Rehoboth Beach or Salem, Massachusetts?

Rehoboth is built around its beach. Wide, pale sand runs in front of the boardwalk, with lifeguards and usually moderate surf, and there are wilder stretches at Cape Henlopen and Delaware Seashore State Park. In high summer the Atlantic here is warm enough for long swims.

Salem's own shores at Salem Willows and Winter Island are harbour edges, good for paddling and a picnic. For a real beach you drive to Crane Beach in Ipswich or Singing Beach, and even then the Gulf of Maine makes a swim short and bracing.

Both towns offer small-town American eating, and Rehoboth has a little more depth. Its long history as a summer escape from Washington has brought chef-led restaurants to Rehoboth Avenue, alongside steamed blue crabs, raw bars and a strong craft-beer culture.

Salem answers with New England staples: chowder, fried clams, lobster rolls and North Shore oysters, in bistros a short walk apart. Food lovers there tend to save their serious meals for Boston, while Rehoboth's choice shrinks once summer ends.

This is where Salem is strongest. The witch trials of 1692 are remembered at the Witch Trials Memorial, the Witch House and the Charter Street burying ground. The maritime park keeps the wharves and custom house, and Chestnut Street has some of the finest Federal-era houses in the country. The Peabody Essex Museum, with its Asian and maritime collections and a Chinese merchant's house rebuilt inside, is a serious museum by any measure.

Rehoboth's story is much slimmer: Methodist camp-meeting cottages from the 1870s, the Rehoboth Art League in Henlopen Acres and a small museum house. Visitors interested in history usually drive to Lewes or the wartime towers at Cape Henlopen.

Rehoboth has the livelier summer nights. Its piano lounges, drag nights and bars around Baltimore Avenue come from its long history as an LGBTQ resort, and the big deck bars of Dewey Beach, a couple of miles south, draw a younger, louder crowd.

In Salem, a night out means a taproom pint or a cocktail in an old building, and the streets are quiet well before midnight. October is the exception, when Halloween crowds keep the bars busy. Neither town has real clubs.

The outdoors is gentle in both, but the setting differs. Rehoboth is sand and water: the tall dunes of Cape Henlopen, salt marsh and pine woods, and a flat bike trail through the wetlands to Lewes. The calm inland bays suit kayaking and paddleboarding, and Assateague's wild ponies are about an hour away.

Salem's coast is rockier, with headland walks at Marblehead and the granite shore of Cape Ann at Halibut Point. Its highlights are birding on Plum Island, whale-watching boats from Gloucester out to Stellwagen Bank, and the autumn colour.

Salem makes the stronger base. Boston is about half an hour away by commuter train, and Gloucester and Rockport on Cape Ann are on the same line. Marblehead, Newburyport, Lexington and Concord are all easy outings into early American history.

From Rehoboth, the obvious trip is Lewes, ten minutes away, and from there the ferry crosses to Victorian Cape May. Ocean City, Berlin, Dover and Chincoteague round out a pleasant list, but every one of them needs a car.

Rehoboth is the easier family choice. Funland's gentle rides on the boardwalk, lifeguarded sand a few steps from the rental houses, a water park and mini-golf just outside town, and calm bay water at Cape Henlopen make whole days easy to fill.

Salem suits older children better: they tend to love the costumes, the pirate museum and climbing aboard the replica tall ship, and Salem Willows has an old seaside arcade. Much of the witch material is grim for younger children, though, and the big attractions made for children are in Boston.

Both centres are easy on foot, but Salem is better connected. Its sights are all within a twenty-minute walk, and the commuter rail station nearby has direct trains to Boston and Cape Ann, so you can manage a visit without a car.

Rehoboth is flat and easy to walk or cycle, with a seasonal trolley to Dewey Beach and the outlets. There is no train, though, the highway into town clogs on summer weekends, and parking in the centre is scarce.

Rehoboth is better for ordinary shopping. Its big outlet centres on the highway benefit from Delaware's lack of sales tax, and Rehoboth Avenue adds independent boutiques, bookshops and galleries. Salem's offer is narrower and stranger: Essex Street and Pickering Wharf are lined with shops selling tarot cards, crystals, herbs and spell books, with antique dealers and the Peabody Essex Museum shop for better finds.

Neither town is cheap, and there is little between them on cost. Rehoboth's beach rooms and rental houses are expensive in summer, but prices drop sharply in spring and autumn, the beach is free and there is no sales tax. Salem's few hotels and inns charge Boston-area rates most of the year and are hardest to book in October, though the walkable centre and inexpensive train help with the rest of the budget.

Live performance is modest in both, and Rehoboth has a little more going on in summer. There are free concerts at the bandstand off Rehoboth Avenue, a local company staging musicals and cabaret, piano acts in the bars and an autumn film festival.

Salem has less of its own: a small professional theatre, occasional concerts at the Peabody Essex Museum and street performers in October. For an orchestra, opera or major theatre, you take the train to Boston.

Neither town has much spa culture, so rest here comes from the pace. Rehoboth does this better in June, September and on autumn weekends, with empty boardwalk walks and bike rides under the pines. Salem has tarot readers and meditation sessions alongside a few day spas, and its waterfront is calm outside October, but the Halloween season makes it anything but restful.