Atlanta or Boca Raton?

This is where Boca Raton is far ahead. Its barrier island has a run of public beach parks, from South Beach Park to Spanish River Park, with soft pale sand, dunes in place of high-rises and an Atlantic you can swim in all year. Red Reef Park even lets you snorkel a reef from the sand.

Atlanta has no beach of its own, and the coast is too far for a day trip. The nearest swimming is at reservoirs such as Lake Lanier, about an hour north, which make a pleasant summer weekend outing but cannot stand in for the sea.

Atlanta is much the better place to eat. It serves Southern cooking where it belongs, from meat-and-three cafeterias and west-side soul food kitchens to smoked barbecue and Sunday brunch, and Buford Highway adds miles of Korean, Vietnamese, Mexican and Ethiopian restaurants cooking for their own communities.

Boca Raton eats well but predictably: steakhouses, Italian dining rooms and sushi in Mizner Park and the plazas, with stone crab, grouper and Key lime pie as the local touches. Its delis and bagel bakeries are the most distinctive thing on the table. Food-minded visitors tend to drive to Delray Beach or Miami.

Atlanta gives a visitor much more to see. Its civil rights heritage, from King's birth home and Ebenezer Baptist Church to the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, has national weight, and the High Museum, the Atlanta History Center and the Carter Library fill two or three full days.

Boca Raton's sights are fewer and smaller. Addison Mizner's 1920s Mediterranean Revival buildings give the town its look, the art museum in Mizner Park is respectable, and the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens just north is the standout. After that, culture means a drive to Miami or Palm Beach.

Atlanta has a nightlife Boca Raton cannot match. Its clubs play the hip-hop and trap the city is known for, Edgewood Avenue packs dive bars and small dance floors together, Midtown has one of the South's largest LGBTQ scenes and Buckhead does bottle service. The catch is that each area is its own pocket, reached by car or ride.

Boca's evenings are about wine bars and restaurant terraces around Mizner Park, and most of the city is asleep before midnight. For a later night, people head to Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach or on to Fort Lauderdale and Miami.

Atlanta comes out ahead because it has variety on land. Its tall tree canopy, Piedmont Park and the BeltLine trail are right in town, the granite dome of Stone Mountain and the Chattahoochee River are close by, and the Blue Ridge foothills, with Amicalola Falls and the start of the Appalachian Trail, are about two hours north.

Boca Raton is flat, so its outdoors means water and wildlife: kayaking the mangroves of the Intracoastal, snorkelling and diving the nearshore reef, Gulf Stream fishing, turtle walks at Gumbo Limbo and alligators at the Loxahatchee refuge. It is excellent for water lovers but offers no hiking.

Boca Raton has the better outings, simply because it sits in the middle of the Gold Coast. Palm Beach's Flagler Museum and Worth Avenue, Fort Lauderdale's canals and Miami's Art Deco district, Little Havana and Vizcaya are all close, and Miami can be reached by train, though it is all one coastal strip.

From Atlanta the choices are more varied but less well known: college-town Athens, gold-rush Dahlonega among the vineyards, the old houses of Madison and Chattanooga's riverfront and Lookout Mountain. Every one needs a car, and Savannah is too far for a day out.

Atlanta has more to fill a family week. The Georgia Aquarium's whale sharks and belugas, the gorillas at Zoo Atlanta, the Fernbank dinosaurs, the Center for Puppetry Arts and the roller coasters of Six Flags give it big-ticket days that Boca Raton cannot match.

Boca suits a gentler family trip built around the beach: lifeguarded parks, a shallow first snorkel at Red Reef Park, the sea turtles at Gumbo Limbo and the science centre. Its larger attractions are an hour or more away. Both cities rely on the car and both get hard in high summer.

Neither city is easy without a car, but Atlanta gives you a little more. A MARTA rail line runs from the airport through downtown and Midtown to Buckhead, and the BeltLine's Eastside Trail links several walkable neighbourhoods, so a well-placed visitor can see a fair amount without driving.

In Boca Raton, only the few blocks around Mizner Park work on foot, and the local buses are slow. The Tri-Rail and Brightline trains are its strength, making car-free trips to Fort Lauderdale, Miami and West Palm Beach practical, but getting round the city itself means a hire car or rides.

The two are much alike: polished American mall shopping with designer labels and little local craft. Boca Raton's version is the more concentrated and upmarket, with its large luxury mall and the open-air streets of Mizner Park and Royal Palm Place under the palms, and Worth Avenue a short drive away.

Atlanta spreads its shopping out, with the twin malls of Buckhead for big names and a rougher edge in Little Five Points, where vintage clothing and record shops give it a character Boca does not have.

Atlanta is clearly the cheaper trip. Its hotels cost well below those on the coasts, Southern cooking and Buford Highway restaurants are fair value and the civil rights sites are free, though car hire, tips and the big family attractions add up.

Boca Raton is one of Florida's wealthiest cities, and in the winter season rooms and restaurants are priced to match, with beach parking and a hire car on top. Summer rates fall sharply, but you pay for that in heat and storms.

Atlanta has a full performing arts calendar. The Atlanta Symphony and the Alliance Theatre share the Woodruff Arts Center, the opera and ballet run full seasons, the Fox Theatre takes touring Broadway shows, and the city's place in hip-hop, R&B and gospel brings a steady stream of major tours and lively mid-sized venues such as the Tabernacle.

Boca Raton offers a modest winter season: open-air concerts at the Mizner Park Amphitheater, regional musical theatre and recitals from the Lynn University conservatory. For opera or a major orchestra, locals drive to West Palm Beach or Miami.

Boca Raton is the easier place to unwind. The city is quiet and orderly, the resort hotels have full spas and pools, and a day of beach, massage and an early night comes naturally, even if there is no bathing tradition behind it.

Atlanta's traffic, sprawl and humid summers keep the pace high, but it has something Boca lacks: the big Korean bathhouses in the northeastern suburbs, with hot and cold pools, sauna rooms and lounging halls. They are the more interesting experience, even though the city as a whole is less restful.