New York or Rehoboth Beach?

Both towns face the same Atlantic, but only Rehoboth is built around the beach. Its wide strip of pale sand runs the length of town, with lifeguards, moderate surf and wilder stretches at Cape Henlopen and Delaware Seashore State Park. In high summer the sea is a touch warmer too.

New York's beaches come as a surprise bonus: Coney Island's boardwalk and rides, Brighton Beach, and the surfers at the Rockaways, all reached by subway. They make a good summer afternoon, but with crowded weekends and the long ride out, few visitors plan their days around them.

New York is one of the world's great eating cities. Whole neighbourhoods cook their own cuisines, from Fujianese in Flushing to Colombian in Jackson Heights, a deep fine-dining scene sits on top, and slices, bagels and deli pastrami cover everyday meals.

Rehoboth eats well for a beach town, with chef-led restaurants along Rehoboth Avenue, blue crabs, raw bars and serious craft beer. Beyond those, the choice is resort fare like boardwalk fries and taffy, and much of it scales down once summer ends.

Here the gap is wide. New York's museums could fill a week on their own, from the Met and MoMA to the Natural History museum and the Cloisters. Its landmarks run from the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island to Grand Central and the Brooklyn Bridge.

Rehoboth's story is a modest one: a Methodist camp meeting of the 1870s, a few old cottages, and the Rehoboth Art League in its garden at Henlopen Acres. Visitors interested in history mostly drive over to Lewes.

New York's nights go on until morning. There are dive bars and cocktail rooms in the East Village, rooftops over Midtown, and warehouse dance floors in Bushwick and Williamsburg that run past dawn at weekends.

Rehoboth has a more sociable scene than its family boardwalk suggests, rooted in its long LGBTQ history, with piano lounges and drag nights around Baltimore Avenue and the big deck bars of Dewey Beach close by. Most nights end earlier, though, and outside summer only a few bars stay busy.

The two are broadly level outdoors but very different in kind. New York's green space is mostly designed: Central Park, Prospect Park and the High Line. Real hiking means a train up the Hudson to the rocky climbs of Breakneck Ridge, which is at its best in October colour.

Rehoboth's outdoors is flat and coastal. Cape Henlopen has tall dunes and salt marsh, an easy cycle trail runs through the woods to Lewes, and the sheltered bays suit kayaking and paddleboarding, with dolphins often seen offshore in summer.

New York has the stronger list, and most of it can be reached by train. Philadelphia's Independence Hall is about an hour and a half away, Princeton and Yale's New Haven are close, and the Hudson Valley estates, Dia Beacon and Storm King lie to the north.

Rehoboth's outings are smaller, and all of them need a car. Historic Lewes is ten minutes away, and the ferry from there crosses to Victorian Cape May. Ocean City, Berlin, Dover and Chincoteague complete a pleasant rather than remarkable choice.

Both work well with children, but in very different ways. New York has the big attractions: the dinosaur halls of the Natural History museum, the Bronx Zoo and the aircraft carrier on the Hudson. The price is stair-only subway stations, small hotel rooms and tiring Midtown crowds.

Rehoboth is the easy option. Funland has gentle rides on the boardwalk, the lifeguarded sand is a few steps from the rental house, and the bay water at Cape Henlopen is calm enough for the smallest children. Out of season, though, there is little for them to do.

Nobody needs a car in New York. Manhattan's grid is easy on foot, and the subway runs around the clock across four boroughs, backed up by harbour ferries and bike docks. The frustrations are the express trains, weekend reroutes and the journeys to and from the airports.

Rehoboth is simple once you are there: the beach, the boardwalk and downtown are a short walk or bike ride apart, and a summer trolley runs to Dewey Beach. Getting there is the hard part, since there is no train, the highway jams on summer weekends and parking is scarce.

New York is one of the world's shopping capitals. It runs from the flagships of Fifth Avenue and the luxury houses on Madison to SoHo's design labels, the historic department stores, and the vintage and record shops of Williamsburg.

Rehoboth's draw is the outlet centres along the highway, where Delaware's lack of sales tax helps, plus independent boutiques, gift shops and bookshops downtown. It is good for discounted brands and resort clothing, but there is no luxury street or department store.

Neither is cheap, but New York is harder on the wallet. Manhattan rooms are small and expensive all year, and tax, tips, theatre and observation decks add up quickly. Staying in Brooklyn, Queens or New Jersey helps, as does living on slices, food carts, free parks and the Staten Island Ferry.

Rehoboth charges resort prices in summer, especially for beachfront rooms at weekends. Still, the beach is free, shopping carries no sales tax, and rooms cost far less in spring and autumn.

No city outdoes New York here. With Broadway, the Metropolitan Opera, the Philharmonic and City Ballet at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall and the jazz basements of Greenwich Village, there is something worth seeing every night of the year.

Rehoboth's programme is small and seasonal: free bandstand concerts on summer evenings, musicals and cabaret from a local theatre company, an autumn film festival and piano acts in the bars. For bigger touring concerts you have to drive south.

New York has the edge, thanks to a bathing culture few visitors expect. There are the old Russian and Turkish baths in the East Village, the banyas of Brighton Beach and Korean-style spas in Queens and New Jersey. Outside them the city is noisy and fast, so calm comes from its parks and gardens.

Rehoboth has only a few day spas and yoga studios. What it offers instead is a slower pace in June, September and on autumn weekends, with walks on the empty boardwalk and bike rides under the pines.