Atlanta or Pigeon Forge?

Neither place has a beach, and neither is worth picking for swimming. Atlanta's version is a summer lake day at Lake Lanier or Allatoona, about an hour north, with sandy swimming areas and warm water. Pigeon Forge has more for children: the water park beside Dollywood, Douglas Lake, and pools among the boulders of the national park's mountain streams.

Atlanta is one of the best places in the country to eat Southern food: meat-and-three cafeterias, west-side soul food kitchens, smoked barbecue and a serious Sunday brunch. Buford Highway adds miles of Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, Mexican and Ethiopian cooking, and Inman Park and the Westside have chef-led restaurants.

Pigeon Forge serves big portions and little ambition. Its food is pancake breakfasts, buffets, family steakhouses and moonshine tastings along the Parkway. Visitors who want a memorable meal drive to Knoxville or Asheville.

There is far more to see in Atlanta. Its sights are about meaning rather than looks. The city was largely rebuilt after it burned in 1864, so few old streets survive, but the places tied to Martin Luther King and the civil rights struggle give a visit real weight. The Atlanta History Center covers the Civil War and the South, and the Carter Presidential Library adds the story of a presidency. A curious adult can fill a long weekend with museums and memorials and still leave things unseen.

Pigeon Forge holds an afternoon at most. Its museums are novelties meant for a rainy day with children, and the one genuine piece of the past in town is the Old Mill, which still grinds flour beside the river. Anyone drawn to Appalachian history will learn more from the craft workshops at Dollywood and the old cabins and churches of Cades Cove than from the strip itself.

Atlanta's nightlife has a national reputation. Its big clubs play Southern hip-hop and trap, Edgewood Avenue packs dive bars and small dance floors into a few blocks, Midtown is one of the South's main LGBTQ areas, and Buckhead has the dressier lounges. Each area is a separate pocket, so plan on rides between them.

Pigeon Forge winds down at about ten, once the go-karts and dinner shows close. A sports bar, a brewpub or a moonshine tasting room is about all there is. Most adults end up in Gatlinburg's bars or back in the cabin hot tub.

Pigeon Forge is the gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains, with forested ridges above 2,000m half an hour away. You can climb Alum Cave to Mount LeConte, drive to Clingmans Dome, and see bears and wild turkey in Cades Cove. Tubing on the Little River and horse riding add to a stay.

Atlanta has more green space within the city, with its tall tree canopy, Piedmont Park and the BeltLine trail. Stone Mountain, Kennesaw's battlefield trails and floats down the Chattahoochee are all close. For real mountain hiking, though, Atlanta visitors drive two hours north to the Blue Ridge foothills.

Atlanta has a wider spread of easy outings by car. There is Athens for college-town music history, Dahlonega's gold-rush square and vineyards, Madison's pre-Civil War houses, mock-Alpine Helen, and Chattanooga's riverfront and Lookout Mountain about two hours north. None is famous, but there is plenty of variety.

Pigeon Forge's list starts strongly and then thins out. Asheville and the Biltmore Estate make an excellent long day, and Knoxville's Market Square and Cherokee's Oconaluftee village are worth the drive. After those, there is little beyond Gatlinburg's craft studios and quiet towns such as Townsend.

Pigeon Forge exists for families. Dollywood, with its rides, music shows and seasonal festivals, is the centre of it, with the water park, mountain coasters, zip lines and mini-golf around it. Large cabins and indoor water-park hotels are designed for groups, and bear spotting in the national park is an easy outing.

Atlanta's attractions are bigger, but each one is a separate trip. The Georgia Aquarium's whale sharks, Zoo Atlanta's gorillas, Fernbank's dinosaurs and the Center for Puppetry Arts are excellent. Getting between them, and out to Six Flags or Stone Mountain, means more driving and traffic.

Both are car places, but Atlanta gives you more options. MARTA runs from the airport through downtown and Midtown to Buckhead, so a visitor staying on that line can reach the main sights without driving. The BeltLine's Eastside Trail links several neighbourhoods you can walk.

Pigeon Forge is one long multi-lane strip. A slow trolley runs along the Parkway to Gatlinburg, but it doesn't reach the cabins or any trailhead. You can only walk within individual attraction complexes.

Atlanta has a much wider range of shops. The two big malls on Peachtree Road and the boutiques of Buckhead Village cover department stores and luxury labels. Little Five Points has vintage clothing and record shops.

Pigeon Forge has no fashion or luxury shopping at all, only outlet malls with mid-market brands. It does have something Atlanta lacks, though: mountain crafts. You can buy pottery, quilts and stone-ground cornmeal at the Old Mill, and brooms, baskets and woodwork from the studios above Gatlinburg.

The two cost about the same overall, but the money goes in different places. In Atlanta, hotels are cheaper than on either coast, Buford Highway meals are fair value and the King sites are free. Car hire, parking and the big family attractions are what push the total up.

In Pigeon Forge, a large cabin shared between families is cheap per person, and buffets and the national park cost little. The theme park days, dinner shows and paid activities are where a family budget goes.

Atlanta covers the full range of performing arts. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Alliance Theatre are based at the Woodruff Arts Center, the opera and ballet run full seasons, and touring Broadway shows play the 1920s Fox Theatre. Major hip-hop, R&B and gospel tours come through, and halls such as the Tabernacle fill the middle ground.

Pigeon Forge does one thing at scale: nightly family shows along the Parkway, from country and gospel revues to dinner spectacles with horses and pirate ships. Dollywood adds bluegrass and Appalachian music. For orchestras or serious theatre, you would have to go to Knoxville.

Neither is a place to slow down, but the calm is found in different places. In Atlanta, the best option is the large Korean bathhouses in the north-eastern suburbs, with hot and cold pools and sauna rooms. Pigeon Forge has no bathing tradition. Its quiet is in the wooded hillside cabins with porches, fireplaces and private hot tubs looking out over the ridges, well away from the strip.