Atlanta or Palm Beach?

This is the starkest gap between the two. Atlanta sits far inland, and the nearest it gets to a beach is a sandy swimming area at Lake Lanier or Lake Allatoona, roughly an hour away, which suits a hot weekend with local families but nothing more.

Palm Beach lives on its shore. The Gulf Stream keeps the sea clear and warm, the Municipal Beach and Phipps Ocean Park are in town, and broader sand at Juno, Jupiter and Delray is a short drive away. Some island stretches narrow at high tide, but daily swimming is easy all year.

Atlanta is the better place to eat by some distance. Meat-and-three cafeterias, west side soul food kitchens and serious Sunday brunch give it a regional cuisine on home ground, and Buford Highway's Korean, Vietnamese and Ethiopian kitchens add a depth Palm Beach cannot match.

Palm Beach dines well but formally: Italian and French rooms, terrace lunches off Worth Avenue and stone crab in season. West Palm Beach's Cuban bakeries and waterfront green market loosen things up, but there is no local tradition to hunt down.

Atlanta has the weightier sights. The Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights make it one of the essential places to understand the civil rights movement, and the High Museum and the Carter Library round out a solid few days, even if the old townscape was lost in 1864.

Palm Beach's heritage is the Gilded Age: Flagler's Whitehall mansion, Mizner's Mediterranean Revival courtyards and the estates along South Ocean Boulevard. With the Norton Museum across the lagoon it is a pleasant, shorter list centred on wealth and architecture rather than history that changed a country.

Atlanta goes out far harder. Its clubs carry the city's hip-hop and trap reputation, Edgewood Avenue crams dive bars into a few blocks, Midtown has one of the South's largest LGBTQ scenes and Buckhead does bottle service. The only drawback is that each area needs a ride to reach.

Palm Beach island is in bed by eleven, with a hotel bar nightcap and private clubs closed to visitors. Clematis Street and Rosemary Square in West Palm Beach manage a night or two of bars and rooftops, and little beyond that.

The two are about even, but the outdoors could hardly be more different. Atlanta is green and wooded, with Piedmont Park and the BeltLine in town, Stone Mountain's granite dome and the Chattahoochee close by, and real hiking in the Blue Ridge foothills and on the Appalachian Trail about two hours north.

Palm Beach is flat, subtropical and watery. Its best moments are underwater, on the reefs offshore and at the Blue Heron Bridge dive site, with alligators and wading birds at the Loxahatchee refuge, nesting sea turtles in summer and manatees in winter. Choose hills and forest or reefs and wetlands.

Neither city is ringed by famous excursions, and both need wheels, but the outings differ. From Atlanta you drive to small Southern towns: college-town Athens, gold-rush Dahlonega among vineyards, antebellum Madison, or Chattanooga's riverfront about two hours north.

Palm Beach has one big draw, Miami, reachable by fast train without a car, plus a string of coastal resort towns like Delray Beach and Boca Raton that start to look alike. Atlanta offers more variety of character, Palm Beach one stronger city break.

Atlanta is the easier family destination. The Georgia Aquarium with its whale sharks, Zoo Atlanta's gorillas, Fernbank's dinosaurs, the Center for Puppetry Arts and Six Flags give children days of purpose-built fun, though traffic and summer heat need managing.

Palm Beach island is calm and safe but built for adults, and young children can feel out of place in its formal restaurants. The zoo, science centre, Manatee Lagoon and safari park are across the bridge, and the shallow water at Peanut Island is a real bonus for small swimmers.

Both are car places, so plan on renting or using ride-hailing either way. Atlanta's advantage is MARTA's rail line from the airport through downtown and Midtown to Buckhead, which covers the main museums for a visitor staying on it, though motorway traffic and vanishing pavements take over beyond.

Palm Beach is smaller and flat, so the Worth Avenue core and the Lake Trail are easy on foot or by bike, and West Palm Beach has a free trolley. Its fast train to Miami is the one long journey that needs no car.

Palm Beach is the better shopping trip. Worth Avenue gathers the luxury houses and jewellers in Mizner's shaded vias, the island's consignment shops sell designer pieces from wealthy wardrobes, and Antique Row in West Palm Beach suits anyone hunting furniture and decorative art.

Atlanta's shopping is mostly malls, with the luxury labels in Buckhead and a scruffier vintage and record-shop streak in Little Five Points. It is competent American retail rather than a reason to travel.

Atlanta costs considerably less. Hotel rooms undercut both coasts, casual Southern and Buford Highway meals are fair value and the King sites are free, with tips, tax, car hire and attraction tickets the main costs that mount up.

Palm Beach sits among the most expensive resorts in the country, with winter hotel rates, restaurants and even beach parking priced for the very wealthy. Staying in West Palm Beach, visiting in the humid summer and leaning on the free beaches and Lake Trail softens it, but only partly.

Atlanta has the fuller stage. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Alliance Theatre, the opera and ballet all run complete seasons, the Fox Theatre takes touring shows, and as a capital of hip-hop, R&B and gospel the city draws big tours to its arenas, with venues like the Tabernacle in between.

Palm Beach's cultural calendar follows the winter residents. The Kravis Center, Palm Beach Opera's short season and Palm Beach Dramaworks give good evenings from roughly December to spring, but the programme thins sharply after that and live music clubs are scarce.

Palm Beach is the place to unwind. The island is quiet and slow, mornings can be spent on the lagoon path or in the sea, and the big oceanfront resorts have polished spas with salt-water pools, though nothing here comes cheap or communal.

Atlanta's best offer is unexpected: the large Korean-style bathhouses in the northeastern suburbs, with hot and cold pools and lounging halls. Beyond those and the hotel spas, traffic and sprawl keep the city far from restful.