Atlanta or Marco Island?

Atlanta sits on an inland plateau hours from either coast. The closest it gets to a beach is a sandy swimming area at Lake Lanier or Lake Allatoona, which works for a hot local weekend but isn't beach life.

Marco Island is the opposite. Its whole western shore is a broad curve of fine pale sand with gentle Gulf water and no surf. The tidal lagoon at Tigertail is good for wading, and you can take a boat to the undeveloped sands of Keewaydin Island.

Atlanta gives you far more range. You can eat Southern cooking where it belongs, in meat-and-three cafeterias, at Sunday brunch and in west-side soul food kitchens. Then there are the miles of Korean, Vietnamese, Mexican and Ethiopian restaurants along Buford Highway, plus food halls and craft breweries on the BeltLine.

Marco Island does one thing well: Gulf seafood eaten by the water, from grouper sandwiches to stone crab claws in the cooler months, with fish platters on the docks at Goodland. Past that the choice narrows quickly, and anyone after an ambitious dinner drives to Naples.

Atlanta has much more to see, though most of it is recent history rather than old streets. The civil rights sites on Auburn Avenue and downtown make it an important place to understand the movement, and the High Museum, the Atlanta History Center and the Carter Library can fill two or three days.

Marco Island was mostly built from the 1960s on, so sightseeing is limited to one good stop. The historical museum tells the story of the Calusa people and the carved wooden figures found on the island. For galleries, you have to go to Naples.

This is one of the clearest gaps between the two. Atlanta is a home of Southern hip-hop, with big clubs, dive bars and small dance floors on Edgewood Avenue, a large LGBTQ scene in Midtown and dressy lounges in Buckhead. Each area is its own pocket, though, and you need a ride to get between them.

On Marco Island, the evening means a sunset drink on a waterfront deck and a late dinner, and then the island goes quiet. The liveliest it gets is the dockside bars at Goodland on a winter weekend afternoon.

Marco Island has the stronger outdoors, all of it flat and watery. You can paddle through the mangroves of the Ten Thousand Islands, take a boat out to see dolphins, watch manatees in the canals and fish for snook and tarpon. Everglades National Park and Big Cypress, with their alligators and cypress boardwalks, are within an hour. December to April is the time to go.

Atlanta offers something different: hills. Within half an hour there is a shady tree canopy, the granite dome of Stone Mountain and the Chattahoochee bluffs. A two-hour drive brings you to Amicalola Falls and the start of the Appalachian Trail, which is real hiking country that Marco cannot match.

For days out by car, Atlanta is clearly the better base. Athens is a college town with antebellum houses and a strong music history, Dahlonega has its gold-rush square and the North Georgia vineyards, and Madison keeps a fine set of pre-Civil War houses. Chattanooga's riverfront, aquarium and Lookout Mountain make a full day about two hours north.

From Marco Island the list is shorter, and its best outings lead into nature rather than towns. Naples is an easy half day, and Chokoloskee's old trading post makes a characterful morning. The Edison and Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers and the shell beaches of Sanibel are about as far as a day comfortably stretches.

Children who want things to do will be busier in Atlanta. Besides the whale sharks and belugas at the Georgia Aquarium and the gorillas at the zoo, there are dinosaur skeletons at Fernbank, puppet shows and workshops in Midtown, roller coasters at Six Flags and the summit cable car at Stone Mountain. The downside is time spent in traffic and the sticky summer heat.

Marco Island works in a simpler way for younger children: soft sand, calm shallow water, shelling and wading in the lagoon, and resort pools with children's programmes. There is little built for kids on the island itself, so for a zoo or a children's museum you go to Naples.

Both places expect you to drive, but Atlanta gives car-free visitors a little more. The MARTA rail line runs from the airport through downtown and Midtown to Buckhead, and the BeltLine's Eastside Trail links several walkable neighbourhoods. Everything beyond that means sitting in heavy motorway traffic.

Marco Island is small and flat, and its cycle paths make getting between the beach and the plazas pleasant in winter. Off the island there is little more than a limited bus to Naples, so you need a hire car for the airport, the Everglades and almost every outing.

Buckhead gives Atlanta the edge, though most of the shopping happens in malls. The two facing malls on Peachtree Road and the boutiques of Buckhead Village cover the department stores and luxury labels, while Little Five Points adds vintage clothing and record shops, and the BeltLine's warehouse markets mix local makers with chains.

Marco Island's small plazas mostly sell resort wear, beach gear and shell souvenirs. For anything serious you drive half an hour to the boutiques and galleries of Fifth Avenue South in Naples. Neither place has a local craft or a market worth travelling for.

Atlanta is the easier place on a budget. Hotels cost less than in coastal cities, Southern cooking and the Buford Highway restaurants are fair value, and the civil rights sites are free, though the big family attractions charge steep entry fees.

Marco Island is expensive throughout, and most of all from January to April, when resorts and condos fill with a well-off winter crowd. The hot summer brings lower room rates, and a weekly condo with a kitchen helps families keep costs down.

Atlanta has a full arts calendar. The symphony and the Alliance Theatre share the Woodruff Arts Center, and the opera and ballet run full seasons. Touring Broadway shows play the gilded Fox Theatre, and as a capital of hip-hop, R&B and gospel the city draws major tours, with venues such as the Tabernacle in between.

On Marco Island, live music mostly means a guitarist in a resort bar during the winter. For an orchestra or a touring show you drive to the Naples performing arts centre, and outside the season there is little to attend.

Marco Island is the better place to slow down. Days have no fixed shape, and the beachfront resorts have full spas and pools that look out over the Gulf. There is no bathing tradition, though.

Atlanta is the one with a real bathing culture, oddly enough, thanks to the big Korean bathhouses in the northeastern suburbs, with hot and cold pools and lounging halls. The sprawl, traffic and humid summers around them make the city as a whole far from restful.