Charleston or Panama City Beach?

Panama City Beach clearly wins here. The sand starts at the door: some 43km of powder-white quartz with shallow water that turns clear green on calm days. For quieter stretches there is St. Andrews State Park, or the boat out to undeveloped Shell Island.

Charleston's beaches are good, but they work differently. Folly, Sullivan's Island and Isle of Palms are a drive from the old town, and the Atlantic there is greenish and stirred up by the tides. Both coasts have rip currents, so watch the flags in either place.

Charleston eats like a much larger city. Its Lowcountry kitchen of shrimp and grits, she-crab soup and Carolina Gold rice grows out of Gullah Geechee tradition, and it is served everywhere from dining rooms in old townhouses to whole-hog barbecue pits. Booking ahead for the best tables is part of the routine.

Panama City Beach keeps things simple: grouper, shrimp baskets and Gulf oysters on dockside decks, with chains and themed restaurants filling Front Beach Road. The seafood is good, but there is little reason to plan a day around a meal.

This is the biggest difference between the two. Charleston's historic peninsula is a sight in itself, from Rainbow Row and the Battery to house museums such as the Aiken-Rhett House. The city faces its past squarely at Fort Sumter, the Old Slave Mart Museum and the International African American Museum.

Panama City Beach was mostly built after the mid-twentieth century. Beyond the small Man in the Sea Museum and the older streets of St. Andrews across the bay, there is little to see, so for history you have to drive elsewhere.

Neither is a clubbing town, but Charleston offers more kinds of evening out: rooftop bars, cocktail rooms and oyster bars along upper King Street, and older taverns and wine bars in the French Quarter. At weekends King Street gets loud with students and large groups.

In Panama City Beach a night out means a frozen drink on a deck over the sand at sunset, with cover bands and some dancing around Pier Park in summer. The strip gets rowdy during spring break in March and goes quiet early in winter.

The two coasts are alike in the main: flat, hot in summer and best explored from the water, with dolphins, kayaks and paddleboards in both. What differs is the scenery. Charleston's Lowcountry is marsh and tidal creek and live oaks hung with Spanish moss, with alligators and birdlife in the ACE Basin and Francis Marion National Forest.

Panama City Beach has white dunes, pine flatwoods and rare coastal dune lakes. Its water is also clearer, good enough for snorkelling in the St. Andrews lagoon and diving on the wrecks and artificial reefs offshore.

Charleston has the better day trips. The Ashley River plantations, among them Middleton Place, Magnolia and Drayton Hall, are half an hour away and tell the story of the people enslaved there. Savannah's squares and Beaufort's Gullah heritage each make a full day further afield.

From Panama City Beach the best trip is west along Highway 30A to the pastel planned towns of Seaside and Rosemary Beach, or east to Apalachicola, an old oyster port. You need a car for all of these, from either base.

Panama City Beach is built for families. It has warm shallow water, condos with kitchens and pools, a water park, a marine park, and mini-golf and go-karts along the strip. Small children can snorkel safely in the sheltered lagoon. Just avoid March, when spring break takes over.

Charleston is calmer and suits school-age children better. The aquarium, the aircraft carrier at Patriots Point and the boat out to Fort Sumter go down well, but house tours and summer heat quickly tire younger ones.

Charleston is much easier to manage in the old town. The peninsula is flat and compact, most sights are within about 3km of each other, and pedicabs and a free shuttle fill the gaps. For the beaches and plantations, you still need a car or ride-hailing.

Panama City Beach is a 43km strip along one main road, with patchy pavements and a slow trolley-bus. A car is close to essential, and in summer the traffic on Front Beach Road crawls.

King Street gives Charleston a proper shopping street that changes as you walk it, from antiques on lower King through fashion brands to independent boutiques further up. At the City Market, Gullah weavers sell sweetgrass baskets, the city's signature craft. Neither place has luxury shopping.

Panama City Beach offers chain stores at Pier Park and huge souvenir and beachwear warehouses. For anything more individual, go to the boutiques in the 30A towns.

Panama City Beach is the cheaper of the two. Self-catering condos cut the restaurant bill, and outside summer and spring break the rates fall sharply, especially for long winter stays.

Charleston costs about as much as a far bigger American city. Inns on the peninsula and the well-known restaurants charge accordingly, and paid house and plantation tours add up. Free pleasures such as walking the old streets and the Battery help a little.

Charleston has much more to offer on stage, above all for over two weeks in late spring, when Spoleto Festival USA brings opera, chamber music, dance and jazz. The rest of the year there are plays at the Dock Street Theatre, the Charleston Symphony at the Gaillard Center and Gullah storytelling.

In Panama City Beach, live music means cover bands and acoustic sets on beach-bar decks. The historic theatre across the bay in Panama City has a modest season of touring shows and local productions.

Neither has a bathing tradition, and in both the spas are in hotels and resorts, with Kiawah Island's the best near Charleston. What gives Charleston the edge is its slow pace: shaded walled gardens, quiet church courtyards and evenings at White Point Garden.

Panama City Beach is relaxing mainly out of season, when the beach empties and sunset walks are long and quiet. In summer and during spring break it is anything but calm.