single attractions, such as the dinosaur halls, the Bronx Zoo and the free Staten Island Ferry. The day-to-day logistics are harder, though, with subway stairs, cramped rooms and tiring Midtown crowds.

In New York you can leave the car behind completely. Manhattan's grid is easy to walk, the subway runs all night across four boroughs, and ferries and bike-share fill the gaps. The only real complaints are confusing express lines, summer heat on the platforms and awkward airport connections.

Ocean City is a long, narrow strip that people mostly reach and get around by car. A summer bus and the boardwalk tram help near the sea, but walking along the Coastal Highway between neighbourhoods is unpleasant, and Assateague or anywhere inland means driving.

New York covers every level of shopping in one trip. There are flagship stores on Fifth Avenue, luxury houses on Madison Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman and Macy's, fashion brands in SoHo, boutiques in Nolita, and vintage clothes and records in Williamsburg.

Ocean City offers seaside shopping and little more: T-shirts, surf gear, fudge and taffy on the boardwalk, beachwear in the bayside villages, and an outlet centre over the bridge for mainstream brands.

Neither place is cheap, but Ocean City costs noticeably less. You can bring costs down with older motels a block or two from the sea, a shared condo, boardwalk food and the free beach, and late May or September brings lower room rates while the sea is still swimmable.

New York is among the most expensive cities anywhere. Rooms are small and dear, and restaurant bills come with tax and a tip on top. Slices, food carts, Queens restaurants, the free ferry and the parks help, and so does staying in Brooklyn or New Jersey.

New York is the strongest city anywhere for performance. It has Broadway and Off-Broadway, the Met Opera, the Philharmonic and City Ballet at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Village jazz clubs, Harlem gospel and free Shakespeare in the park in summer.

Ocean City's entertainment is light: touring comedians and tribute acts at the convention centre, free concerts at the bandstand and cover bands in the bars. There is no orchestra, opera or resident theatre company.

New York has a bathing culture that few visitors expect: a Russian and Turkish bathhouse in the East Village dating from the late 1800s, banyas in Brighton Beach and big Korean spas a short trip away. For calm without the steam, there are the Cloisters gardens and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, even if the city itself never slows down.

Ocean City has a few day spas and loud summer evenings. Its quiet comes in the shoulder months, with an early walk on an empty beach at the northern end.