Atlanta or Naples, Florida?

This is where Naples is far ahead. Atlanta is inland on the Piedmont plateau, both coasts are hours away, and swimming means a hotel pool or a summer weekend at Lake Lanier with local families.

Naples is built along the Gulf, with fine pale sand the length of the city and warm, clear water that is usually calm. There are wilder stretches at Barefoot Beach and Delnor-Wiggins Pass, and good shelling after winter storms. Algae blooms and stingrays are minor annoyances.

Atlanta is the place to travel for food. Southern cooking is at home here, from fried chicken and collards in meat-and-three cafeterias to Sunday brunch. Buford Highway adds a long run of Korean, Vietnamese, Mexican and Ethiopian kitchens cooking for their own communities.

Naples offers a comfortable dinner rather than discovery. The white-tablecloth rooms on Fifth Avenue South and the dockside grouper and stone crab around Tin City are enjoyable but narrow in range, and they cost more for what you get.

Atlanta gives a sightseer much more. The Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights make it one of the key places to understand the civil rights movement, and the High Museum and Atlanta History Center fill out two or three days.

Naples is a young resort town. The Baker Museum and the Revs Institute's racing cars are worth a morning, and Palm Cottage and the Mediterranean-style houses of Old Naples a stroll, but most visitors spend their time outdoors.

Atlanta has real nights out. There are big clubs playing the trap and hip-hop the city exports, small dance floors on Edgewood Avenue, one of the South's largest LGBTQ scenes in Midtown and bottle-service lounges in Buckhead. You will need rides between them.

Naples is in bed early. A piano lounge or wine bar on Fifth Avenue South, or a tiki bar at sunset, is about as late as it gets, and summer evenings are especially quiet.

Naples has a slight edge, and the two landscapes could hardly be more different. Naples opens onto flat wetland wilderness: Big Cypress, the western Everglades, the boardwalk at Corkscrew Swamp and mangrove kayaking in the Ten Thousand Islands, with alligators, wading birds and dolphins.

Atlanta offers wooded hills instead. You can climb the granite dome of Stone Mountain, float the Chattahoochee, and drive two hours to the Blue Ridge foothills for proper hiking near Amicalola Falls. Naples is best in the dry winter, Atlanta in spring and autumn.

Atlanta has a somewhat better spread of outings, though none is a headline. You can reach college-town Athens, gold-rush Dahlonega among the vineyards, the antebellum houses of Madison and Chattanooga's riverfront and Lookout Mountain.

From Naples the best choices are the Edison and Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers, the shelling islands of Sanibel and Captiva, and the Ringling museums in Sarasota. Both cities need a car for every trip.

Both work well for children, but in different ways, and Atlanta has a little more to fill the days. It offers big attractions: whale sharks at the Georgia Aquarium, gorillas at Zoo Atlanta, dinosaurs at Fernbank, Six Flags roller coasters and the Center for Puppetry Arts.

Naples is about easy beach days in shallow, calm water, with shelling, dolphin spotting, a small zoo and a children's museum for the under-tens. It has no theme park or large aquarium nearby. In both cities the summer heat shapes the day.

Both are car towns, and Atlanta has only a slight advantage. MARTA's rail line runs from the airport through downtown and Midtown to Buckhead, so a visitor staying along it can reach the main sights without driving, although rush-hour motorways are notoriously heavy.

Naples has no rail at all. Its flat grid around Fifth Avenue South, Third Street South and the pier is easy on foot or by bicycle, so a stay in Old Naples covers beach and dinner without the car. The northern beaches and the Everglades still need one.

The two are about level, with different styles. Atlanta means big malls and designer boutiques in Buckhead, with vintage clothes and record shops in Little Five Points for something rougher.

Naples is resort shopping: galleries, jewellers and linen boutiques under the palms on Fifth Avenue South, nautical souvenirs at Tin City and outlets half an hour north. Neither has a local craft worth travelling for.

Atlanta is much easier on the budget. Hotels outside Buckhead are reasonable by American standards, Buford Highway and Southern diners are fair value, and the King sites are free.

Naples is priced for a wealthy winter crowd, with premium resort rates from January to April, costly restaurants and a rental car on top. Summer is far cheaper, but it is also the stormy season. Staying inland or self-catering in a rental helps.

Atlanta has the fuller 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 hosts Broadway tours. As a centre of hip-hop, R&B and gospel, the city also draws major tours to its arenas and fills the Tabernacle and smaller rooms.

Naples does well for its size, with the Naples Philharmonic, touring shows and local theatre, but only from late autumn to spring.

Naples is the better place to unwind, mostly because of its pace. It has quiet streets, sunset walks along the Gulf, golf, and large resort spas that are open to non-guests.

Atlanta's sprawl and traffic work against rest. Its one distinctive option is the Korean bathhouses in the northeastern suburbs, with hot and cold pools and lounging halls, about half an hour out of the centre.