Rehoboth Beach or Ocean City, Maryland?

Both are built around a lifeguarded Atlantic beach of soft sand, but Ocean City's is the bigger draw. It is an unbroken 16km strip with public access at nearly every numbered street, so even on peak weekends you can head north into the condo stretches and find room. Assateague's undeveloped dune beach is a short drive south.

Rehoboth's beach is shorter, a town-length strip in front of the boardwalk, and it fills quickly near the centre in high summer. To get away from the crowds you go to the state park beaches, Cape Henlopen to the north and Delaware Seashore to the south, which feel wilder. Water temperatures and the length of the season are much the same in both.

The two share the Mid-Atlantic shore table: steamed blue crabs, crab cakes, vinegar-soaked fries, taffy and caramel corn. Ocean City has the stronger crab-feast ritual of brown paper, mallets and Old Bay, but beyond that it thins into diners, chains and bar food along the highway.

Rehoboth has more chef-led restaurants around Rehoboth Avenue, a legacy of its years as a summer escape from Washington, and a real craft-beer scene with brewpubs close by. In both towns many kitchens scale back once summer ends.

Neither is a place for sightseeing. Ocean City's heritage is the boardwalk itself, the shipwreck and lifeguard stories at the Life-Saving Station Museum and the old carousel by the inlet. Rehoboth has its Methodist camp-meeting cottages, shaded streets and the Rehoboth Art League's garden galleries, and nearby Lewes and the wartime towers at Cape Henlopen are there for anyone who wants more history.

Both come alive only in summer, but the crowds are different. Ocean City is a plain party town: open-air bayside bars with sand floors and sunset crowds, then sports and dance bars along the Coastal Highway until closing time. The boardwalk is loud and young, especially in early June when the high-school graduates arrive.

Rehoboth's evenings are sociable rather than rowdy, shaped by its long standing as an LGBTQ resort, with piano lounges, drag nights and bars around Baltimore Avenue. For big deck bars and a younger crowd, Dewey Beach is just down the road. Neither town has much in the way of real clubs.

The landscape is the same low coast of dunes, marsh, pine woods and shallow bays, and both suit kayaking and paddleboarding. Ocean City has Assateague and its wild ponies on the doorstep, plus a serious offshore fishing tradition built around marlin. Rehoboth has Cape Henlopen, with the tallest dunes on this coast, and the trail through woods and wetland to Lewes, which makes it the better base for easy cycling.

Both sit on the same Delmarva map, so both can reach Berlin, Chincoteague and the Lewes ferry to Cape May. Rehoboth is better placed, though. Lewes, with its historic district and maritime museums, is ten minutes away, which makes the Victorian streets of Cape May an easy day out, and Dover's colonial Green is about an hour inland.

From Ocean City, Lewes and Cape May make a longer outing. Berlin and Snow Hill are close, and the Chesapeake towns of St Michaels and Easton are only just within reach. From either town, every trip needs a car.

Both are long-established family resorts with lifeguarded sand, boardwalk rides, ice cream and mini-golf, but Ocean City offers more. It has two amusement parks on the boardwalk rather than one, water parks and go-karts along the highway, and plenty of condos with kitchens for longer stays. The catch is crowds, heavy traffic and graduation week in early June.

Rehoboth is smaller and easier to manage. Rental houses are a few steps from the beach, and Cape Henlopen's nature centre and calm bay water suit younger children. It simply has less to keep older children busy over a second week.

Neither has a train, so you arrive by car either way, but Rehoboth is far easier once you are there. Downtown, the boardwalk and the beach are a short walk apart on a flat grid, bikes are everywhere, and a seasonal trolley runs to Dewey Beach and the outlets.

Ocean City is a 16km strip split down the middle by the Coastal Highway, which is unpleasant to walk beside. The boardwalk and the old downtown by the inlet are walkable, and the summer bus and boardwalk tram help, but most visitors keep the car for the whole stay.

Rehoboth is clearly the better place to shop, helped by Delaware having no sales tax. Large outlet centres just outside town draw shoppers from several states, and Rehoboth Avenue mixes independent boutiques, bookshops, galleries and home stores with the usual beachwear.

Ocean City's shopping is mostly T-shirts, surf gear, taffy and fudge along the boardwalk, plus a few bayside gift villages and one outlet centre across the bridge.

Neither is cheap in summer, but Ocean City is easier on the budget. It is aimed at middle-income families, with older motels a few blocks back from the sea, condos to share, a cheap town bus and plenty of boardwalk food.

Rehoboth charges the rates of a prosperous resort for rooms, rental houses, meals and parking, and its main saving is tax-free shopping. In both towns, rooms cost far less in spring and early autumn, and the beach is always free.

Neither is a destination for serious music or theatre, but Rehoboth has a little more to offer. A local theatre company stages musicals and cabaret for much of the year, an autumn film festival comes to town, and there are free bandstand concerts and piano acts in the bars. In Ocean City you get touring comedians and tribute bands at the convention centre theatre, free summer concerts on the beach and boardwalk, and plenty of cover bands.

Neither town has a spa tradition, only day spas, though Rehoboth adds yoga studios. The real difference is pace. In June, September and on autumn weekends, Rehoboth slows down to walks on an empty boardwalk and bike rides under the pines, which makes for a genuinely restful break.

Ocean City stays noisy for much of the summer, and you will find quiet there mainly in the shoulder months at the northern condo end.