Asheville or Gulf Shores?

There is no contest here. Asheville's swimming is mountain water: plunge pools under the Pisgah waterfalls, the natural slide at Sliding Rock, tubing on the French Broad and a small sandy beach on Lake Lure. All of it stays cool even in midsummer and works best as a half-day outing.

Gulf Shores has the real thing: miles of fine white sand from Fort Morgan to the Florida line, and a sea that warms to bath temperature in summer. The quieter stretches lie in Gulf State Park and towards the western end. Watch the warning flags, because rip currents are a real danger.

Asheville is the stronger place to eat by some distance. Its breweries spread across downtown, the South Slope and West Asheville, and chef-driven kitchens cook with Appalachian produce such as trout, ramps and heirloom beans, alongside barbecue and biscuits. The best tables need booking at weekends.

Gulf Shores eats simply and well if you like seafood: Royal Red shrimp, oysters, grouper and gumbo at open-air shacks with a view of the water. Beyond that the choice narrows to family chains, and many visitors simply buy shrimp at a seafood market and cook it in the condo.

Asheville has two serious draws: the Biltmore Estate, which takes a full day, and a downtown of Art Deco and Beaux-Arts buildings left by the 1920s boom, including City Hall, the Grove Arcade and the Basilica of St Lawrence. Add the art museum on Pack Square and the Thomas Wolfe house and you have two or three good days.

Gulf Shores offers Fort Morgan, the brick star fort that played its part in the Battle of Mobile Bay, and a small local museum. A single morning covers both, so anyone who wants historic streets has to drive out for them.

Neither city is made for a big night, but Asheville gives you more to do after dinner. Its taprooms, cocktail bars and dives sit within walking distance of each other downtown and on the South Slope. Haywood Road in West Asheville has a looser, more local strip, and there is a long-standing LGBTQ scene. Most places wind down around midnight.

Gulf Shores goes out in flip-flops on open-air beach-bar decks, and the famous roadhouse at Perdido Key stays loud late. Away from there and the summer beach strip, the resort goes to bed early, with no clubs or cocktail bars to speak of.

This is Asheville's great strength. The Blue Ridge Parkway, Pisgah National Forest and the Great Smoky Mountains offer ridge hikes over grassy balds, waterfall walks, serious mountain biking and white-water rafting. Mount Mitchell, the highest summit in the eastern United States, is about an hour away.

Gulf Shores is flat and watery instead. You can cycle through maritime forest in Gulf State Park, walk the dune trails at Bon Secour, watch migrating birds, take a dolphin cruise or go deep-sea fishing, and paddle the back bays or the Mobile-Tensaw Delta. It is pleasant, but the summer heat pushes most of it into the early morning.

Both have a modest ring of outings, but of different kinds. From Asheville the drives lead mostly into landscape and small mountain towns: the waterfall country around Brevard, Hendersonville and the Carl Sandburg Home, and Cherokee, where the museum and the Oconaluftee village tell the story of the region's first people.

From Gulf Shores the outings are towns with more history to them: Mobile, with its ironwork balconies and the battleship USS Alabama, Pensacola's historic district and naval aviation museum, and bayside Fairhope. The car ferry across Mobile Bay to Dauphin Island makes a welcome break from the highway.

Asheville suits active children more than young ones who want rides and shows. Its draws are the black bears and red wolves at the Nature Center, Sliding Rock, river tubing, zip lines and the Biltmore farmyard, with plenty of driving in between. The nearest theme park is Dollywood, about two hours away over the mountains.

Gulf Shores is the easier family base, because the whole resort is set up for it. Beachfront condos come with kitchens and pools, the sand is soft, and a water park, a small zoo, the Ferris wheel in Orange Beach and the theme park in Foley fill hot or rainy afternoons. Keep a close eye on children in the surf.

You will want a car in both, but Asheville at least has a centre you can walk around. Downtown, the South Slope breweries and the River Arts District sit close together, though the streets are hilly in places. Biltmore, the Parkway and the trailheads need a car, and the mountain roads are slow.

Gulf Shores is strung out along one beach road, with everything else on inland highways, so walking only works within your own stretch of beach. Bikes are handy inside Gulf State Park, and traffic over the bridges builds up on summer weekends.

Asheville is a place to buy something handmade. Pottery, glass, weaving and woodwork fill the downtown galleries and the River Arts District studios, the Folk Art Center shows the work of the regional craft guild, and independent shops cluster around the Grove Arcade and Lexington Avenue.

Gulf Shores shopping means beachwear, souvenirs and fishing tackle along the beach road, plus a large outlet mall in Foley for a rainy day. Neither city has luxury brands or department stores worth the trip.

Neither is a bargain. Asheville's inns and downtown hotels are expensive and climb further on weekends in the autumn leaf season, a day at Biltmore costs a lot, and car hire and tipping add up. The trails, waterfalls and Parkway cost nothing, and midweek or winter stays are kinder on the budget.

Gulf Shores comes out a little easier overall. Beachfront condos are pricey in June and July but drop sharply in winter and the shoulder months, and a condo kitchen keeps meals cheap.

Asheville has a real music culture. Bluegrass and old-time jams fill pubs and porches, buskers play downtown, and touring Americana and indie acts come through most nights. On summer evenings Shindig on the Green brings fiddling and clogging, and the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival dates back to 1928.

Gulf Shores has bands on beach-bar stages, a long-running songwriters' festival at the state-line roadhouse each November, and touring country and rock acts at the Orange Beach amphitheatre in the warmer months. For an orchestra or a play, you drive to Mobile.

Asheville has drawn people to rest since its nineteenth-century health-resort days. That legacy shows in its yoga studios, retreats and the large spas of the hillside resort hotels, and in the riverside mineral-water tubs at Hot Springs, about forty minutes away. Cool evenings on an inn porch help the rest along.

Gulf Shores has a few resort and day spas and little more, so the rest it offers is simpler: a slow week of sunsets from a condo balcony, best outside the busy summer weekends.