Charleston or Ocean City, Maryland?

Ocean City has the better beach because the beach is the whole town. One unbroken band of soft sand runs the length of the island, lifeguard stands line it and public access is at the end of almost every street, so you walk out of the door and you are on it. Assateague's dune-backed shore is close by when the southern blocks get crowded.

Charleston's beaches are good but separate from the town: casual Folly, quiet Sullivan's Island, resort-style Isle of Palms, all a drive from the old centre. The water is warmer and the swimming season is longer than in Ocean City, but the sea is greenish and tidal, and rip currents and jellyfish appear on some days.

Both cities live on seafood, but Charleston is in another league as a place to eat. Its Lowcountry cooking, shrimp and grits, she-crab soup, Carolina Gold rice and winter oyster roasts, draws on Gullah Geechee and West African roots. It is served everywhere from townhouse dining rooms on upper King Street to whole-hog barbecue pits, though the best tables need booking well ahead.

In Ocean City the meal to have is a brown-paper table of steamed blue crabs with Old Bay and a pitcher of beer, followed by boardwalk fries, taffy and frozen custard. Beyond that it is mostly diners, chains and bar food, and many kitchens slow down outside summer.

Charleston gives you a whole historic peninsula to walk, with Rainbow Row, the Battery and the single houses south of Broad Street. Inside, the Nathaniel Russell and Aiken-Rhett houses show both the grand rooms and the enslaved people's quarters, and Fort Sumter and the Old Slave Mart Museum take the history further. Two or three days cover it well.

Ocean City has almost nothing to compare. The Life-Saving Station Museum, the early twentieth-century carousel and the boardwalk with its old hotels are pleasant, but anyone travelling for history or architecture will be driving out of town to find it.

These two are about level for a night out, but the nights are very different. Charleston's is a bar town all year: rooftop terraces, cocktail rooms and oyster bars on upper King Street, crowded with students and weekend groups, and quieter wine bars and old taverns in the French Quarter.

Ocean City is a summer party resort. Sand-floored open-air bars on the bayside fill for sunset, and dance bars along the Coastal Highway keep going until closing time. It is louder, younger and simpler, more beer and DJs than cocktail craft, and most of it shuts from October to May.

Both are flat, low coastal country of marsh and barrier island, and they are broadly level for time outdoors. What differs is the setting. Charleston's is the Lowcountry: kayaking through spartina creeks with dolphins, live oaks hung with Spanish moss, and alligators and birdlife in the Francis Marion National Forest and the ACE Basin.

Ocean City's highlight is Assateague, where wild ponies graze among the dunes and pine woods. The town is also a serious base for offshore sport fishing, with a long marlin tradition that Charleston does not match.

Charleston has the stronger day trips. Middleton Place, Magnolia, Drayton Hall and McLeod Plantation are half an hour away, pairing gardens with the history of slavery. Savannah's squares make a full day out, and Beaufort is a quieter river town with Gullah culture on the nearby sea islands.

From Ocean City the trips are gentler: small-town Berlin, the pony herds and fishing village of Chincoteague, and livelier Rehoboth Beach, with the Lewes ferry across to Victorian Cape May. Both need a car for everything.

Ocean City was built for children and has been a family resort for over a century. Two old boardwalk amusement parks, water parks, go-kart tracks and endless mini-golf sit beside a lifeguarded beach. Rented condos make longer stays easy, though early June brings graduating teenagers and much of it closes outside summer.

Charleston works for school-age children rather than as a family resort. There is the aquarium and children's museum on the waterfront, the aircraft carrier at Patriots Point and the boat to Fort Sumter, but there are no rides or theme parks, and house tours lose younger children fast.

Charleston is the easier place to be without a car, at least in the old town. The peninsula is flat and compact, with most sights within about 3km of walking, and pedicabs and a free shuttle cover the rest. The beaches and plantations, though, need a car or ride-hailing.

Ocean City is a long, thin strip split by the Coastal Highway, which is wide and unpleasant to walk beside. The boardwalk and old inlet downtown are walkable, and a summer bus and boardwalk tram help, but most visitors keep the car they arrived in for the whole stay.

Charleston's King Street makes a proper shopping walk, moving from antiques and galleries at the lower end through fashion brands to independent boutiques and design shops further up. The City Market adds the sweetgrass baskets woven by Gullah artisans, a craft with deep roots in the region.

Ocean City's shopping is T-shirts, surf gear, sunglasses and fudge along the boardwalk, with an outlet centre over the bridge for mainstream brands. It is fine for beachwear and little else.

Neither is cheap, but Ocean City stretches a budget further. It is a middle-income family resort where older motels a few streets back, condos shared among a group, boardwalk food and a free beach keep costs manageable, and late May and September bring rates down.

Charleston charges big-city prices for peninsula hotels and its well-known restaurants, and taxis, parking and paid house tours add up. Walking the old streets and the beaches costs nothing, and staying in Mount Pleasant saves money, though you then drive in every day.

Charleston has a real arts calendar, built around Spoleto Festival USA, which fills late spring with opera, chamber music, dance, theatre and jazz. Through the rest of the year the Dock Street Theatre, the symphony at the Gaillard Center and Gullah storytelling and song keep something on.

Ocean City offers light entertainment: comedians and tribute bands at the convention centre theatre, free summer concerts at the boardwalk bandstand and cover bands in the bars.

Neither has a bathing culture, but Charleston is the more restful place. The old town moves slowly, with shaded gardens, church courtyards and evenings at White Point Garden, and there are resort spas out on Kiawah.

Ocean City in high summer is noisy with traffic and late crowds. Its calm comes in the shoulder months, on an early walk along the empty northern beach.