Newport, Rhode Island or Williamsburg, Virginia?

Newport's beaches are part of the town. Easton's Beach lies below the Cliff Walk, the longer Second and Third Beaches are next door, and Gooseberry Beach is a sheltered cove on Ocean Drive. The catch is the Atlantic itself: it stays cool even at its warmest, and you can only swim in a short midsummer window.

Williamsburg has warmer water but no beach of its own. The nearest options are a small river beach at Yorktown, Buckroe on the Chesapeake, or the resort beaches of Virginia Beach an hour's drive away, so any swim is a separate outing. Sea nettles can also spoil the bay in high summer, and most visitors end up at the pool.

Both towns eat from the water, but Newport does it better. It has lobster rolls, Rhode Island's clear chowder, clam cakes and local oysters on the wharves off Thames Street, plus a few smarter dining rooms on Bellevue Avenue. The choice thins out after a few days, and Providence is the fallback.

Williamsburg's strengths are simpler: ham biscuits, peanut soup, crab cakes and barbecue. People go to the candlelit colonial taverns for the setting more than the cooking, and outside the centre the pancake houses and buffets on Richmond Road set the tone.

The two are evenly matched and each fills two or three days, but they tell different stories. Newport has two eras side by side. There are the Vanderbilt-era palaces of Bellevue Avenue, which you can tour inside or see from the Cliff Walk, and there are genuine colonial streets on the Point and Historic Hill, with Touro Synagogue and the Redwood Library.

Williamsburg recreates one period in full. With its costumed interpreters, the Capitol, the Governor's Palace and the Wren Building, Colonial Williamsburg is a walk-through lesson in eighteenth-century Virginia. It is more reconstruction than survival, and its art museums add collections of folk and decorative art.

Neither is a town for a big night out, but Newport at least has some nightlife. On summer weekends, sailors and wedding parties fill the pubs and waterfront decks along Thames Street and the wharves, even if the night ends early. In Williamsburg, most evenings end after a tavern supper or a ghost walk, and the student pubs and taprooms on the edge of town are the only late option.

Newport's outdoors is the rocky Atlantic shore. You have the Cliff Walk, the wave-cut ledges at Brenton Point and birdwatching at Sachuest Point. Above all there is the water, with sailing, kayaking and surfing at Second Beach in the autumn swells.

Williamsburg is gentler and flatter: tidal rivers and forest rather than surf. The Colonial Parkway and the Virginia Capital Trail make fine bike rides, and you can paddle the creeks past ospreys and eagles. Humid summers and mosquitoes, though, push most outdoor plans into spring and autumn.

Both towns have plenty within an hour or two's drive, and both need a car. Newport's outings vary widely. Providence and Boston offer city life, the ferry goes to Block Island, New Bedford has its whaling history and Mystic has its seaport museum.

Williamsburg's day trips are closer and stick to one theme. Jamestown and Yorktown complete the Historic Triangle and are both within about twenty minutes. The James River plantations, Richmond and Monticello take the American story further.

Families are where Williamsburg most clearly wins. Busch Gardens and Water Country USA are a short drive from a historic district where children can question the blacksmith and join the fife-and-drum parade. The replica ships at Jamestown and Yorktown add more hands-on days, and motels with pools make the evenings easy.

Newport works for a few days of beaches, the Easton's Beach carousel and the touch tanks at the Save The Bay aquarium. But the mansion tours are really for adults, and the peak-season crowds wear small children out.

In Newport the harbour, Thames Street and the colonial quarters are close together, and buses and a summer trolley reach the mansions and beaches, so on a stay in town the car can stay parked. The hard part is getting in and out through the summer traffic.

In Williamsburg, only the Historic Area and the college campus are walkable, a flat stroll of about twenty minutes from end to end. Everything else, from the theme parks to Jamestown, is spread along highways that buses barely serve, so plan on a hire car.

Neither town is a shopping destination, and each offers a narrow range of its own. Newport sells the sailing life, with preppy clothing, galleries and jewellery on the wharves and antiques on Spring and Franklin Streets. Williamsburg sells the past: pewter, pottery and books printed the old way from the colonial shops, plus an outlet centre on Richmond Road for the big American brands.

Williamsburg is the easier place to budget for. Motels and chain hotels line the main roads at fair prices outside the peak weeks, and the real costs are the admission tickets and a hire car.

Newport is expensive in season, with few cheap beds in town, and dinners, mansion tickets and parking add up fast. Staying in Middletown, coming midweek or visiting in late autumn brings the cost down a lot. In summer, though, it stays a costly stop.

Newport has the bigger name in music, though only for a few summer weeks: the Jazz and Folk Festivals at Fort Adams, and chamber music in the mansion ballrooms. In Williamsburg the performances are mostly part of the colonial setting, such as candlelit recitals and fife-and-drum corps, plus student shows at William & Mary. For an orchestra or opera, both towns send you to a bigger city.

Neither has a bathing tradition, so both rely on hotel and resort spas. What differs is the setting. Newport's calm comes from the sea, best on a quiet Cliff Walk in May or September. Williamsburg's is inland and green: early mornings on the empty colonial greens and slow drives along the Colonial Parkway, away from the theme-park crowds.