Newport, Rhode Island or Virginia Beach?

Virginia Beach is the stronger choice for a beach trip. A broad, pale strip of sand runs the whole Oceanfront with lifeguards and a boardwalk behind it. The sea is a few degrees warmer than Newport's and stays warm for longer, and there is surfing by the pier, calm Chesapeake Bay water at First Landing and dune-backed Sandbridge for quieter days.

Newport has good beaches but smaller ones. First Beach lies below the Cliff Walk, wilder Second and Third Beaches are in Middletown and Gooseberry is a sheltered cove. The cooler water and a season of barely two months make it a place for a swim during a sightseeing trip, not a whole week on the sand.

Both towns eat seafood, and neither offers much range beyond it. The flavours differ. Newport serves New England classics: lobster rolls, clam chowder in Rhode Island's clear-broth version, clam cakes and raw bars, eaten on the Thames Street wharves. There are also smarter dining rooms on Bellevue Avenue and wineries on the east of the island, but some places cut their hours in winter.

In Virginia Beach the local specialities are Lynnhaven oysters and Chesapeake blue crab, best eaten at the dockside places around Lynnhaven Inlet rather than among the chains and buffets on the Oceanfront. For more choice, Newport diners drive to Providence and Virginia Beach diners to Norfolk.

Newport is far ahead here. The Vanderbilt-era cottages such as The Breakers and Marble House, which you can also see from the Cliff Walk, would be enough on their own. The town adds Touro Synagogue, Trinity Church, the Redwood Library and a dense colonial quarter, which together fill several days.

Virginia Beach has a single important site at Cape Henry, where the 1607 colonists landed, along with the old lighthouse, the Adam Thoroughgood House and the King Neptune statue. For serious history you have to drive out to the Historic Triangle.

Neither town is built for late nights, and in both the clubs are few and summer is when anything happens. In Newport you go out at the pubs and waterfront decks around Thames Street, among sailors and wedding parties, and the evening winds down early.

Virginia Beach is louder and more casual, with beach bars, rooftops and sports bars on Atlantic Avenue full of vacationers and sailors from the navy bases. Town Center offers a calmer round of cocktail lounges.

Both are low, coastal and good for outdoor time, but the shorelines feel very different. Newport has a rocky Atlantic edge of ledges and surf along the Cliff Walk and Ocean Drive, seabirds at Sachuest Point, and some of the best sailing in North America.

Virginia Beach has softer scenery: maritime forest and cypress swamp at First Landing, and empty barrier-spit marsh at Back Bay and False Cape that you reach by bike. Its signature outing is a kayak trip among feeding dolphins in summer.

The outings are equally good, but they lead into different histories. From Newport you reach New England: Providence and Boston, colonial Bristol, the whaling museum at New Bedford, Mystic's seaport and the ferry to Block Island.

From Virginia Beach the big day out is Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown, with Norfolk's battleship and art museum nearby and Kitty Hawk further south. Either way, nearly every trip needs a car.

Virginia Beach is a much easier place for a family trip. The Virginia Aquarium, with its sea turtles and otters, is a proper half-day, and the water park, mini-golf, boardwalk bike hire and calm bay beaches cover the rest. Hotels and rental houses are set up for children.

Newport is safe and has some good moments for children: the carousel, Fort Adams, the touch tanks at the small Save The Bay aquarium and Gooseberry's sheltered water. Its main sights are adult mansion tours, though, and there is no zoo or theme park.

Newport is much easier to explore without a car once you are there. The harbour, Thames Street and the colonial streets are a short walk apart, and buses and a summer trolley go up the hill to the mansions. The drawback is summer traffic over the bridges and very little parking.

Virginia Beach is walkable only along the Oceanfront. The rest is suburban sprawl with sparse buses, so Sandbridge, First Landing and Town Center all need a car.

Newport offers more of an afternoon's browsing. There are galleries and sailing clothes on Bowen's and Bannister's Wharves, a few boutiques on Bellevue Avenue, and antiques and decorative arts on Spring and Franklin Streets. It is still a small town, with no department store.

Virginia Beach shopping means a regional mall, the chain stores of Town Center and strip centres. The surf shops on the Oceanfront are the one local speciality.

Virginia Beach is clearly cheaper. Rooms and rentals are pricey on summer weekends, but the beach, boardwalk and state parks cost little, and rates drop sharply out of season.

Newport is expensive for most of the year. Summer and early autumn rooms, seafood dinners, mansion tickets and parking all add up, and there are few budget rooms in the centre. To save, stay in Middletown, come midweek or wait for late autumn.

Newport's music happens in a few festival weeks. The Jazz and Folk Festivals play on the lawn at Fort Adams with the harbour behind the stage, and in July chamber music fills the mansion ballrooms. These are events worth planning a trip around, but outside them there is little beyond bar bands and some community theatre.

Virginia Beach spreads its offer over the whole summer instead. Touring rock and country acts play the big outdoor amphitheatre, the boardwalk stages put on free concerts, and Town Center has a mid-sized arts centre. For opera and orchestras, Newport looks to Providence or Boston, and Virginia Beach to the Virginia Opera and Symphony in Norfolk.

Newport is the better place for a quiet break, as long as you avoid high summer. From May into June and again in September and October the Cliff Walk empties and the harbour slows, and the town suits unhurried days of walking by the sea.

Virginia Beach is calmest on early mornings on the boardwalk and in spring and autumn, but its summers are crowded and loud, and the sprawl behind the Oceanfront does little for a restful stay. In both towns, spa treatments mostly mean the larger hotels.