Stowe or Washington DC?

Neither place is for a beach vacation, and the swimming they do offer is different. Stowe has cold, clear swimming holes in its mountain streams. Waterbury Reservoir and Lake Elmore, each about half an hour's drive, have small sandy lake shores with no lifeguards, and the swimming season runs only through high summer.

Washington's rivers are not for swimming. The nearest water is the Chesapeake around Annapolis, about an hour away, where the water is warmer but brackish and there can be jellyfish. The real Atlantic beaches are about three hours off.

Washington eats far more widely. Ethiopian restaurants cluster around Shaw and U Street, there are pupusas in Columbia Heights and half-smokes with chili, and blue crabs and oysters come in from the Chesapeake. You can graze at Eastern Market and Union Market, and the tasting menus around Logan Circle and the waterfront are serious cooking.

Stowe's strength is what Vermont produces: hazy IPAs from celebrated breweries, farm cheddar, maple syrup and cider doughnuts. Dining runs to taverns and farm-to-table rooms along Mountain Road, and the choice gets thin in the quiet weeks.

The two are hardly comparable here. Washington has the National Mall, with Natural History, Air and Space, the African American History museum and the National Gallery, almost all free. Around them stand the Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial and the Library of Congress reading room, enough for a full week.

Stowe gives you a pretty New England picture instead: a white steeple, covered bridges, a small ski museum and the von Trapp family's hillside estate. It is pleasant for an afternoon, and no one comes here for it.

Stowe's evenings are après-ski: crowded base-lodge bars and brewery taprooms as the lifts close, and the odd band on a winter weekend along Mountain Road. There are no clubs, the valley is mostly asleep by midnight, and outside the ski weeks it is very quiet indeed.

Washington has a proper night out from Thursday to Saturday. Cocktail bars and rooftops line the 14th Street and U Street corridor, Adams Morgan does cheap drinks late into the night, H Street has the dive bars and Dupont Circle the long-standing gay scene. At weekends the bars stay open into the small hours.

This is where Stowe wins. Mount Mansfield, Vermont's highest peak at 1,339m, rises right above town. It has skiing and snowshoe trails in winter, and in the warmer months the Long Trail, the boulder-filled pass of Smugglers' Notch, waterfalls and mountain-bike trails. October colours the whole valley.

Washington is green for a capital, with Rock Creek Park, the C&O Canal towpath and the gorge at Great Falls half an hour upriver. Real mountains mean Shenandoah, a drive of about two hours, and summer heat limits anything strenuous.

Washington is ringed by American history. Old Town Alexandria is a Metro ride away and Mount Vernon sits just beyond it. Baltimore is under an hour by train, Gettysburg, Antietam and Harpers Ferry make full days out, and Philadelphia's Independence Hall is reachable by fast train.

Stowe's outings are fewer and all need a car. The best are lakeside Burlington and the folk art and old buildings of the Shelburne Museum. Montpelier's gold-domed statehouse, Waterbury's ice-cream factory and cider mills, and postcard Woodstock further south round out the list.

Washington is easier with children, mostly because the best of it is free and built to teach. There are dinosaurs at Natural History, rockets at Air and Space and the National Zoo, the Mall gives them space to run, and every Metro station has a lift for buggies. The catch is the long, hot walks in summer.

Stowe suits families who like being outdoors. It has a big ski school with gentle beginner slopes, a children's resort beyond Smugglers' Notch, sugarhouses and the flat river path. There is little laid on beyond that, and every outing means the car.

In Washington you can leave the car at home. The centre is a flat grid, and the Metro reaches the Mall, Arlington, Alexandria and Reagan National. Bike-share and the riverside paths link the monuments. Georgetown is the one awkward gap, with no Metro station.

Stowe is the opposite. It stretches 11km along one valley road, with only a walkable village, a river path and a free shuttle in ski season. A car is essential for trailheads, lakes and the airport in Burlington, and winter driving needs snow tyres.

Washington gives you more to browse. Georgetown has boutiques and antique shops along M Street and Wisconsin Avenue, CityCenterDC has luxury labels, and Eastern Market has weekend craft stalls. The Smithsonian and National Gallery shops are good for books and prints.

Stowe's shopping is ski and outdoor gear, local pottery, woodwork and wool, plus maple syrup and cheddar to take home. You will find no fashion to speak of.

Stowe is a ski resort and is priced like one. Lodging near the mountain, lift tickets and rental add up fast, and Christmas, the winter school vacations and foliage season cost the most. It eases in spring and November, when motels along the valley road and the free trails make a careful trip workable.

Neither is cheap, but Washington is easier on a budget. Rooms and restaurants are expensive all year, but the museums, the zoo and the memorials are free, so a full day of sightseeing costs very little. Staying in Arlington can bring the cost of a room down.

Washington has a real theatre city. Arena Stage, the Shakespeare Theatre Company, Woolly Mammoth and the Folger's Elizabethan-style playhouse all stage plays, and there are plays at Ford's Theatre too. The National Symphony and the Washington National Opera give it a full classical season, and U Street's restored Lincoln and Howard theatres, go-go shows and summer lawn concerts at Wolf Trap cover the music.

Stowe has a small seasonal calendar. Touring acts play the arts centre at Spruce Peak, a community theatre puts on summer shows, and there are hillside concerts that carry on the von Trapp musical tradition.

Stowe is the place to slow down. Its larger resorts have full spas with saunas, steam rooms and heated outdoor pools facing the mountain, and the evenings are quiet ones by wood fires in country inns. Couples from the northeastern cities come here for spa weekends.

Washington runs on a working government rhythm. There are hotel spas and yoga studios, but calm comes mostly from a dawn walk at the Tidal Basin or the gardens of Dumbarton Oaks.