Newport, Rhode Island or Rehoboth Beach?

Rehoboth is the stronger beach town. A wide band of pale sand runs the whole length of the boardwalk, with lifeguards and moderate surf, and there is more room at Cape Henlopen to the north and Delaware Seashore State Park to the south. In high summer the water is a few degrees warmer than Newport's, enough to stay in for a long swim.

Newport has proper swimming beaches, but smaller and more scattered ones: Easton's Beach below the Cliff Walk, the longer Second and Third Beaches over in Middletown, and the sheltered cove at Gooseberry. The cooler sea and slightly shorter season make beaches one part of a Newport visit rather than its centre.

These two eat about equally well, but from different coasts. Newport is New England seafood: lobster rolls, stuffed quahogs, Rhode Island's clear-broth chowder and clam cakes, eaten on the wharves off Thames Street, with smarter rooms on Bellevue Avenue and wineries on the island's east shore.

Rehoboth trades that for Mid-Atlantic steamed blue crabs, crab cakes and vinegar-soaked boardwalk fries. Thanks to its Washington crowd it has more chef-led restaurants than most beach towns, and craft beer is a real strength. In both, the choice thins out in winter, though Newport has Providence close by for more variety.

On sights, Newport is in a different league. The Vanderbilt-era cottages such as The Breakers and Marble House, one of the country's largest clusters of colonial houses, Touro Synagogue, the Redwood Library, the Tennis Hall of Fame in the old Casino and Fort Adams make two or three full days of sightseeing.

Rehoboth has its Methodist camp-meeting cottages, the Rehoboth Art League's garden galleries in Henlopen Acres and a small museum house, and that is about it. Visitors who want history there drive to Lewes or the wartime towers at Cape Henlopen.

Rehoboth has the livelier summer nights. It is one of the East Coast's best-known LGBTQ resorts, with piano lounges, bars and drag nights around Baltimore Avenue, and Dewey Beach just south adds big outdoor deck bars and a younger, louder crowd.

Newport's evenings mean Thames Street and the wharves: pubs and waterfront decks full of sailors, wedding parties and summer visitors. It gets noisy on a July Saturday but ends early, and anyone wanting more heads to Providence. Neither town really has clubs, and both go quiet out of season.

Newport has the more dramatic shore. The Cliff Walk runs about 5km between mansion lawns and surf, Ocean Drive passes the wave-cut ledges at Brenton Point, and Sachuest Point is good for seabirds. It is also one of North America's great sailing towns, with charters, lessons and autumn surf at Second Beach.

Rehoboth's outdoors are gentler: tall dunes and the Gordons Pond trail at Cape Henlopen, the flat Junction and Breakwater Trail to Lewes, and quiet inland bays for kayaking and paddleboarding. Dolphins offshore and the Assateague ponies about an hour away are its particular draws.

Newport has more worth driving to. Providence and its RISD Museum are under an hour away, Boston is reachable for a day, the seasonal ferry runs to Block Island, and New Bedford's whaling museum and Mystic's seaport are both within easy range.

From Rehoboth, Lewes is ten minutes off and the ferry from there crosses Delaware Bay to Victorian Cape May, which makes the best day out. Beyond that come Ocean City's brasher boardwalk, Berlin, Dover and Chincoteague, pleasant rather than memorable. From either town you will need a car.

Rehoboth is built for children. Funland's gentle rides and arcade sit on the boardwalk, lifeguarded beaches are a few steps from the rental houses, there is a water park and mini-golf just outside town, and Cape Henlopen adds a nature centre and calm bay water for toddlers.

Newport has good pieces, such as the carousel at Easton's Beach, the touch tanks at Save The Bay's aquarium, the ramparts of Fort Adams and kite flying at Brenton Point. But its main sights are long mansion tours, and there is no zoo or theme park to fill the gaps.

Getting around is much the same in both: easy on foot in the middle, and a car for everything else. Newport's harbour, Thames Street and colonial quarters sit close together, but the mansions are up the hill, so buses, a summer trolley and a harbour ferry help. Rehoboth is a flat grid where bikes are everywhere and a cycle trail carries on to Lewes.

Reaching either one means driving. Newport's island bridges and narrow streets jam in summer, and Rehoboth has no train and a highway that clogs on summer weekends. Parking is scarce in both.

Shopping is fairly even, but the two suit different shoppers. Rehoboth's edge is Delaware's lack of sales tax: big outlet centres along the highway sell discounted brands, and downtown has independent boutiques and bookshops alongside the beachwear stalls.

Newport is more about browsing, with galleries, preppy sailing clothes and jewellery on the wharves and Thames Street, and antiques and decorative arts on Spring and Franklin Streets. Neither town has a department store.

Both are expensive in summer, but Newport is the harder one on a budget. Mansion tickets, seafood dinners and parking pile on top of high room rates, there is little cheap to stay in the centre, and the usual workaround is to sleep in Middletown or come in late autumn or winter.

Rehoboth is costly near the beach on summer weekends too, but the beach is free, shopping carries no sales tax, and rooms become far cheaper in spring and autumn.

Newport has the bigger musical name, though it rests on a few summer weeks. The Newport Jazz and Folk Festivals at Fort Adams are among the most storied in the country, and the Newport Music Festival puts chamber concerts in the mansion ballrooms each July. The rest of the year is quiet, and Providence and Boston fill the gap.

Rehoboth is smaller in scale: free summer concerts at the bandstand, a local company staging musicals and cabaret, piano acts in the bars and an autumn film festival.

Neither town has a bathing tradition, so rest here means hotel spas, yoga studios and the slower months. Newport has rather more in the way of spas in its larger waterfront resort hotels, and in May, June, September and October the Cliff Walk and harbour are at their calmest.

Rehoboth's restful side is simpler: day spas, an empty boardwalk in June and September, and bike rides under the pines. In both, high summer is too crowded to unwind.