Portland, Maine or Washington DC?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Portland at least has sand close by. Higgins Beach, Crescent Beach and Pine Point are within half an hour, and Old Orchard Beach has its pier and arcades. The Gulf of Maine stays cold, though, so a beach day here means a walk and a paddle.

Washington has nothing to match it. Its rivers are not for swimming. The Chesapeake beaches near Annapolis have much warmer water but are small and brackish, and the Atlantic resorts are a weekend away rather than an afternoon out.

Both cities eat well, but in different ways. Portland's food is local and focused: lobster rolls, oysters from Maine estuaries, chowder, and a dense ring of craft breweries in East Bayside and along Industrial Way.

Washington's food is broader and more international. There is Ethiopian cooking around Shaw and U Street, pupusas in Columbia Heights, the local half-smoke, and plenty to graze on at Eastern Market and Union Market. Its top restaurants are more ambitious, though downtown dining leans towards business steakhouses.

Here the gap is wide. Portland's sights are pleasant and take a day or two: the brick Old Port rebuilt after the fire of 1866, the Winslow Homer paintings at the Portland Museum of Art, Victoria Mansion and Portland Head Light.

Washington can fill a week with its free museums alone, from Natural History and Air and Space to the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the National Gallery of Art. On top of those come the Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial, the Library of Congress reading room and Arlington Cemetery.

Portland offers an evening of good drinks rather than a big night out. There are oyster and cocktail bars in the Old Port and taprooms that fill early, but last orders come at 1am and winter weeknights are very quiet.

Washington offers longer and more varied nights. There are cocktail bars, rooftops and late dance spots along 14th and U Streets, a rowdier strip in Adams Morgan, dive bars on H Street and riverside beer gardens at the Wharf. Dupont Circle is the heart of the LGBTQ+ scene, and at weekends bars stay open well past Portland's closing time.

Both are good for the outdoors, but Portland's is coastal while Washington's is riverside and wooded. In Portland you take a ferry to Peaks or Chebeague, kayak or sail in Casco Bay and walk the rocky shore at Two Lights. The White Mountains are about two hours away for serious hiking.

Washington's green spaces are inside the city itself, in Rock Creek Park and along the C&O Canal towpath. Great Falls is half an hour upriver, and the Shenandoah ridges are close enough for a day's hiking. Washington's summers are too sticky for strenuous exercise, while Portland's long winter shuts much of its outdoors down.

Portland's day trips are pretty rather than weighty. You can walk the Marginal Way at Ogunquit, see the sea captains' houses of Kennebunkport, visit Bath's maritime museum and see the windjammers at Camden, and all of these are best reached by car along the coast.

Washington has the richer choice, and much of it needs no car. Old Town Alexandria is a Metro ride away, and Baltimore and even Philadelphia are reachable by train. Mount Vernon, Annapolis and the Civil War battlefields at Gettysburg, Antietam and Harpers Ferry add a depth of American history the Maine coast cannot offer.

Portland is easy and low-key with children. There is the Children's Museum and Theatre of Maine, tide pools at Fort Williams Park, island ferry rides and the amusement park at Old Orchard Beach. Nothing is on a large scale, though, and only summer really works.

Washington has more to do, and most of it is free, from the gem and dinosaur halls to the zoo in Rock Creek Park and the carousel on the Mall. The catch is the walking, which is long and exposed in summer, so families are most comfortable there in spring and autumn.

Portland's peninsula is lovely to explore on foot, with the Old Port, the West End and Munjoy Hill close together. Beyond it, buses are thin, and the beaches, the lighthouse and the coast towns are all much easier by car.

Washington works without a car. Its flat grid is easy to walk, though bigger than it looks. The Metro reaches Arlington, Alexandria and the airport, and bike-share along the river links the monuments. The weak spots are Georgetown, which has no Metro station, and the less frequent trains late at night.

Portland's shops are all small and independent, with Maine pottery, woollens and galleries in the Old Port, plus outlet stores in Freeport for outdoor gear. An afternoon covers it.

Washington has more range. Georgetown's M Street and Wisconsin Avenue mix chain shops, boutiques and antiques, CityCenterDC gathers luxury labels, and there are big malls at Tysons Corner and Pentagon City. The Smithsonian museum shops are good for books and prints.

Both cities are expensive, with costly rooms and restaurants, so the difference lies in where you can save. Portland's prices follow the seasons: high in July, August and on foliage weekends, much lower at other times, and seafood shacks and food trucks keep meals cheaper. Washington is expensive all year, but its free museums, zoo and memorials cost next to nothing, and a room across the river in Arlington helps.

Portland is good for a respectable evening out: the Portland Symphony Orchestra at Merrill Auditorium, plays at Portland Stage and touring bands at the State Theatre.

Washington is a real theatre city, with Arena Stage, the Shakespeare Theatre Company, Ford's Theatre and the Folger playhouse. It also has the National Symphony and the Washington National Opera, the restored Lincoln and Howard theatres around U Street, and summer concerts on the lawn at Wolf Trap.

Neither city has a spa or bathing tradition, and in both you have to arrange your own rest. Portland's version is slower and by the water: a ferry to a quiet island, or a sea dip or waterfront sauna in summer. Washington's calm comes in pockets of a working city, such as dawn at the Tidal Basin or a bench in Dumbarton Oaks or the National Arboretum.