Chattanooga or Miami Beach?

These two are about as far apart on beaches as two cities can be. Chattanooga is a river city far inland. Its swimming happens at the small designated areas on Chickamauga Lake and Harrison Bay, or in cool creek pools up on the plateau. Those are fine for an hour on a summer afternoon, but there is nowhere to spend a whole day on the sand.

Miami Beach is a whole island edged with Atlantic beach, about 11km of wide sand with warm, usually gentle water. You can pick your mood: the crowds and people-watching of South Beach, the resort stretch of Mid-Beach or the more open sand around North Beach. For a beach trip there is no contest.

Chattanooga feeds you well in a Southern way. Expect meat-and-three plates, barbecue, biscuits and catfish, with chef-led restaurants and breweries on the Southside and brunch on the North Shore. After a few days the narrow range starts to show, with little international cooking.

Miami Beach gives you more variety and more Latin flavour: Cuban sandwiches and cafecito from takeaway windows, ceviche and arepas, and stone crabs in winter. The catch is that the tourist-facing menus on Ocean Drive are ordinary. The better meals are on the side streets, in North Beach's Latin cafés or across the causeway in Little Havana.

Miami Beach has the stronger single sight. The Art Deco Historic District is a complete townscape of pastel 1930s hotels that you can take in on a walk along Ocean Drive and Collins Avenue. The Wolfsonian's design collection and the Holocaust Memorial round it out. Older history and the big museums are on the mainland.

Chattanooga's heritage is more about history than looks. There are the Civil War battlefields on Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, the old Terminal Station and the Bessie Smith Cultural Center, with the Hunter Museum of American Art on its bluff above the river. It fills two or three days, but the battle sites are spread out and need a car.

Nights out could hardly be more different. Chattanooga's evenings revolve around breweries, cocktail bars and patios on the Southside and Station Street, busy with students at weekends and mostly winding down long before the small hours.

South Beach is one of the world's best-known party districts. Afternoon pool parties lead on to late dinners and then to clubs with guest DJs that go on until dawn. It is glamorous, with door policies, table service and big bills. If you want something calmer, Sunset Harbour and Mid-Beach have quieter wine and cocktail bars.

Chattanooga is the clear winner outdoors. The Tennessee River cuts through the Cumberland Plateau right at the edge of town, so climbing on sandstone bluffs, mountain biking in Prentice Cooper State Forest, hang gliding off Lookout Mountain and paddling the gorge are all close at hand. The Ocoee's whitewater and the canyon trails of Cloudland Canyon are about an hour away.

Miami Beach is flat and built up, and its nature is on and in the water. You can paddleboard on the bay, dive the offshore reefs and wrecks or paddle the mangroves at Oleta River. The Everglades, with their alligators and wading birds, are an hour's drive. There is no hiking to speak of, and summer heat pushes everything into the early morning.

Both offer a fair choice of outings, and both need a car, but the outings are of different kinds. From Chattanooga the trips are to other cities and small towns: Nashville or Atlanta for music and museums, the Space and Rocket Center at Huntsville, Jack Daniel's at Lynchburg and the Chickamauga battlefield close by.

From Miami Beach the best trip is the shortest, across the bay to Little Havana, Wynwood's murals, Vizcaya and Coral Gables. Further out are Fort Lauderdale's canals, Palm Beach's mansions and Key Largo at the top of the Keys.

Chattanooga has the edge with children because it has so much built for them. The two-building Tennessee Aquarium and the Creative Discovery Museum are downtown, and Lookout Mountain stacks up the Incline Railway, Ruby Falls and Rock City. Coolidge Park adds a carousel and splash fountains.

Miami Beach has the beach itself, with gentle water, lifeguards and playgrounds behind the sand. Families do best staying in Mid-Beach or near Surfside. Zoos and museums mean a trip to the mainland, and South Beach is too loud for small children at weekends.

Both have a walkable centre with free local transport: a downtown electric shuttle in Chattanooga and trolleys up Collins Avenue in Miami Beach. The difference is in what you reach without a car.

In Miami Beach the beach, the Art Deco streets and Lincoln Road are all within a flat walk or a bike ride, so a beach stay works without wheels. In Chattanooga the downtown and the North Shore are easy on foot, but Lookout Mountain, the trails and the climbing areas lie beyond, where buses are thin, so most visitors hire a car.

Miami Beach offers more, especially at the top end. Bal Harbour gathers the big European fashion and jewellery houses in one open-air mall, and Lincoln Road's palm-shaded pedestrian mall makes a pleasant evening stroll, although its shops are mostly international chains.

Chattanooga's shopping is small-scale: converted railway warehouses at Warehouse Row and independent boutiques and galleries on Frazier Avenue. Its one real speciality is outdoor gear, which fits a trip spent on the trails.

Neither is a bargain, but Chattanooga is noticeably easier on the wallet. Hotels and casual meals cost less than in big American cities, and many of the best days out are on free trails and riverfront walks. The main costs are car hire and the admission fees at family attractions.

Miami Beach is expensive at almost every step. Oceanfront rooms in winter, resort and parking fees, and cocktails and club entry in South Beach all add up. Staying in North Beach, travelling in summer and eating at Cuban takeaway windows soften the cost, and the beach itself is free.

Miami Beach has the richer programme for its size. The New World Symphony plays in its Gehry hall on 17th Street, with some concerts projected onto the outside wall for audiences on the lawn, and Miami City Ballet is based on the island. The season runs from autumn to spring, and the club music leans to DJs rather than bands.

Chattanooga's highlight is an evening at the gilded Tivoli Theatre, plus bluegrass and Americana bands in small Southside bars. Serious music fans tend to save themselves for Nashville.

Miami Beach is the better place to unwind, provided you stay in the right part of the island. The large resort spas in Mid-Beach and towards Surfside have hydrotherapy circuits, there is sunrise yoga on the sand, and long pool afternoons come easily, though all of it costs money and South Beach itself is noisy.

Chattanooga offers little more than a few hotel and day spas. Its calm comes from its slow pace, such as a quiet afternoon on a Bluff View porch, but most people who go there come to be active.