Pigeon Forge or Williamsburg, Virginia?

Neither town is a beach destination, but Williamsburg at least has salt water within easy reach. The quiet strip at Yorktown is a short drive away and Buckroe Beach looks out over the Chesapeake. The Atlantic surf at Virginia Beach makes a full day out. The water is warm from June to September, though sea nettles sometimes drift in during high summer.

Pigeon Forge is hours from any coast. A swim there means Douglas Lake, wading in the boulder pools of the park's streams, or the water park next to Dollywood.

Both towns feed the crowds from pancake houses and buffets along their main roads, and neither is somewhere you go for the food. What sets them apart is the regional cooking. Williamsburg has the Chesapeake, with crab cakes, oysters and soft-shell crab, as well as Virginia ham biscuits, candlelit tavern dinners and a few bistros and wine bars around Merchants Square.

Pigeon Forge sticks to Southern comfort food: fried chicken buffets, barbecue, cobbler and fudge. Moonshine tastings are its one local custom. For an ambitious meal you drive to Knoxville or Asheville.

Williamsburg is far ahead here. In its restored colonial capital you can walk Duke of Gloucester Street from the Capitol to the Wren Building, passing Bruton Parish Church and the green that leads up to the Governor's Palace. Costumed interpreters work at the old trades, and nearly ninety original buildings stand among the reconstructions. The folk and decorative art museums give the town real depth.

Pigeon Forge was built for amusement rather than history. Its sights are the Titanic replica and the illusion museums. The 1830 Old Mill is its one real historic building, and for the region's past you go to the cabins and churches in the national park.

Evenings in Pigeon Forge are loud, neon-lit and aimed at families. Go-kart tracks and attraction complexes along the Parkway stay busy until about ten. Adults who want a drink find a few sports bars, brewpubs and moonshine tasting rooms, and most drive up to Gatlinburg if they want more bars to choose from.

Williamsburg's evenings are slower and more atmospheric. A candlelit tavern dinner or a ghost walk through the Historic Area is the usual end to the day. Students fill the pubs near William & Mary in term time and there are a few taprooms on the edge of town, but for a real night out you drive to Norfolk or Richmond.

Pigeon Forge has the much stronger case. The Great Smoky Mountains rise to more than 2,000m half an hour away. You can climb to Mount LeConte, walk the Appalachian Trail along the crest or watch bears and wild turkey in Cades Cove. Spring brings wildflowers and October brings autumn colour.

Williamsburg's Tidewater is gentler country of tidal creeks, marsh and wide river estuaries. It is best seen by bike on the Colonial Parkway or the Capital Trail, or by kayak among ospreys and bald eagles. There is nothing to climb, and summer brings mosquitoes.

Williamsburg has the richer choice of outings because it sits at the centre of the Historic Triangle. Jamestown and Yorktown are each under half an hour away and the James River plantation houses line Route 5. Further out, Richmond, Norfolk and Fredericksburg add a state capitol, museums and Civil War sites.

From Pigeon Forge there are fewer trips, but they are varied. Choose from Gatlinburg's craft studios, Knoxville's Market Square, or Cherokee on the far side of Newfound Gap. The best full day is Asheville, with the Biltmore Estate.

Both towns are built around family vacations, and each has a large theme park with a water park beside it. The difference lies in how you fill the other days. Pigeon Forge adds go-karts, mountain coasters, zip lines, mini-golf and easy waterfall walks, and its large cabins can sleep several families together.

Williamsburg pairs the rides at Busch Gardens with history that children can take part in, such as musket firings, fife-and-drum parades and replica ships to board at Jamestown. Both towns need a car and both are hot in summer, but Pigeon Forge also has slow Parkway traffic in the peak weeks.

Williamsburg is easier on foot, though only in its core. The Historic Area, Merchants Square and the campus form a flat district you can cross in about twenty minutes. Duke of Gloucester Street is closed to cars by day, and Amtrak trains stop near the centre.

Pigeon Forge has no walkable centre at all, just a multi-lane strip with a slow trolley that helps a little. In both towns you need a car for the theme parks and outlying sites, and in Pigeon Forge for the national park trailheads too.

Both towns have big outlet centres with American mid-market brands, and neither has any luxury shopping. Williamsburg has the more unusual shops: colonial-style workshops selling pewter, silver, tin and reproduction furniture, and the brick-fronted stores of Merchants Square. Pigeon Forge's own crafts are the quilts, pottery and stone-ground cornmeal near the Old Mill and the brooms, baskets and woodwork from the studios above Gatlinburg, surrounded by plenty of T-shirts and fudge.

Costs are much the same in both towns. Each has plenty of reasonably priced motel rooms outside the peak weeks, a tip on every restaurant bill and a car you can't do without. In Pigeon Forge you save by sharing a big cabin and walking in the national park costs almost nothing, but dinner shows and attractions soon add up. In Williamsburg the biggest cost is admission to the historic sites and theme parks, so the combination passes are worth looking into.

Pigeon Forge has far more live entertainment. Dozens of theatres along the Parkway put on country and gospel revues, comedy, magic and dinner shows every night. Through the day, Dollywood's stages have bluegrass and Appalachian music, and all of it is broad and aimed at families.

Williamsburg's performances are smaller and tied to the colonial setting: candlelit eighteenth-century recitals, period theatre, fife-and-drum corps and student concerts at William & Mary in term time. Neither town has opera or an orchestra, so for those you go to Knoxville or Richmond.

Neither town has a bathing tradition, and in both the treatments come down to a handful of resort spas. The quiet is found in different places. In Pigeon Forge it is in the hillside cabins, with porches, fireplaces and private hot tubs well away from the neon of the Parkway.

Williamsburg is gentler as a whole. You have the colonial greens to yourself early in the morning, golf resorts with spas beside the James River, and slow drives along the wooded Colonial Parkway.