Stowe or Virginia Beach?

The gap is as wide as it gets here. Virginia Beach is built around its sand. There is a broad Oceanfront strip with a boardwalk and lifeguards, calmer bay beaches near First Landing and dunes at Sandbridge, and in late summer the Atlantic is warm enough for long swims.

Stowe sits inland among the mountains. A swim there means a rocky stream pool, or one of the small beaches without lifeguards on Waterbury Reservoir and Lake Elmore, a short drive away. It makes a refreshing break from hiking in July, but it is not a beach vacation.

The two eat about equally well, but on different things. Stowe eats like the rest of Vermont: hazy IPAs from much-prized breweries, farm cheddar, maple syrup and cider doughnuts, served in farm-to-table dining rooms and après-ski taverns along Mountain Road.

Virginia Beach is about the sea. Lynnhaven oysters and Chesapeake blue crab are at their best in the dockside places around the inlet rather than on the resort strip, which is full of chains. In both, the choice is narrow once you look past the local speciality, and in Virginia Beach diners who want more variety drive into Norfolk.

Neither is a culture destination, but Virginia Beach has more history on the ground. Cape Henry, where English colonists came ashore in 1607, the old lighthouse and the Adam Thoroughgood House give it a real colonial story, even if most visitors still head up the peninsula for more.

Stowe's sights are a village picture of white steeple, clapboard and covered bridges, plus a ski museum and the von Trapp estate. You can see all of it in an afternoon.

Virginia Beach has the livelier evenings, at least in summer. The beach bars, rooftop decks and sports bars along Atlantic Avenue fill with vacationers and sailors, and Town Center has cocktail lounges for a calmer drink.

In Stowe the evening revolves around après-ski in base-lodge bars and brewery taprooms, and the town winds down early. Neither place has a club scene, and both go quiet out of season.

Stowe is the clear choice for the outdoors. Mount Mansfield gives it real mountain terrain: ski runs, glades and backcountry routes in winter. In the warmer months there is the Long Trail, the boulder-filled pass of Smugglers' Notch, waterfalls and mountain biking, and the season ends with the October foliage.

Virginia Beach's outdoors is flat and watery but still worth the time. First Landing's cypress swamp and dunes, the empty shoreline of Back Bay and False Cape, dolphin-watching by kayak and surfing fill a good coastal week, just without a single hill.

Virginia Beach has much the stronger day out. Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown, about an hour away, make a full day of early American history. Norfolk's battleship and art museum, or the Wright brothers' site at Kitty Hawk, fill more days.

From Stowe the outings are to pleasant small towns. Burlington sits on Lake Champlain, the Shelburne Museum is a village of historic buildings and folk art, Montpelier has its gold-domed statehouse, and Waterbury has cider mills.

Virginia Beach is the easier choice with children. The Virginia Aquarium, a water park, mini-golf, the boardwalk and the gentle bay beaches mean there is plenty already set up for them. Colonial Williamsburg and a large amusement park are within an hour.

Stowe suits active families instead. It has a large ski school with beginner slopes, a flat river path for bikes and pushchairs, and sugarhouses where children can watch maple syrup being made. There is no aquarium and there are no children's museums, and in winter the children's resort beyond Smugglers' Notch is a long drive round the mountain.

You need a car for almost everything in both, so the difference is where you can manage without one. Stowe is strung along a single valley road. The village is walkable, a riverside path serves walkers and cyclists in the warmer months, and a free shuttle runs up to the slopes in ski season. Winter driving means steep and icy roads.

Virginia Beach is a sprawl of highways, but if you stay at the Oceanfront you can get about on foot or by bike along the boardwalk, and a trolley runs there in summer. Summer traffic into the resort area can be heavy.

Neither is worth a shopping trip, but Virginia Beach has more choice. There is a large regional mall, the chain-store streets of Town Center, and surf shops with long roots in the town. Stowe has more local character, with ski shops, galleries and craft shops selling pottery and wool, plus maple syrup and cheddar to take home, though the choice is small.

Virginia Beach is easier on the budget. Oceanfront rooms are expensive in summer but drop sharply out of season, and the beach, the boardwalk and the state parks cost little.

Stowe is one of the best-known ski resorts in the eastern United States, and lodging, lift tickets and resort meals add up fast. Costs are highest at Christmas, during school vacations and at foliage time. In summer and the quieter months, the valley motels and free trails make a careful budget workable.

Virginia Beach offers more, mostly in summer. Touring rock and country acts play the large amphitheatre, there is a performing arts centre at Town Center and there are free stages on the boardwalk, with Norfolk's opera and symphony half an hour away.

Stowe's programme is smaller. It centres on the arts centre at Spruce Peak, summer community theatre and the outdoor concerts on the hillside lawns that carry on the von Trapp family's musical tradition.

Stowe is the more restful place. Its larger resorts have full spas with saunas and heated outdoor pools where you can sit while snow falls. Quiet inns with wood fires make spa weekends a common reason for couples to come.

Virginia Beach has hotel spas and a few day spas in the suburbs. Its calm comes from early mornings on the boardwalk and from spring and autumn, because high summer is crowded and loud.