Atlanta or Tampa?

This is the widest gap between the two cities. Atlanta is four to five hours from either coast, so swimming means Lake Lanier or Lake Allatoona on a hot weekend, or the hotel pool.

Tampa itself faces a bay lined with seawall. Across the bridges, though, the barrier islands from Clearwater Beach to Fort De Soto and Caladesi Island have fine white sand and a gentle Gulf, all within an hour's drive. Beach days still mean that drive, so if you want the sea outside your window, stay on the islands.

Atlanta has the broader and deeper table. Southern cooking in meat-and-three cafeterias and west-side soul food kitchens sits alongside the long strip of Korean, Vietnamese, Mexican and Ethiopian restaurants on Buford Highway, as well as chef-led dining in Inman Park and the Westside.

Tampa's strength is narrower but entirely its own. You get the Cuban sandwich with Genoa salami, the Ybor City bakeries, deviled crab croquettes and the century-old Columbia Restaurant, with grouper and stone crab along the bay. Beyond that heritage, the choice thins out at the top end.

Neither city has an old townscape to wander, and each takes two or three days to see. Atlanta's sights carry more weight, though. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birth home and Ebenezer Baptist Church on Auburn Avenue, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights and the High Museum of Art make it a serious stop for American history.

Tampa's heritage is local and well kept. It centres on the brick cigar factories and Latin social clubs of Ybor City and on the minareted 1891 Plant hotel, which now holds a museum and the university. Art lovers there tend to cross the bay to St Petersburg.

Atlanta's nightlife has a national reputation, built on the Southern hip-hop and trap played in its big clubs. Add the dive bars of Edgewood Avenue, Midtown's large LGBTQ scene and the dressy lounges of Buckhead. These areas are far apart, so a night out usually stays in one district.

Tampa gives you a good regional night out: rowdy clubs on Seventh Avenue in Ybor City, cocktail patios in SoHo and craft beer taprooms downtown. Its one big draw is the Gasparilla pirate invasion each winter, when the bayfront turns into a huge street party.

Atlanta's outdoors is hills and hardwood forest, while Tampa's is flat water country. From Atlanta you can climb the bare granite dome of Stone Mountain within half an hour or float the Chattahoochee beneath wooded bluffs. Two hours north are Amicalola Falls, Tallulah Gorge and the southern end of the Appalachian Trail, which give it the edge for proper hiking. Plan these walks for spring or autumn.

Around Tampa you see wildlife from a kayak rather than views from a summit. You can paddle the cypress swamp of Hillsborough River State Park and the mangrove tunnels in the bay, watch manatees near Apollo Beach in winter, or float the clear spring-fed rivers around Crystal River. Winter and spring suit this paddling best, because summer storms push outdoor plans into the early morning.

Both make reasonable bases for days out by car, and neither has a famous one. Atlanta's trips lean towards small-town Georgia and the mountains: the college town of Athens, the gold-rush square of Dahlonega, the antebellum houses of Madison, and Chattanooga two hours north.

Tampa's cover a wider mix of subjects: the Dalí Museum in St Petersburg, the Greek sponge docks at Tarpon Springs, the Ringling estate in Sarasota and the Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in Lakeland. None of these places has much historic age, though.

What tips this towards Tampa is the beach. Atlanta holds its own on the big days out, with the whale sharks and belugas of the Georgia Aquarium, Fernbank's dinosaur skeletons, the shows and workshops at the Center for Puppetry Arts, and Six Flags on the edge of town.

Tampa adds the calm, shallow Gulf across the bay, where small children can paddle safely. It also has Busch Gardens, which pairs roller coasters with an animal park, and Legoland and the Orlando parks are close enough for a longer day. In either city, the driving and the summer heat shape the day.

Neither city is easy without a car, but Atlanta helps a little more. MARTA trains run from the airport through downtown and Midtown to Buckhead, so a visitor staying on that line can reach the main museums and Piedmont Park. The BeltLine's Eastside Trail also links several neighbourhoods on foot.

Tampa's streetcar covers only downtown, the Channel District and Ybor City, and the buses are slow. The beaches, Busch Gardens and every day trip mean hiring a car, with heavy traffic on the bridges at rush hour.

Atlanta has the bigger range. There are two luxury malls facing each other on Peachtree Road and the boutiques of Buckhead Village, plus vintage clothes and record shops in Little Five Points.

Tampa's shopping is smaller: a mall near the airport and the open-air Hyde Park Village. It does have the only local craft of the two, though, with cigars still rolled by hand in Ybor City's small shops.

Costs are much the same in both cities, with tax and tips on every meal and a car to pay for. In Atlanta the money goes on attractions and parking, which modestly priced hotels and the free civil rights sites help to offset. Tampa's costs swing with the season: beach hotels go up in winter and spring, and summer is noticeably cheaper. For cheap meals, look to the Cuban sandwich counters in Tampa and the Buford Highway kitchens in Atlanta.

Atlanta has more on stage, and more of it is homegrown. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the new work at the Alliance Theatre, full opera and ballet seasons and the 1920s Fox Theatre sit beside the city's own hip-hop, R&B and gospel scene. That music fills the arenas, the Tabernacle and smaller rooms in East Atlanta Village.

Tampa's programme is reliable but mostly touring shows, centred on the Straz Center. You also get the Florida Orchestra, and films and concerts under the twinkling ceiling of the 1926 Tampa Theatre.

Neither is a restful city, as both are sprawling and humid in summer. The difference is where you find the calm. In Atlanta it is the big Korean bathhouses in the northeastern suburbs, with hot and cold pools and saunas. In Tampa it lies outside the city, on the barrier islands, where the days slow down to long lunches and sunsets.