Ocean City, Maryland or Portland, Maine?

These two are far apart on the beach. Ocean City is built around one long, wide strand of soft Atlantic sand, open at the end of almost every street and watched by lifeguards. In high summer the water is warm enough to stay in for hours. If the southern blocks near the boardwalk are crowded, the condo stretches to the north or the dunes of Assateague give you more room.

Portland's own sand is a small patch below the Eastern Promenade. Its better beaches, such as Crescent, Higgins and Pine Point, are a short drive away and lovely to walk, but the water rarely gets out of the high teens even in August. Old Orchard Beach, with its pier and arcades, comes closest to the Ocean City style of beach day.

Both towns centre their eating on seafood, but Portland does far more with it. Ocean City's great ritual is a crab feast: blue crabs steamed with Old Bay, eaten with mallets on brown paper, followed by vinegar fries and frozen custard on the boardwalk. Beyond that you mostly find diners and chains.

In Portland, meals are a reason to come. There are lobster rolls at harbour shacks, oysters from the Damariscotta River, chef-run kitchens using Maine produce, good bakeries and dozens of brewery taprooms around East Bayside and Industrial Way.

Neither town is a sightseeing destination, but Portland has a good deal more to show you. You can walk the brick and granite Old Port, rebuilt after the fire of 1866, see the Winslow Homer collection at the Portland Museum of Art, visit Longfellow's childhood home and climb to the 1807 observatory on Munjoy Hill, with Portland Head Light just outside town.

Ocean City's heritage comes down to the boardwalk itself, the Life-Saving Station Museum and an old hand-carved carousel. An hour or two covers it.

Ocean City is the bigger night out in summer, and the louder one. The sand-floored bayside bars fill at sunset, and the dance bars and sports bars along the Coastal Highway stay busy until 2am, with a young crowd setting the tone.

Portland is more about a good drink after dinner. You get oyster and cocktail bars in the Old Port, brewery taprooms early in the evening and quiet wine bars in the West End. There is hardly any dancing, and the bars close an hour earlier. In both towns winter nights are quiet.

Portland offers the more varied outdoors. Ferries cross Casco Bay to Peaks and Chebeague for island walks and cycling, while kayaks, schooners and whale-watching boats leave from the harbour. Cape Elizabeth has rocky clifftop paths, and the White Mountains are within reach for real hiking.

Ocean City's landscape is flat marsh and shallow bay. Its highlight is Assateague, where wild ponies graze among the dunes and pine woods. The calm back bays suit paddleboarding and crabbing, and offshore sport fishing for marlin is a serious draw.

Days out are where Portland pulls ahead, though Ocean City has a pleasant ring of small places around it. Berlin's historic main street is a few minutes inland, Snow Hill sits quietly on the Pocomoke River and Chincoteague's pony herds are about an hour south. Rehoboth Beach has the better restaurants, and from Lewes the ferry crosses to Victorian Cape May.

Portland sits in the middle of a chain of harbour towns with more to each of them. To the south are the sea captains' houses of Kennebunkport, the Marginal Way cliff path at Ogunquit and Portsmouth's colonial waterfront. To the north are Freeport, the shipbuilding heritage and maritime museum at Bath, and the windjammers at Camden.

Ocean City was made for family seaside vacations, and it shows. Children get a lifeguarded beach, two boardwalk amusement parks with an old carousel, water parks, go-kart tracks and mini-golf every few blocks. Peak weekends are crowded, and the town is best avoided in early June, when graduating teenagers take over.

Portland is relaxed and easy with children but smaller in scale. It has the Children's Museum and Theatre of Maine, ferry rides, and tide pools and forts at Fort Williams Park. There is no zoo, aquarium or theme park.

Portland is much easier without a car, at least on the peninsula. The Old Port, Congress Street, the West End and Munjoy Hill are all a short walk apart, ferries leave from the waterfront for the islands and trains run to Boston. You will still want a car for the beaches and coast towns.

Ocean City is a long, narrow strip with a busy highway down the middle. The summer bus and boardwalk tram help near the sea, but most visitors drive in and keep the car for the whole stay.

Portland has more worthwhile shopping, though it is still a small-town affair. The boutiques on Exchange, Fore and Middle Streets sell Maine pottery, woollens and art, and Freeport's outlets around the L.L.Bean flagship are good for outdoor gear.

Ocean City offers boardwalk souvenirs: T-shirts, surf shops, taffy and fudge. Beyond that there are beachwear boutiques in the bayside villages and an outlet centre across the bridge.

Ocean City is the gentler of the two on the budget, though it still has American resort prices. The beach is free, older motels a few blocks back from the sea and condos shared by a group keep rooms down, and boardwalk food and the town bus cost little. September brings lower room rates while the water is still warm enough to swim.

Portland's peninsula hotels charge big-city rates in July and August and on foliage weekends, and lobster and chef-run dinners add up quickly. Seafood shacks, brewery food trucks and a visit outside peak season are the ways to spend less.

Portland has a real, if modest, calendar. The Portland Symphony Orchestra plays at Merrill Auditorium, Portland Stage puts on professional theatre and the historic State Theatre books touring bands. Ocean City's stage is light entertainment: touring comedians and tribute acts at the convention centre, free summer concerts at the boardwalk bandstand and cover bands in the bars.

High summer in Ocean City is not made for rest. Traffic, crowded boardwalk evenings and late bar crowds keep the noise up, and the spas are mostly in hotels. The calm comes in the shoulder months, with an early walk on the empty beaches at the northern end.

Portland is the easier place to slow down. Its spas are also mostly hotel affairs, but a ferry to a quiet Casco Bay island, a dusk walk on the Eastern Promenade, a long lunch by the water or a waterfront sauna after a cold sea dip set a gentler pace.