Chattanooga or Myrtle Beach?

There is no real contest here. Chattanooga is a river city far from the sea. For a swim you have the small lake swimming areas at Chickamauga Lake and Harrison Bay, or the cool creek swimming holes on the plateau, which are good for an hour on a hot afternoon.

Myrtle Beach is built on the Grand Strand, about 100km of wide, pale sand with shallow, gently shelving water and small waves. The central blocks have the piers and the boardwalk. For quieter days, go south to Surfside, Garden City and the state park beaches backed by dunes.

Chattanooga eats better, though neither city is a food destination. Its Southern cooking, from meat-and-three plates to smoked brisket, comes with chef-led restaurants and craft breweries on the Southside and Main Street. That is enough to keep a few dinners interesting.

Myrtle Beach's strip is mostly buffets, pancake houses and chains built to feed large numbers. The good meals are just outside town, at the waterfront seafood places of Murrells Inlet and in Calabash-style fried fish. Seafood lovers will eat well there, but there is little variety beyond that.

Chattanooga has much more history to explore, enough for two or three days. It has the 1863 battlefields at Point Park and Missionary Ridge, the old Terminal Station, the Hunter Museum on its bluff above the river and the Bessie Smith Cultural Center. Myrtle Beach is a twentieth-century resort with little history of its own on view, and its two main sights, Brookgreen Gardens with its sculpture among live oaks and the Moorish-style Atalaya house, fill one good day south of town.

Myrtle Beach goes out harder. In summer the blocks around the boardwalk and the big entertainment complexes have beach bars, rooftop decks and dance clubs that stay open late, and North Myrtle Beach keeps the shag alive in its clubs on Main Street. Spring breaks can get rowdy, and the off-season is quiet.

Chattanooga's nights are breweries, cocktail bars and patios on the Southside, with Station Street the liveliest block, and most places close early. It suits a beer and conversation rather than dancing.

Chattanooga is the clear choice for the outdoors. Mountains rise straight from town and the sandstone bluffs draw climbers from across the eastern states. You can hang glide from Lookout Mountain, hike or ride the trails of Prentice Cooper State Forest and run the Ocoee's Olympic whitewater within an hour's drive.

Myrtle Beach's nature is flat and watery: salt marsh, maritime forest and cypress swamps. It rewards birdwatchers at Huntington Beach State Park, kayakers on the Waccamaw and golfers on dozens of courses, but there is no real hiking.

The two are evenly matched here, and both need a car for every outing. From Chattanooga the draws are big cities and attractions: Nashville or Atlanta for music and museums, each about two hours away, and Huntsville's Space and Rocket Center.

Myrtle Beach's best day out is Charleston's antebellum streets, two hours south. Nearer at hand are small coastal places such as Georgetown's old port, Pawleys Island and Southport. Choose by whether you want big-city days or quiet harbour towns.

Both cities work well with children, but Myrtle Beach is built around them. Gentle surf, resort pools with lazy rivers, water parks, an amusement park with a wooden roller coaster and endless themed mini-golf can fill a week easily. Just avoid spring break weeks.

Chattanooga suits a shorter family break. The Tennessee Aquarium and the Creative Discovery Museum are downtown, and Ruby Falls, Rock City and the Incline Railway are up on Lookout Mountain. It is calmer, but there is no beach to fall back on.

Chattanooga is easier to manage without a car. In its compact centre you can walk between the aquarium, Bluff View and the Southside, cross the Walnut Street Bridge to the North Shore or ride the free electric shuttle downtown. You will still need a car for the mountains and trails.

Myrtle Beach spreads along about 100km of multi-lane highway with few pavements, and summer traffic on Kings Highway is slow. Walking only works within a single resort area or along the sand.

Myrtle Beach has more to buy, though mostly of one kind: two big outlet centres, waterfront shopping complexes, The Market Common and huge beachwear stores. Chattanooga's shopping is smaller and more independent. It has the shops in Warehouse Row's converted railway warehouses and the boutiques and outdoor-gear stores on Frazier Avenue, the better of the two places to buy climbing or hiking kit.

Myrtle Beach is the cheaper of the two. It has a huge stock of hotels, motels and condos, many with kitchens, and oceanfront rooms are cheap outside the summer peak, though July and long weekends cost far more. In Chattanooga the free trails, riverfront and downtown shuttle help, but full-price admissions at the aquarium and on Lookout Mountain, plus a hire car, add up quickly.

Chattanooga has slightly more range. The gilded 1920s Tivoli Theatre and the Walker Theatre in the Memorial Auditorium host a symphony and opera season as well as touring shows, and bars on the Southside put on local bluegrass and Americana bands.

Myrtle Beach offers polished family variety shows instead: country and gospel revues, Christmas shows and dinner shows with knights or pirates, plus touring acts at the main entertainment complex. Neither will satisfy a traveller who comes mainly for music.

Neither city is a place for a wellness trip: both have hotel or resort spas but no bathing tradition. The difference is where you find rest. In Chattanooga it is a slow afternoon on the riverfront or a porch in Bluff View. In Myrtle Beach it depends on timing, because Pawleys Island and the spring and autumn shoulder seasons are far calmer than the summer strip.