Atlanta or Destin?

These two are not close. Atlanta is four to five hours' drive from either coast, so swimming means Lake Lanier or Lake Allatoona on a hot weekend, or the hotel pool.

Destin is built around its beach. Fine white quartz sand runs from Okaloosa Island and Henderson Beach State Park to Miramar Beach, the water is clear and green, and the shallow Crab Island sandbar sits on the bay side. The one caution is rip currents on rough days, so the beach flags matter.

Atlanta has far more to offer a food trip. Its Southern cooking, from meat-and-three cafeterias to west-side soul food and Sunday brunch, sits beside the Korean, Vietnamese and Ethiopian kitchens of Buford Highway and the chef-led places in Inman Park and the Westside.

Destin does one thing well: Gulf seafood landed at the harbour, such as red snapper, grouper and royal red shrimp, eaten on waterfront decks, and sometimes the cook will prepare your own catch. Most of the coast highway is chains, and the more ambitious kitchens are out along 30A.

Atlanta's sights are modern history that carries real weight. The Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park includes his birth home and Ebenezer Baptist Church, and the city also has the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, the High Museum of Art and the Carter Presidential Library. Because the city was burned in 1864, there is little old townscape to wander.

Destin has almost nothing to compare. There is a small fishing museum, and neighbouring Fort Walton Beach has a prehistoric temple mound and a collection of military aircraft. Anyone after history or architecture has to go further along the coast.

Atlanta's nightlife has a national name. It has big clubs playing the hip-hop and trap the city is known for, dive bars along Edgewood Avenue, one of the South's largest LGBTQ scenes in Midtown and dressier lounges in Buckhead. Each area is its own pocket, so you need a ride between them.

Destin's nights are simpler: open-air bars on the harbour boardwalk and Okaloosa Island, flip-flops and frozen drinks. Some of the liveliest drinking happens in the afternoon, on boats rafted up at Crab Island. Outside summer and spring break, most evenings end early.

Both are good for the outdoors, but in opposite ways. Atlanta's outdoors is on land: a tall tree canopy, the granite dome of Stone Mountain, the wooded bluffs of the Chattahoochee, and the Blue Ridge foothills with Amicalola Falls and the start of the Appalachian Trail about two hours north.

Destin's outdoors is on the water. Deep-sea charters reach big game fish quickly, Choctawhatchee Bay is calm enough for paddling, dolphins swim in the pass, and there are rare coastal dune lakes to the east. The coast is flat, and the summer heat pushes long walks into the early morning.

Atlanta has more choice within a drive. Athens has its college-town music history, Dahlonega has a gold-rush square among the vineyards, Madison has its pre-Civil War houses, and Chattanooga, with Lookout Mountain, is about two hours north.

Destin has fewer options, though some are good. The planned pastel towns of Seaside, Rosemary Beach and Alys Beach are on 30A, and Pensacola's colonial district, naval aviation museum and brick forts are an hour west. After that the list runs out quickly.

Both work well with children, in different ways. Atlanta is a city of big attractions: the whale sharks at the Georgia Aquarium, the gorillas at Zoo Atlanta, Fernbank's dinosaurs, the Center for Puppetry Arts and Six Flags, with heavy traffic between them.

Destin is a beach trip first. It has soft sand, usually gentle water and condos with kitchens, plus the marine park, a water park, go-karts and dolphin cruises. Parents need to learn the flag system there, and in both places the summer heat wears small children out.

Neither works well without a car, but Atlanta at least has one useful line. MARTA rail runs from the airport through downtown and Midtown to Buckhead, and the BeltLine's Eastside Trail links several walkable neighbourhoods. Everything else, from Buford Highway to Stone Mountain, means driving in notoriously heavy traffic.

Destin has no such line. The town strings out along one congested coastal highway with few safe crossings for walkers. Apart from the harbour boardwalk and the 30A bike trail, you drive, call a ride or take a resort shuttle.

Atlanta has the wider choice. In Buckhead, two big malls face each other on Peachtree Road with the department stores and luxury labels, Buckhead Village adds designer boutiques, and Little Five Points has vintage clothes and record shops.

Destin's shopping is a large outlet centre near Miramar Beach, an open-air chain mall and strips selling swimwear and souvenirs, with boutiques and galleries in the 30A towns. Neither city has a local craft or market worth travelling for.

Atlanta is somewhat kinder to the budget. Hotel rooms cost less than on either coast, Buford Highway and casual Southern cooking are fair value, and the civil rights sites are free. Tax, tips, car hire and family attraction tickets still add up.

In Destin it depends on the season. In summer, beachfront rooms, waterfront meals and charters cost resort-coast rates. From late autumn to early spring it is much cheaper, but the sea is then too cold for swimming. A condo with a kitchen, or a base along the bay, keeps costs down.

Atlanta has far more on stage. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Alliance Theatre share the Woodruff Arts Center, the opera and ballet run full seasons, and the Fox Theatre takes touring Broadway shows. As a centre of hip-hop, R&B and gospel, the city also draws major tours, which play its arenas and halls such as the Tabernacle.

In Destin, live performance is mostly cover bands and acoustic sets on bar decks. There are also summer concerts on the lawns of the 30A towns, and the regional symphony plays across the bay in Niceville.

Neither is a place people go to unwind, and each falls short in its own way. Atlanta's most interesting option is the big Korean bathhouses in the northeastern suburbs, with hot and cold pools, sauna rooms and long lounging halls.

Destin has no bathing tradition, only the resort spas around Sandestin and Miramar Beach. Its calm is simpler: early walks on empty sand and long afternoons on a balcony, best in spring and autumn before the summer crowds.