Newport, Rhode Island or Stowe?

Newport has real sea swimming. Easton's Beach lies below the Cliff Walk, Second and Third Beaches in Middletown are longer, and Gooseberry is a sheltered cove, all a short trip from the harbour.

Stowe can only offer fresh water: rocky pools in the mountain streams and small, unguarded sandy shores at Waterbury Reservoir and Lake Elmore, about half an hour away by car. The swimming season is equally short in both places, but only Newport works for a beach trip.

Both towns eat well within a narrow range, but in different directions. Newport's food comes from the sea: lobster rolls, Rhode Island's clear-broth chowder, clam cakes and local oysters on the Thames Street wharves, with smarter dining rooms on Bellevue Avenue.

Stowe relies on Vermont's farms and brewers, with sought-after hazy IPAs, farm cheddar, maple syrup and cider doughnuts, plus après-ski taverns along Mountain Road. In both towns the choice shrinks out of season, but Newport has Providence's restaurants within the hour if you want more.

This is where the two differ most. Newport has the Vanderbilt-era mansions such as The Breakers and Marble House, one of the country's largest groups of colonial houses on the Point and Historic Hill, and Touro Synagogue, the oldest standing synagogue in the United States. That is enough for two or three full days.

Stowe's cultural side is a white-steepled village, covered bridges, a ski museum and the von Trapp estate, and an afternoon covers it. People come for the mountain, not for sights.

Neither town has clubs, but Newport at least has a proper bar scene. In summer, sailing crowds, wedding parties and visitors fill the waterfront decks and Irish-style pubs around Thames Street, and it gets loud on weekends.

Stowe's evenings mean après-ski in the base-lodge bars and brewery taprooms. They are sociable in the busiest ski weeks and quiet otherwise, and most people go to bed early to be on the first lift. For a bigger night out, Newport visitors go to Providence and Stowe visitors to Burlington.

Stowe is the place for the outdoors. Mount Mansfield, Vermont's highest peak, has long ski runs and glades in winter. In summer and autumn there is the Long Trail, the boulder-filled pass of Smugglers' Notch, waterfalls and well-built mountain-bike trails, and in October the foliage fills the valley.

Newport's outdoors is flat and on the sea: the Cliff Walk, Ocean Drive and Brenton Point, birdwatching at Sachuest Point, and above all sailing, kayaking and surfing when the autumn swells come in. It is a fine coast for a walk or a day on the water, but it has no hills.

From Newport you can reach a good deal more. Providence is under an hour away and Boston about an hour and a half. Closer in are the colonial waterfront at Bristol, the ferry to Block Island, New Bedford's whaling museum and the seaport museum at Mystic.

From Stowe the outings are a short list of small places: Burlington on Lake Champlain, the Shelburne Museum, Montpelier's gold-domed statehouse and Woodstock further south. In both places you need a car for nearly all of these trips.

Stowe suits active families better. It has a large ski school with gentle beginner slopes and a resort built around children on the far side of Smugglers' Notch. In summer the flat riverside path works for bikes and pushchairs, and children can watch maple syrup being made in the sugarhouses.

Newport has calm water at Third and Gooseberry Beaches, the carousel at Easton's Beach, Fort Adams and Save The Bay's touch tanks. Its headline sights are long mansion tours, though, and the summer crowds tire children out. Neither town has a zoo or theme park.

In Newport the harbour, Thames Street and the colonial quarters are close together on foot. Buses and a summer trolley reach the mansions and beaches, though summer traffic and parking are hard work and day trips need a car.

Stowe stretches along an 11km valley road. Apart from the walkable village and the riverside path you will drive almost everywhere, and the only help is the shuttle bus that runs in ski season. Winter driving there means snow tyres and steep, icy roads.

Newport makes a better afternoon of browsing. There are galleries, sailing clothes and jewellery on the wharves and Thames Street, a few boutiques on Bellevue Avenue and antiques on Spring and Franklin Streets. Stowe's shops are mostly ski and outdoor gear, local pottery and woodwork, and maple syrup and cheddar to take home. Neither is somewhere to go for fashion.

Both are expensive places to stay, and the difference lies in when they get cheaper. Newport is dearest in summer and early autumn, when mansion tickets, seafood dinners and parking add up. Prices fall in late autumn and winter, and staying in Middletown helps.

Stowe is costliest over Christmas, the winter school vacations and the October foliage weeks, with lift tickets and ski hire on top. It is cheapest in spring and November, when valley motels, brewery food and the free trails make a small budget go further.

Newport is clearly ahead here, although most of what it offers happens in a few summer weeks. Its jazz and folk festivals are among the best known in American music, and both are played on the grounds of Fort Adams beside the water. Each July, chamber music also fills the ballrooms of the Bellevue Avenue mansions. If your dates fall on one of these, it may be the high point of the trip.

Stowe's calendar is smaller and more local. The arts centre below Spruce Peak puts on touring acts, comedy and family shows. A village theatre company performs in summer, and there are concerts on the hillside lawns in the von Trapp family's musical tradition. Away from the main seasons both towns go quiet. For an orchestra or a full theatre season, Newport has Providence and Boston within reach, while from Stowe the nearest choice is Burlington.

Stowe is the better place to unwind. Its larger resorts have full spas, with saunas and heated outdoor pools to sit in while the snow falls, and the quiet inns and wood fires make spa weekends a common reason to visit.

Newport has spas in its larger hotels and the calm of a seaside town, but only in May and June or September and October, when the Cliff Walk is quiet. In high summer, with weddings and traffic, it is anything but restful.