New York or Portland, Maine?

New York has warmer water and more stretches of sand. Coney Island and Brighton Beach have a boardwalk and an amusement park at the end of the subway lines, the Rockaways attract surfers, and the Atlantic is warm enough for a proper swim in high summer.

Portland's beaches, such as Crescent, Higgins and Pine Point to the south, are quieter than New York's packed summer weekends. The Gulf of Maine stays chilly even in August, though, so most people paddle rather than swim. Old Orchard Beach is the old-fashioned resort with a pier and arcades. In neither city is the beach the reason to go.

New York eats on a different scale. You'll find Fujianese food in Flushing, Tibetan in Jackson Heights, Italian on Arthur Avenue and a deep fine-dining scene, with pizza slices, bagels and deli pastrami everywhere. You could eat a different cuisine at every meal for weeks.

Portland's choice is narrower but has a clear character. It does lobster rolls at harbour shacks, Maine oysters and chef-run cooking with local farm and fishing produce very well, and its craft breweries in East Bayside are worth a visit in their own right. Expect little international food and summer queues.

This is one of the widest gaps between the two. New York has the Metropolitan Museum, MoMA, the Natural History Museum and the Cloisters, along with landmarks known worldwide, from the Statue of Liberty to Grand Central.

Portland's sights are small but pleasing: the brick Old Port rebuilt after the 1866 fire, an art museum strong on Winslow Homer, Longfellow's childhood home, and Portland Head Light just outside the city. A couple of days covers them all, while New York's museums alone could take a week.

New York goes out all night. There are cocktail and dive bars in the East Village, rooftop bars in Midtown and warehouse dance floors in Bushwick that keep going past dawn, with trains running round the clock to get you home.

In Portland you go to bars rather than clubs: pubs and oyster bars on Fore and Wharf Streets, brewery taprooms in the early evening and quiet wine bars on Munjoy Hill. With last orders at 1am and quiet weeknights in winter, it suits a good drink after dinner rather than a late night.

Portland has more real outdoors on its doorstep. Ferries go to Peaks and Chebeague for island walks and cycling, and in summer sea kayaks, schooners and whale-watching boats leave straight from the harbour. The White Mountains are about two hours inland.

New York's green space is mostly designed: Central Park, Prospect Park and the High Line. It does have hard hiking on Breakneck Ridge, a train ride up the Hudson, and migrating birds at Jamaica Bay. But you have to travel to reach wilder country, whereas in Portland it starts at the waterfront.

New York has the stronger day trips, and most are easy by train: Philadelphia's Independence Hall in about an hour and a half, Princeton, Yale's New Haven, and the Hudson Valley's Gilded Age estates, Dia Beacon and Storm King.

Portland's day trips follow the coast: Kennebunkport, the Marginal Way at Ogunquit, colonial Portsmouth, the maritime museum at Bath and the windjammers of Camden. These towns are charming rather than grand, and you mostly need a car to reach them.

New York has the big attractions children remember: the dinosaur halls, the Bronx Zoo, the Coney Island aquarium and the free Staten Island Ferry. The downside is subway stations with only stairs, small hotel rooms and Midtown crowds that tire young children quickly.

Portland is easier going and its days are gentler: ferry rides, tide pools and forts at Fort Williams Park, and the amusement pier at Old Orchard Beach. It has no zoo or major aquarium, though, and really only works for families in summer.

In New York you never need a car. Manhattan's grid is easy to walk, the subway runs all night across four boroughs, and ferries and bike-share docks fill the gaps. Stairs, express trains and weekend diversions take some getting used to.

Portland's peninsula is lovely on foot, with the Old Port, the West End and Munjoy Hill close together, though some streets are steep. Buses are thin, so the lighthouse, the beaches and the coast towns really call for a hire car.

New York is worth a trip for the shopping alone, from the flagships on Fifth Avenue and the luxury houses on Madison to SoHo's fashion brands, Williamsburg vintage, rare books and sneakers. Portland has independent boutiques on Exchange Street selling Maine pottery, woollens and art, enough for an afternoon, plus the outlet town of Freeport for outdoor gear, but no department stores or luxury labels.

Both are expensive, but New York is harder on the wallet. Manhattan rooms are small and costly all year, and sales tax, tips, theatre and observation decks add up fast. Free parks, the Staten Island Ferry, cheap food in Queens and Chinatown, and a room in Brooklyn all help.

Portland's prices peak in July and August and on foliage weekends, when rooms on the peninsula charge big-city rates and seafood dinners cost a lot. Outside those times hotel prices drop sharply, which makes it the cheaper of the two for a careful traveller.

Few cities anywhere match New York for performance. It has Broadway, the Metropolitan Opera, the Philharmonic and City Ballet at Lincoln Center, the orchestras at Carnegie Hall, jazz in Village basements and gospel in Harlem on Sundays.

Portland has a respectable programme for its size: the symphony at Merrill Auditorium, professional theatre at Portland Stage and touring bands at the State Theatre. It is enough for an evening out, whereas New York could fill every evening of your stay.

Neither is a spa destination, but New York has a real bathing culture: a nineteenth-century Russian and Turkish bathhouse in the East Village, banyas in Brighton Beach and large Korean-style spas in Queens. The city around them, though, is noisy and fast.

Portland has no bathing tradition beyond hotel and day spas and the odd waterfront sauna. You relax there through the slower pace instead, with a ferry to a quiet island or an evening stroll on the Eastern Promenade.