Baltimore or Charleston?

Baltimore is a harbour city with no swimming of its own. The nearest sand is Sandy Point on the Chesapeake, about forty minutes away, which makes a family afternoon but has brackish water, summer sea nettles and closures after storms. The Atlantic surf is a separate trip.

Charleston has three quite different beaches within half an hour: surfy Folly, quiet, dune-backed Sullivan's Island and the wider, resort-style Isle of Palms, with emptier stretches at Kiawah. The water is murky from the tides rather than clear, but here a beach day fits easily alongside sightseeing.

Baltimore's cooking comes down to the blue crab, while Charleston has a whole regional cuisine behind it. In Baltimore the crab arrives steamed and cracked with mallets on brown paper, or packed into crab cakes, and Lexington Market, the old market halls and the red-sauce kitchens of Little Italy give it real local character. Once you look past the seafood and the pit beef, though, the range is narrow.

Charleston is the better place to eat. Lowcountry cooking, rooted in Gullah Geechee and West African traditions, runs from shrimp and grits and she-crab soup to whole-hog barbecue and winter oyster roasts, and local chefs treat it as a serious cuisine. Book the well-known tables ahead, and don't expect much cheap international food.

These two are evenly matched, but you see them in different ways. Baltimore's strength is inside its museums: the Cone Collection of Matisse at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Walters' run from Egypt to Fabergé, and the roundhouse of the B&O Railroad Museum. Fort McHenry adds the War of 1812 story.

In Charleston the city itself is the main sight. Its Georgian and antebellum streets south of Broad and its house museums are best seen on slow walks, and the history it tells is starker, from Fort Sumter's opening shots of the Civil War to the slave-trade history at the International African American Museum.

Neither city has much of a club scene, and bars close around 2am in both. Baltimore spreads its evenings across more neighbourhoods: old waterfront taverns in Fells Point, rooftops and game-day crowds on Federal Hill, and dive bars with an arty crowd in Station North. Some of the streets in between are quiet, and a taxi is wiser at night.

Charleston's nightlife is concentrated on upper King Street, where craft cocktail rooms, oyster bars and rooftops fill with students and weekend groups. You'll find quieter wine bars in the French Quarter and beach bars out on Folly.

There is about as much to do outdoors in each, but the landscapes differ. Baltimore has wooded river country: the gorges of Patapsco Valley at the city's edge, trout streams along Gunpowder Falls, and the Blue Ridge and the Appalachian Trail an hour and a half west. On the water, you can sail the wide Chesapeake out of Annapolis.

Charleston is flat marsh and maritime forest, best explored by kayak through the tidal creeks, where dolphins are a common sight. The ACE Basin and Francis Marion forest add alligators and birdlife, but there are no hills, and the summer mosquitoes are worse.

This is one of Baltimore's clearest advantages. Washington DC and Philadelphia are each about an hour by train, so the Smithsonian or Independence Hall make easy day trips without a car. Annapolis, Gettysburg and Harpers Ferry are all short drives.

Charleston's nearest outings are the Ashley River plantations, where gardens and grand houses sit alongside the history of the enslaved people who worked them. Savannah and Beaufort are good longer trips, but they are two hours and an hour and a half away, and every one of them needs a car.

In Baltimore the children's attractions sit together around the Inner Harbor, while Charleston mixes a few smaller sights with time on the beach. Baltimore's big draw is the National Aquarium, with its rainforest pyramid and shark ring, and the science centre, Port Discovery and the zoo at Druid Hill can fill more days. Away from the water the city is uneven.

Charleston's aquarium and children's museum are smaller, but Patriots Point has an aircraft carrier for children to climb through, and an afternoon on the sand makes an easy break between sights. It has no zoo, and small children will soon get bored on the house tours.

Within town, Charleston is slightly easier. The historic peninsula is flat, most sights are within about 3km, and pedicabs and a free shuttle cover the gaps. Leave the peninsula, though, and it becomes a car town, with buses barely reaching the beaches or plantations.

Baltimore's walkable core is its waterfront, from Federal Hill to Fells Point, with water taxis out to Fort McHenry. Hampden, the art museum and the zoo mean a bus or a taxi, and the single metro and light rail lines do little for visitors. Its intercity trains, though, are far better.

Charleston is the better shopping city, mostly thanks to King Street, which runs from antiques dealers and galleries through national fashion names to independent boutiques at its upper end. The sweetgrass baskets woven by Gullah artisans at City Market make a souvenir with real local roots.

Baltimore offers a few good afternoons rather than a shopping street: vintage and kitsch on the Avenue in Hampden, and antiques and records in Fells Point. For mainstream fashion, residents head out to suburban malls.

Baltimore is the cheaper stay, with hotels well below Washington's and two major art museums that charge nothing, which is why many people visiting the capital sleep here. Meals, taxis and harbour-front rooms still add up.

Charleston costs more at almost every step. Inns on the peninsula charge big-city rates, especially on spring and autumn weekends, and paid house and plantation tours and parking push the daily total higher. Walking the old streets and the beaches costs nothing, and staying in Mount Pleasant saves money if you don't mind driving in.

Baltimore has more going on through the year. The Symphony plays a full season at the Meyerhoff, the Peabody Institute puts on frequent concerts in Mount Vernon, often free, and touring Broadway shows come to the Hippodrome. Station North's small clubs add indie and experimental music, and Pennsylvania Avenue carries a long jazz history.

Charleston's high point is Spoleto Festival USA in late spring, when opera, dance and chamber music fill the city for over two weeks, something Baltimore, without a resident opera, cannot match. For the rest of the year, there is the Dock Street Theatre, the Gaillard Center and Gullah storytelling.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, but Charleston is much the easier place to slow down. Its old town moves gently, with walled gardens, church courtyards and evenings at White Point Garden, and the resort spas on Kiawah Island are a short drive away.

Baltimore offers hotel spas around the harbour and a quiet hour in Druid Hill Park or the Walters galleries. Otherwise its pace is brisk and urban, and people who want real rest leave for the Eastern Shore.