Should I take AP or Honors U.S. History?

I am having a difficult time in choosing which history class I want to take next year. I am either going to take AP US History or Honors US History. I think I can handle the AP work, but I don’t know if I’ll be willing to do the work every single night and put my best effort into it. I’m afraid I’ll fall behind and be one of the dumber kids in the class. I’m used to being towards the top of my class, but I’ve never taken an AP course. Another reason I am backing away from the AP course is the teacher who teaches it is very hard and not liked among most students. I don’t really have a problem with “Mr. Smith”, but “Mr. Smith” is very hard. On the other hand, the honors teacher is a pretty cool history teacher. I did extremely well in “Mr. Joe’s” class, and the class was very enjoyable for me. I’m assuming it will be the same style. I’m afraid if I go to the AP class, I’ll regret it and see how much fun I could’ve had in the honors class. If I take the honors class, I feel like I’ll see that I could’ve done the AP course, but would be thankful that I didn’t put myself through all of the work. I understand that colleges will recognize the AP course, but would I get the same treatment if I took the honors course? I want to get into a good college so I’m assuming the AP would help me get in. Please help me decide!

If you feel your grade will be negatively impacted by the ap teacher, you should stay in honors and self study (it shouldn’t be much more material than honors), a high ap score would be impressive and show honors is rigourous. A 95 and a 5 in honors is looked at as the same/better than 85 and 5 in ap since the test is the same.