Charleston or Memphis?

There is no contest here. Charleston has three barrier-island beaches within about half an hour: surfy Folly Beach with its pier, quiet Sullivan's Island backed by dunes, and the wider sands of Isle of Palms. Further south, Kiawah and Seabrook have long, empty stretches. The water is tidal and greenish rather than clear, and you need a car to get there.

Memphis sits far inland on a fast Mississippi full of barges that nobody swims in, so cooling off means a pool or a splash pad. If time on the sand matters at all, that settles the choice.

Both cities cook in deep Southern traditions, but Charleston has more depth and polish. Its Lowcountry dishes include shrimp and grits, she-crab soup, Carolina Gold rice and oysters roasted in winter. They draw on Gullah Geechee roots and are served everywhere from dining rooms in restored townhouses to whole-hog barbecue joints around upper King Street and Shem Creek.

Memphis is narrower and heavier: dry-rubbed ribs, pulled pork sandwiches, barbecue spaghetti, catfish and Delta tamales, with a smaller modern Southern layer in Cooper-Young. It is cheaper and more casual, and you rarely need to book well ahead the way you often must in Charleston.

The two are evenly matched but use your time very differently. In Charleston the main sight is the townscape itself. You walk the Georgian and antebellum streets south of Broad, past Rainbow Row and the Battery, and step inside the Nathaniel Russell and Aiken-Rhett houses. A boat takes you out to Fort Sumter, and the Old Slave Mart and the International African American Museum tell the story of the slave trade.

Memphis has little old town to wander. Instead it has a few museums of national weight: Graceland, Sun Studio and Stax for music, and the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel, one of the most powerful museums of its kind in the country.

Memphis gives the better night out. Beale Street closes to traffic at weekends, you can carry a drink from bar to bar, and the crowd stays out late. Overton Square and the dive bars of Cooper-Young are the more relaxed places where locals go.

In Charleston, evenings centre on the rooftop and cocktail bars of upper King Street, crowded with students and weekend groups, with quieter wine bars in the French Quarter. It is pleasant but winds down by about 2am, and neither city has a real club culture.

Both are flat, but Charleston's coast gives you far more to do outdoors. You can kayak the marsh creeks among dolphins, try paddleboarding, or walk trails with alligators and birdlife in the Francis Marion National Forest and the ACE Basin. In spring and autumn this makes the Lowcountry a proper outdoor destination.

In Memphis the river is the main attraction: the Big River Crossing walk into Arkansas, sunsets from the bluffs, and Shelby Farms Park with its lakes, bison and the Greenline cycle path. These fill a morning or two rather than shaping a whole trip.

Charleston has the stronger list of outings. The plantations of Middleton Place, Magnolia, Drayton Hall and McLeod are about half an hour away. Savannah makes a full day about two hours south, and Beaufort is the place for Gullah culture on the sea islands.

From Memphis the classic outing is the drive down Highway 61 into the Delta, to the juke joints of Clarksdale and the Blues Trail markers, or over to Oxford and Faulkner's house. It is rewarding for blues and history pilgrims, but the towns are small and the flat cotton country between them offers little else.

Charleston is the easier place with children. The aquarium and the children's museum sit side by side on the downtown waterfront, Patriots Point lets children climb through an aircraft carrier, and the beaches take care of the rest of the day.

Memphis has the better zoo, in Overton Park, plus the Pink Palace planetarium and the march of the ducks at the Peabody. But almost every outing needs a car, and its headline museums suit teenagers more than young children.

Neither city works well without a car, but more of a Charleston visit can be done on foot. Most of what you want on the flat historic peninsula lies within about 3km, with a free shuttle and pedicabs to fill the gaps. You only need to drive for the beaches and plantations.

In Memphis the walkable core is a few downtown blocks around Beale Street and the riverfront. Graceland, Midtown and Shelby Farms lie several kilometres apart and the buses are of little use, so you will hire a car or rely on ride-hailing most of the time.

King Street gives Charleston a proper shopping street to stroll. It runs from antiques and galleries on lower King, through fashion brands in the middle stretch, to independent boutiques on upper King. The City Market is the place to buy sweetgrass baskets straight from Gullah weavers.

Memphis has nothing like it in the centre. Its best finds are vintage vinyl and music memorabilia, with small boutiques in Cooper-Young and on Broad Avenue, and mainstream shopping out in suburban malls.

Memphis is the cheaper trip, and most of the difference lies in where you sleep. Charleston packs nearly everything a visitor wants into one small peninsula, so a bed within walking distance of it comes at a premium, and staying further out trades that saving for a daily drive. Once you are there, though, much of the best is free, from the walk past Rainbow Row to an afternoon on Sullivan's Island.

Memphis works the other way round. A room and a meal take a smaller share of the budget, but its sights are spread across the city and nearly all charge admission, so transport and tickets eat up more of the money. It is good value rather than truly cheap.

Memphis is the place for live music on any night of the year. Beale Street clubs have house bands playing blues and soul from the afternoon, Midtown venues add rock and hip-hop, and the Levitt Shell in Overton Park puts on free concerts in the warm months. Behind them are the Orpheum, a symphony orchestra, an opera company and a ballet company.

Charleston's big moment is Spoleto Festival USA in late spring, more than two weeks of opera, dance, theatre and jazz. For the rest of the year the programme is smaller: plays at the Dock Street Theatre, the symphony at the Gaillard Center, and Gullah storytelling.

Neither city has a spa or bathing tradition, but Charleston is the more restful place. Its slow old town of shaded gardens, church courtyards and evenings at White Point Garden makes it easy to unwind, and Kiawah Island has resort spas.

Memphis revolves around music and late nights. Its quiet moments are an early walk in Overton Park or an evening on the bluffs above the river.