Charleston or Orange Beach?

Orange Beach has the better beach. It is one long run of fine white quartz sand, with clear green water on calm days, a warmer sea and shallows that slope gently. Most stays are right on it, and Alabama Point and the state park beaches give you more room.

Charleston's three barrier islands, Folly, Sullivan's and Isle of Palms, are good beaches, but the Atlantic there is greenish and stirred up by the tides, and they are half an hour's drive from town. What Charleston offers is variety, from Folly's surf and pier to the dunes and old forts of Sullivan's. Watch for rip currents on both coasts.

Charleston eats far better. It has a cooking tradition of its own, with shrimp and grits, she-crab soup, Carolina Gold rice and roasted oysters, all rooted in Gullah Geechee and coastal Southern cooking. You can eat it anywhere from dining rooms in old townhouses to whole-hog barbecue pits.

Orange Beach does one thing well: fresh Gulf seafood such as Royal Reds and chargrilled oysters at waterside fish houses. Beyond that, the main road is a long line of fried platters. In Orange Beach, plan a few good seafood dinners. In Charleston, book the well-known tables well ahead.

This is where the two differ most. In Charleston the old town is itself the sight: Rainbow Row, the Battery, the streets south of Broad, and house museums such as the Aiken-Rhett that show both the wealth and the enslaved people behind it. Fort Sumter and the International African American Museum add the city's harder history.

Orange Beach has a small museum of local Native American and fishing history and little else. For forts and old streets you have to drive to Pensacola or Mobile.

Neither town is a reason to come for nightlife, and in both a night out means bars rather than clubs. Charleston has more choice in one walkable area, with rooftop bars, cocktail rooms and oyster bars on upper King Street and quieter old taverns in the French Quarter.

In Orange Beach, evenings revolve around beach bars, waterfront decks and the old roadhouse on the Alabama-Florida line. They are lively at spring break and on summer weekends but quiet the rest of the year, and you need a car or a taxi to get between them.

Both sit in flat, hot coastal country of marsh, maritime forest and tidal water, and both are best seen by kayak, with a good chance of dolphins in either. The difference is in emphasis. Charleston's Lowcountry is tidal creeks and spartina marsh under live oaks hung with Spanish moss, with the Francis Marion forest and the ACE Basin for quiet trails and alligators.

Orange Beach is more about open water and cycling. A long paved trail runs through pine woods and wetland into Gulf State Park, a large charter fishing fleet heads out to the offshore reefs, and Bon Secour offers good birding during the migrations.

Charleston's outings carry more weight. The Ashley River plantations, from Middleton Place and Magnolia to McLeod on James Island, are half an hour away and deal openly with the history of slavery. Further afield, Savannah and Beaufort each make a full day.

From Orange Beach, Pensacola's colonial quarter and naval aviation museum and Mobile's antebellum streets and battleship park make worthwhile breaks from the sand, and Fort Morgan and the Dauphin Island ferry are closer still. Every trip on either list needs a car.

Orange Beach is set up for families in a way Charleston is not. Condos with kitchens and pools and gentle beaches on the doorstep make every day simple with young children. A Ferris wheel, mini golf, a water park and a small zoo are all within easy reach.

Charleston suits school-age children better, with the aquarium, the aircraft carrier at Patriots Point and the boat out to Fort Sumter. But its beaches are a drive away, and the house tours test small children's patience quickly.

Charleston at least has a centre you can walk. The flat peninsula keeps most sights within about 3km, and pedicabs and a free shuttle fill the gaps, though you still need a car for the beaches and plantations.

Orange Beach has no centre at all. It is several miles of condos and restaurants along one highway with little public transport, and in summer the traffic slows to a crawl. Plan on keeping a car the whole time; bikes help on the trails.

Charleston gives shoppers a proper street. King Street runs from antiques dealers and galleries on lower King, past the brand stores, to independent boutiques further up. The City Market is the place to buy Gullah sweetgrass baskets from the people who weave them.

Orange Beach sells beachwear, souvenirs and fishing gear along the main road. Anyone who wants brands drives about twenty minutes inland to the outlet mall at Foley.

Neither is cheap, but Orange Beach is easier on the budget, especially for groups who share a large rental and cook some of their own meals. Between late autumn and early spring its rates fall a long way.

Charleston costs big-city money all year. Peninsula inns, well-known restaurants and paid house tours add up, and spring and autumn weekends are the dearest. Staying in Mount Pleasant saves money but means driving in every day.

Charleston has the stronger calendar, mostly because of Spoleto Festival USA, which fills late spring with opera, dance, chamber music and theatre. For the rest of the year there are plays at the Dock Street Theatre, the symphony at the Gaillard Center, and Gullah storytelling and song.

In Orange Beach the music is live bands rather than theatre. Touring country and rock acts play the marina amphitheatre in the warmer months, cover bands play the beach bars, and a songwriters' festival takes over the stages near the state line each November.

Charleston is the easier place to slow down, because its calm does not depend on the calendar. The old town keeps a gentle pace in every season, with shaded walled gardens, quiet church courtyards, porches and long evenings by the water at White Point Garden. When you want a proper treatment, the resort spas on Kiawah Island are close by.

Orange Beach's quiet comes and goes with the crowds. From autumn to spring it offers long, empty mornings and sunsets over the back bays, but summer weekends and spring break are loud. As in Charleston, there is no bathing tradition, only a few resort and day spas offering massages.