New York or Williamsburg, Virginia?

New York has the better beach access, simply because the sand is on the subway. Coney Island and Brighton Beach have a boardwalk and old rides, the Rockaways draw surfers, and Jones Beach is about an hour out.

Williamsburg is inland between two rivers, so every beach day means a drive: the small, calm strip at Yorktown, the Chesapeake at Buckroe, or Virginia Beach about an hour away. The water there is a few degrees warmer, though sea nettles can spoil the bay in high summer.

This is one of the widest gaps between the two. New York cooks almost every cuisine on earth in the neighbourhoods that brought it, from Tibetan in Jackson Heights to Polish in Greenpoint, with a deep fine-dining scene above that. At the cheap end there are slices, bagels and deli pastrami.

Williamsburg eats simply and regionally: ham biscuits, peanut soup, crab cakes and bay oysters, plus candlelit colonial taverns where the setting matters more than the cooking. Apart from a few bistros near the college, Richmond Road is mostly pancake houses and family chains.

New York's museums are on another level. The Met, MoMA, the Natural History museum and the Cloisters could each anchor a trip, and landmarks such as the Brooklyn Bridge and Grand Central are known worldwide. Its history is mostly nineteenth and twentieth century, read in brownstones and tenements.

Williamsburg has something New York lacks: a whole eighteenth-century capital re-created around Duke of Gloucester Street, with costumed printers and wigmakers, the Governor's Palace and the Wren Building at the college. It is narrower, a careful reconstruction rather than an untouched old town, and two or three days cover it properly.

New York's nights suit every mood: East Village dives, West Village wine bars, rooftop bars and the warehouse clubs of Bushwick and Williamsburg (the Brooklyn neighbourhood, not the Virginia town). The trains run all night to get you home.

In Virginia's Williamsburg, a ghost walk or a tavern supper is the usual end of the evening, with student pubs in term time and a few taprooms out of town. For a real night out you drive to Norfolk or Richmond.

Neither city is a base for wild country, but New York reaches better landscapes. Central Park, Prospect Park and the waterfront walks fill an easy day. A train up the Hudson in about ninety minutes reaches the steep, rocky climbs of Breakneck Ridge, which are at their best in October colour.

Williamsburg's landscape is flat Tidewater forest, marsh and wide estuaries. It is lovely by bike along the Colonial Parkway or by kayak on the Chickahominy, where you may see ospreys and bald eagles. But there are no hills, and summer brings heat and mosquitoes.

New York has the edge, mainly because its day trips can be done by train. Philadelphia and Independence Hall are about an hour and a half away, Princeton and New Haven are close, and the Hudson Valley estates, Dia Beacon and Storm King lie to the north.

Williamsburg's strength is how close its best outings are. Jamestown and Yorktown are each within about twenty minutes, followed by the James River plantations and Richmond. Nearly all of them need a car, though, and these sites carry national rather than international weight.

Williamsburg is the easier family vacation. Children can join a fife-and-drum parade, question a costumed blacksmith and board replica ships at Jamestown, then spend a day on roller coasters and water slides. Family motels with pools are everywhere.

New York has bigger single attractions: the dinosaur halls and planetarium, the Bronx Zoo and the free Staten Island Ferry. But subway stations with only stairs, small rooms and Midtown crowds tire young children quickly. Williamsburg's drawbacks are summer heat and the driving between sites.

In New York you never need a car. The Manhattan grid is easy to walk, the subway runs around the clock across four boroughs, and ferries and bike docks fill the gaps. The irritations are confusing express trains, weekend reroutes and the airport journey.

Williamsburg is the reverse. The Historic Area, Merchants Square and the campus make a flat walk of about 20 minutes end to end, and Duke of Gloucester Street is closed to cars by day. But the theme parks, the outlets, most hotels, Jamestown and Yorktown are spread along highways, and the buses are too limited to rely on, so almost everyone rents a car.

New York is a shopping destination in itself. It has flagship stores on Fifth Avenue, luxury houses on Madison, grand department stores, SoHo fashion, and vintage, records and young designers across the river in Greenpoint.

The Virginia town is far narrower but has a character of its own. Colonial-style shops sell pewter, pottery, tin and books printed the old way, Merchants Square has Virginia gifts and kitchenware, and an outlet centre covers the usual brands. There is no luxury shopping at all.

Williamsburg costs less, though it is not cheap. Motel and chain-hotel rooms are reasonably priced outside summer weekends and peak weeks. The costs that bite are the entry tickets for the colonial town, Jamestown, Yorktown and the theme parks, plus a rental car.

New York is among the most expensive cities anywhere, with small, costly rooms, tax and a tip on every meal, and steep theatre and observation-deck tickets. You can spend less on slices, food carts, Queens restaurants and the free parks and ferry, and by staying in Brooklyn, Queens or New Jersey.

Here New York has no real rival. Broadway and Off-Broadway, the opera, the Philharmonic and City Ballet at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Village jazz basements and Harlem gospel mean every evening of a stay can bring a first-rate show.

Williamsburg's performances are part of the colonial experience: candlelit eighteenth-century recitals, period theatre and evening programmes in the Historic Area, plus student concerts and plays at the college. For opera or an orchestra, you drive to Norfolk or Richmond.

New York's surprise is its bathing culture. There is a Russian and Turkish bathhouse in the East Village dating from the late 1800s, banyas in Brighton Beach and large Korean-style spas in Queens and New Jersey. Beyond those, the city is loud and fast, and calm means the Cloisters gardens or the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Williamsburg has no bathing tradition, only the spas at its historic inn and riverside golf resorts. Its pace is gentler, though, and early mornings on the empty colonial greens are about as restful as a town visit gets.