Philadelphia or Rehoboth Beach?

Philadelphia has rivers, not a coastline. A swim means a drive of over an hour to the Jersey Shore, at Ocean City, Wildwood or Cape May. It makes a good summer outing, but it takes a whole day and a car, and there is weekend traffic on the way.

In Rehoboth Beach the sand starts at the boardwalk, and the beach shapes every summer day. There are lifeguards in town and wilder stretches at Cape Henlopen and Delaware Seashore State Park. It is much the same Atlantic as on the Jersey side, but here you can walk to it and back for lunch.

Philadelphia has the stronger and more varied food. There are cheesesteaks and roast pork sandwiches from corner delis, the stalls of Reading Terminal Market and the Italian Market, and the bring-your-own-wine dining rooms of East Passyunk and Fishtown. It eats well in every month of the year.

Rehoboth Beach does better than most resorts, with chef-led restaurants off Rehoboth Avenue, steamed blue crabs, raw bars and good local beer. But it is a seaside menu, with few cheap options and no real market culture, and much of it scales back once summer ends.

The gap here is wide. Philadelphia is where the United States was founded. Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell and the Georgian streets of Society Hill are a short walk from the Barnes Foundation and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and together they fill four or five full days.

Rehoboth Beach has its Methodist camp-meeting cottages, the garden galleries of the Rehoboth Art League and a small museum on the town's early days, which make a pleasant afternoon. Visitors who want history usually drive to Lewes.

Neither is a place to go clubbing, but Philadelphia offers more choice all year. Fishtown has warehouse bars and craft-beer halls, Rittenhouse Square has cocktails, and the Gayborhood is long established. A large student population keeps weekends busy.

Rehoboth Beach has a summer scene of its own, built on piano lounges, drag nights and LGBTQ bars around Baltimore Avenue, while neighbouring Dewey Beach has the loud deck bars. Nights end earlier than in the city, and out of season little is going on.

Both offer gentle country rather than drama, but of different kinds. Philadelphia's outdoors is wooded and riverside: the Wissahickon gorge inside the city, the Schuylkill River Trail past Boathouse Row, and the Pine Barrens or the Poconos further out.

Rehoboth's is coastal, with the tall dunes of Cape Henlopen, salt marsh, a flat bike trail to Lewes and inland bays for kayaking and paddleboarding. Dolphins are often seen offshore in summer.

Philadelphia is on the Northeast rail corridor, so New York, Baltimore and Washington are each a train ride away. Amish Lancaster County, Valley Forge, Gettysburg and Longwood Gardens are good for other days.

The outings from Rehoboth Beach are smaller: historic Lewes ten minutes away, the ferry across Delaware Bay to Cape May, Ocean City's brasher boardwalk and the wild ponies near Chincoteague. They are pleasant, but every one needs a car.

Both work well with children, in different ways. Philadelphia is a museum vacation, with the giant heart at the Franklin Institute, the Please Touch Museum for under-eights, the dinosaurs at the Academy of Natural Sciences and the oldest zoo in the country. Most of it works in any weather.

Rehoboth Beach is the bucket-and-spade version, with lifeguarded sand, Funland's gentle rides on the boardwalk and calm bay water at Cape Henlopen. It only really works in summer, and summer weekends are crowded.

Philadelphia is easier to reach and to get around. Its flat Center City grid links Old City, Rittenhouse Square and the museums on the Parkway on foot. SEPTA adds subway lines, trolleys and a direct train from the airport, though the system is plain and its stations are not always pleasant.

Rehoboth is small enough to walk or cycle between downtown, the boardwalk and the beach, and a summer trolley runs to Dewey Beach. The difficulty is getting there: there is no train, the highway clogs on summer weekends and parking in the centre is scarce.

Philadelphia has more range. There is Walnut Street around Rittenhouse Square, independent shops in Old City and Fishtown, the historic Jewelers' Row and the two markets, and the huge King of Prussia mall is half an hour away. Pennsylvania charges no sales tax on clothing.

Rehoboth Beach's main draw is the outlet centres on the highway, helped by Delaware's lack of sales tax. The boutiques, bookshops and galleries in town are pleasant, but the style is resort casual.

Neither is cheap, but your money goes further in Philadelphia. The founding sights are free, a cheesesteak or hoagie makes a filling lunch, and bringing your own wine cuts the cost of dinner. Hotels and museum tickets cost what they usually do in an American city.

In summer Rehoboth Beach charges resort rates for rooms, rental houses, meals and parking, and weekends cost the most. The beach is free, and a visit in spring or autumn costs far less.

Philadelphia is a serious music city. The Philadelphia Orchestra plays on the Avenue of the Arts, and Opera Philadelphia and the city's ballet perform at the Academy of Music, an opera house from 1857. Curtis students give regular recitals, and the Walnut Street Theatre is the oldest working theatre in the country.

Rehoboth Beach has free bandstand concerts on summer evenings, a small theatre company that stages musicals and cabaret, and an autumn film festival. For bigger touring acts you drive further south.

For a treatment, Philadelphia gives you more choice. There are hotel spas, day spas around Rittenhouse Square and, a drive out into the suburbs, Korean-style bathhouses with hot pools and saunas. If you want calm without booking anything, it comes in small pockets, like the planted courtyards of Society Hill or the creek path through the Wissahickon gorge.

Rehoboth Beach has only a few spas and yoga studios, so the place itself has to do the work. That means sea air, an early walk among the dunes at Cape Henlopen and long, quiet evenings. On autumn weekends the town is at its most restful, which gives it a slight edge for an unhurried break, as long as you avoid the noise of high summer.