Atlanta or Williamsburg, Virginia?

Neither is a beach destination, but Williamsburg comes much closer. There's a small calm strip at Yorktown about 20 minutes away, Buckroe Beach on the Chesapeake, and the long Atlantic sands of Virginia Beach within an hour, so a real beach day fits easily into a summer trip. Watch for sea nettles in the bay in high summer.

Atlanta is four to five hours from either coast. Its swimming means the sandy lake shores of Lanier or Allatoona, which are fine on a hot weekend but are a local lake outing rather than the sea.

Atlanta is a far better place to eat. Southern cooking here comes in meat-and-three cafeterias and soul food kitchens, and Buford Highway adds a long run of Korean, Vietnamese, Mexican and Ethiopian restaurants that cook for their own communities. Add the BeltLine food halls, chef-led restaurants in Inman Park and a craft beer scene, and there are many days of eating, although you will need a car to get round.

Williamsburg keeps to a small-town Virginia menu of ham biscuits, peanut soup, crab cakes and bay oysters. The candlelit colonial taverns are more about the setting than the cooking, and Richmond Road is mostly pancake houses and buffets.

Williamsburg's appeal is a whole townscape. The restored colonial capital lets you walk Duke of Gloucester Street from the Capitol to the Wren Building, past working blacksmiths and printers, with original eighteenth-century buildings among careful reconstructions. It is immersive in a way few American places manage.

Atlanta lost most of its old fabric in 1864, so its sights are institutions rather than streets. The King birth home and Ebenezer Baptist Church on Auburn Avenue and the civil rights centre downtown carry real weight, and the High Museum leads the region's art. Each city fills two or three days, but they cover different centuries.

Atlanta has a real night out and Williamsburg barely has one. Atlanta's clubs play the hip-hop and trap the city is known for. Edgewood Avenue packs small dance floors into a few blocks, Midtown anchors a major LGBTQ scene and Buckhead does bottle service, though you'll take a ride between the areas.

In Williamsburg, an evening means a few student pubs near the college in term time, a taproom on the edge of town or a candlelit ghost walk, and anyone wanting more drives to Norfolk or Richmond.

Atlanta has more varied terrain. Its tall tree canopy reaches into the city, and within half an hour you can climb Stone Mountain's bare dome or float the Chattahoochee below wooded bluffs. The Blue Ridge, Amicalola Falls and Tallulah Gorge are about two hours north.

Williamsburg's Tidewater is flat and gentler: tidal marsh, river estuaries and pine forest. Its strengths are the quiet Colonial Parkway and the paved Capital Trail for cycling, and kayaking on creeks where ospreys and bald eagles fish. There's nothing to climb.

Williamsburg's excursions are both closer and more significant. Jamestown and Yorktown are each under half an hour away, the James River plantation houses line Route 5, and Richmond is an hour off, so a trip can easily fill a week with short drives.

From Atlanta, the nearby towns are agreeable rather than essential: Athens for its music history, Dahlonega's gold-rush square, Madison's pre-Civil War houses. Chattanooga is two hours away, and Savannah needs an overnight stay.

Both are good with children, but Williamsburg is built around family trips. Busch Gardens and Water Country USA sit beside a historic town where children join fife-and-drum parades and board replica ships at Jamestown, and the motels with pools make the evenings easy.

Atlanta has bigger single attractions: the Georgia Aquarium's whale sharks, Zoo Atlanta's gorillas, Fernbank's dinosaurs and the puppetry centre. Spreading them across a sprawling city in heavy traffic takes more effort.

You'll want a car in either place, but Williamsburg is a little easier on foot. The Historic Area, Merchants Square and the college form a flat district you can cross in about 20 minutes, with Duke of Gloucester Street closed to traffic by day.

Atlanta's MARTA trains do link the airport, downtown, Midtown and Buckhead, which helps if you stay on that line. Everything else, from Buford Highway to Stone Mountain, means driving on notoriously congested motorways.

Atlanta offers more range, mostly in malls. Buckhead's facing malls on Peachtree Road and the boutiques of Buckhead Village cover luxury labels, while Little Five Points adds vintage clothes and records.

Williamsburg is narrower but more particular to its place. The colonial shops sell hand-made pewter, pottery and books printed the old way, which Atlanta can't match, alongside Merchants Square gifts and an outlet centre on Richmond Road.

Overall costs are much the same, but the money goes in different places. In Williamsburg, rooms are easy outside peak weeks and the big expense is admission to the colonial town, Jamestown, Yorktown and the theme parks, so combination passes matter.

In Atlanta, hotels undercut the coastal cities and Buford Highway eats well for little, while the free King sites balance steep tickets at the aquarium and similar attractions. Car hire and parking add up in both.

Atlanta is the clear choice for an evening of music or theatre. Its symphony, opera and ballet perform alongside the Alliance Theatre's new work, touring Broadway plays the ornate Fox, and the city's standing in hip-hop, R&B and gospel brings major tours and fills rooms such as the Tabernacle.

Williamsburg's performances belong to its period setting: candlelit recitals, period theatre and fife-and-drum corps, plus student concerts at the college.

Neither is a place to come just to unwind, but they offer different ways to rest. Atlanta's distinctive option is the big Korean bathhouses half an hour out, with hot and cold pools and lounging halls. Williamsburg has resort spas on the James River and a slower pace, with early mornings on empty colonial greens and quiet drives along the wooded parkway.