Charleston or New Orleans?

Charleston is a real beach destination as well as a historic town. Folly Beach has the surf and the pier, Sullivan's Island has dunes and old forts, and Isle of Palms has wider, resort-style sand. The Atlantic stays warm enough for swimming from late spring into October, though the water is tidal and greenish rather than clear, and you need a car to get there.

New Orleans has nothing like it. Nobody swims in Lake Pontchartrain or the Mississippi, and the nearest sand, around Bay St. Louis on the Mississippi coast, is well over an hour away and has shallow, brownish water.

Both cities have a cooking tradition of their own with West African roots, and both serve shrimp and grits. Charleston's Lowcountry food, with she-crab soup, Carolina Gold rice and oysters roasted by the bushel, is excellent and centred on upper King Street and the French Quarter. The range is narrow, though, and the good tables need booking well ahead.

New Orleans goes deeper. Between Creole and Cajun cooking it has gumbo, étouffée, jambalaya and po'boys, French Quarter dining rooms that have served the same dishes for over a century, crawfish in spring and Vietnamese cooking in the eastern suburbs. It is also the home of the Sazerac, so drinking is part of the meal.

These two are close, and both are best seen on foot. Charleston's main sight is its Georgian and antebellum peninsula, with Rainbow Row and the Battery. Its history comes across most powerfully at Fort Sumter, the Old Slave Mart Museum and the International African American Museum.

New Orleans instead offers a Creole and Spanish colonial town, with iron balconies around Jackson Square and the Cabildo, plus the Garden District mansions and the above-ground tombs. It has the larger single museum in the National WWII Museum, though neither city has many major collections.

A night out in Charleston means a few drinks: rooftop and cocktail bars on upper King Street, wine bars in the French Quarter, beach bars at Folly. Most places close by about 2am.

New Orleans is built for going out. There is no legal closing time and you can carry drinks in the street, so nights move from bar to bar on foot, from the neon of Bourbon Street to Frenchmen Street and the corner bars of the Marigny and Bywater. Carnival turns the whole city into one party. Watch for pickpockets on Bourbon Street late at night.

Both sit in flat, wet country of live oaks and Spanish moss, and in both the best way in is by water. Charleston gives more to do: kayak trips through the spartina marsh creeks often meet dolphins, and the Francis Marion National Forest, the ACE Basin and the wild shores and cycling of Kiawah and Edisto are all within reach.

New Orleans offers swamp rather than salt marsh, with boat tours past alligators and cypresses and boardwalk trails in the Barataria Preserve. In town, City Park and the levee along the Mississippi are good for walking or cycling, but the choice beyond them is smaller.

Both offer plantation visits that confront the history of slavery, but Charleston's are closer and there are more of them. Middleton Place, Magnolia, Drayton Hall and Boone Hall are about half an hour away, with McLeod Plantation on James Island. Savannah, two hours away, and Beaufort, with its Gullah sea islands, each make a strong full day.

From New Orleans, the River Road leads about an hour upstream to Oak Alley and the Whitney. Baton Rouge, the small Gulf towns and the Cajun prairie around Lafayette complete the list, and beyond those the choice is thin. In both cities you need a car for nearly all of these.

There is a similar amount for children in each, but of different kinds. Charleston has the South Carolina Aquarium and the Children's Museum, the aircraft carrier at Patriots Point and, above all, beaches with gentle surf. The town is calm both day and night.

New Orleans has the Audubon Zoo with its Louisiana swamp area, the Aquarium of the Americas, the amusement park and carousel in City Park, streetcar rides and Mardi Gras parades along St. Charles Avenue. Parents need to take more care there after dark, especially near Bourbon Street.

Charleston is the harder of the two to manage without a car. Its flat peninsula fits within about 3km, and the free shuttle and pedicabs fill the gaps, but the beaches and plantations mean driving or ride-hailing, and parking downtown is tight.

New Orleans lets you cover more ground on foot and by rail. The French Quarter, the Marigny and the Warehouse District can all be walked, and the slow, historic green streetcars run up St. Charles Avenue to the Garden District and out to City Park. You will still need ride-hailing for the airport and the swamps. In both cities the summer heat cuts walks short, and in New Orleans some stretches between neighbourhoods are best not walked at night.

Shopping is on a similar scale in both, and it is about antiques and independent shops rather than luxury. Charleston has almost everything on King Street, from antiques at the lower end to boutiques at the upper end. Its signature buy is a sweetgrass basket made by Gullah weavers at City Market.

New Orleans is more spread out, with chandeliers and estate jewellery on Royal Street and miles of vintage and design shops along Magazine Street. Its own souvenirs are Carnival masks, hot sauces and pralines.

Neither is cheap, but New Orleans is easier on the budget. Rooms near the French Quarter cost as much as in a big city and climb sharply at Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest. Even so, po'boys, neighbourhood bars, the streetcar and free street music keep day-to-day spending modest.

Charleston costs more across the board, as inns in the historic district, the well-known restaurants, parking, taxis and paid house tours all add up. The Battery, the old streets and the beaches are free. Staying in Mount Pleasant saves money but means driving in every day.

New Orleans is far ahead here. Jazz was born in the city, and every night there are brass bands, blues, funk, Cajun and zydeco on Frenchmen Street, in the French Quarter's traditional jazz hall and in bars across Tremé and the Bywater. On top of that come the Sunday second-line parades and Jazz Fest in spring.

Charleston's big event is Spoleto Festival USA, which fills late spring with opera, dance, theatre and jazz. For the rest of the year there are plays at the Dock Street Theatre, the symphony at the Gaillard Center and occasional Gullah song and storytelling. These are pleasant, but not something to plan a trip around.

Neither city has a spa or bathing culture, so rest comes from the pace. Charleston is the more restful of the two, with resort spas on Kiawah Island, shaded walled gardens and church courtyards, and quiet evenings by the water at White Point Garden.

New Orleans can be slow too, in courtyard guesthouses, on the St. Charles streetcar and in City Park. Its choice of spas is smaller, though, and the French Quarter at night is anything but restful.