Atlanta or Galveston?

This is Galveston's category by a wide margin. Sand lines most of the island's Gulf side, from the busy Seawall stretch and the facilities at Stewart and East Beach to the quieter West End. The water is warm and the swimming season is long. Don't expect clear water, though: the sea is murky with river silt, seaweed can wash up in summer, and rip currents form near the jetties.

Atlanta has no beach of its own. The nearest substitute is a lake day at Lanier or Allatoona about an hour north, which is fine on a hot weekend but no reason to plan a trip.

Atlanta is the far better place to eat. Meat-and-three cafeterias, west-side soul food kitchens and serious Sunday brunches let you eat Southern cooking where it belongs, and Buford Highway adds a long run of Korean, Vietnamese, Mexican and Ethiopian cooking aimed at the people who live nearby. The catch is that you'll be driving to much of it.

Galveston keeps things simpler: chargrilled oysters, gumbo and fried shrimp by the water, with Tex-Mex and po'boys in between. The independent places around the Strand are the most interesting, but the range is narrow and fine dining is rare.

Atlanta comes out ahead because of the weight of what it has. The King birth home and Ebenezer Baptist Church on Auburn Avenue, the civil rights centre downtown and the High Museum make it a city you visit to understand a chapter of history. There's little old townscape, though, because so much was rebuilt after 1864.

Galveston is the reverse: an intact Victorian townscape with less inside it. The cast-iron fronts of the Strand, the porch-lined East End, Bishop's Palace, the barque Elissa and the story of the 1900 storm fill a good day or two, but the museums are small.

Atlanta is the place for a proper night out. The city's hip-hop and trap clubs have a national name, Edgewood Avenue packs dive bars into a few blocks, Midtown has one of the South's largest gay scenes and Buckhead does bottle service. Each area is a separate pocket, so you'll need rides between them.

Galveston's evenings are a drink on a Seawall patio or in a Strand wine bar, with almost no clubs. The island goes to bed early outside summer weekends, and Mardi Gras is the one time it parties late.

Atlanta has more variety outdoors. It has a dense tree canopy, the granite dome of Stone Mountain, the Chattahoochee's wooded bluffs and, two hours north, the Blue Ridge foothills with Amicalola Falls and the start of the Appalachian Trail.

Galveston is completely flat, so its outdoors is about water and birds. Spring migration brings spoonbills, warblers and shorebirds to Bolivar Flats and High Island, and the state park has bay-side paddling. Fishing and dolphin-spotting from the ferry round it out, but there's no hiking.

Both have a handful of worthwhile outings, all by car, but the kind differs. From Atlanta you head into small-town Georgia: the college town of Athens, gold-rush Dahlonega among the vineyards, antebellum Madison, or Chattanooga two hours north.

From Galveston nearly everything points to Houston. Space Center Houston is the obvious draw, and the Museum District, the Menil Collection and the Rothko Chapel offer more art than the island itself, with the Kemah boardwalk and the San Jacinto Monument on the way.

Both work well with children, in different ways. Atlanta is a city of big attractions: the Georgia Aquarium's whale sharks, Zoo Atlanta's gorillas, Fernbank's dinosaurs, the puppetry centre and Six Flags. Galveston is a beach resort, with shallow lifeguarded water at Stewart Beach, the pyramids of Moody Gardens, a waterpark and a funfair on a pier.

Either way you'll need a car and should avoid the sticky midsummer heat. Atlanta adds traffic to the list of drawbacks, and Galveston adds rip currents near the jetties.

Neither is easy without a car. Atlanta at least has MARTA rail running from the airport through downtown and Midtown to Buckhead, and the BeltLine's Eastside Trail links some walkable neighbourhoods. Beyond that corridor the metro area sprawls, and rush-hour traffic is heavy.

Galveston is smaller but stretched out along its shore. The Strand is pleasant on foot, a trolley and a modest bus service reach parts of the Seawall, and cycling the flat seafront is easy outside high summer. The island has no rail link, so arriving from Houston's airports means a drive.

Atlanta has more to buy. Buckhead's two big malls on Peachtree Road carry the department stores and luxury labels, Little Five Points has vintage clothes and records, and the BeltLine warehouse markets mix local makers with chains. It's familiar American retail rather than anything unique.

In Galveston shopping means browsing antiques, galleries and sweet shops in the Strand's Victorian storefronts, plus shells and swimwear along the Seawall. For fashion or a real mall, islanders go to Houston.

Costs come out much the same, and both are reasonable by American standards. Tax and tips go on every bill, and you'll need a hire car in either place. Atlanta's hotels are good value outside Buckhead and convention weeks, Buford Highway meals are fair, and the civil rights sites are free, but the big family attractions charge steep entry.

In Galveston the beaches are free and motels and rental houses are plentiful. Prices depend on the season: Seawall rooms cost far more on summer weekends and at Mardi Gras, and weekdays and the cooler months are cheaper.

Atlanta is far ahead. The Atlanta Symphony, the Alliance Theatre, a full opera and ballet season and touring Broadway shows at the Fox Theatre give you a serious programme. The city's role in hip-hop, R&B and gospel also brings big tours and fills halls like the Tabernacle.

Galveston's highlight is a single beautiful venue, the Grand 1894 Opera House, where touring musicals and the community symphony play. Add some community theatre and cover bands on the patios, and that's an evening or two rather than a programme.

Neither is a spa destination, and what they offer differs. Atlanta's real draw is the large Korean bathhouses in the northeastern suburbs, with hot and cold pools, saunas and lounging halls, some open round the clock. The city's traffic and sprawl work against any sense of rest, though.

Galveston has no bathing tradition, just massages at resort hotels and a few day spas, but it's easier to slow down there. Outside summer weekends you can take quiet bike rides along the Seawall and wander the porch-lined East End.