Chattanooga or Panama City Beach?

There is no contest here. Swimming in Chattanooga means fresh water at Chickamauga Lake, Harrison Bay and the creeks on the plateau. These are good for a cool hour on a hot afternoon but not for a whole beach day.

Panama City Beach is built around about 43km of fine white sand and shallow green Gulf water. It also has a sheltered lagoon in St. Andrews State Park and the undeveloped shore of Shell Island. Rip currents are its one serious drawback.

Both stay close to Southern home cooking, but Chattanooga has better food and more variety. The Southside and Main Street area has chef-led kitchens and craft breweries alongside the meat-and-three plates, barbecue and biscuits.

Panama City Beach is about Gulf seafood eaten casually: grouper, shrimp and bay oysters on dockside decks. Chains and themed restaurants make up most of the choice along Front Beach Road. Neither city is the place for serious fine dining.

Chattanooga has real history to explore. There are the 1863 battlefields at Point Park and Missionary Ridge, the old Terminal Station, the Hunter Museum of American Art above the river and the Bessie Smith Cultural Center. Together they fill two or three days well.

Panama City Beach was mostly built for tourism after the mid-twentieth century. Apart from the Man in the Sea Museum and the older streets of St. Andrews across the bay, you have to drive elsewhere for history.

Neither city suits a big night out, but the evenings feel different. In Chattanooga people go to breweries, cocktail bars and music bars on the Southside. Station Street is the liveliest block, and students fill it at weekends.

In Panama City Beach the drinking happens on beach-bar decks and at tiki huts serving frozen drinks at sunset. The mood depends on the time of year: rowdy during spring break in March, easy-going on summer evenings and very quiet in winter.

Chattanooga is the stronger choice if you want hills and rock. Lookout, Signal and Raccoon mountains rise above the city, and the sandstone bluffs draw climbers. The Tennessee River Gorge, the Ocoee whitewater and Cloudland Canyon are all within about an hour.

Panama City Beach is flat, and its nature is coastal. St. Andrews State Park has dunes and pine flatwoods, and Camp Helen borders a rare dune lake. Most outdoor time is spent on the water, on dolphin trips, kayaking, fishing or diving on wrecks.

Chattanooga gives you more choice. Nashville and Atlanta are each about two hours away, Huntsville's Space and Rocket Center is closer, and the Chickamauga battlefield is just south of town.

From Panama City Beach, the best outings are west along Scenic Highway 30A to the pastel planned towns of Seaside and Rosemary Beach, or east to the old oyster port of Apalachicola. Beyond those, Pensacola is about as far as a day trip goes. You need a car from either city.

Both suit families well, in different ways. Chattanooga is a sightseeing trip with plenty of variety: the Tennessee Aquarium, the Creative Discovery Museum, and the Incline Railway, Ruby Falls and Rock City on Lookout Mountain.

Panama City Beach is a beach week, with shallow summer water, condos with pools, a water park, dolphin shows and mini-golf along Front Beach Road. Its drawbacks are spring break in March and the rip-current flags. In Chattanooga, plan around the summer heat and the driving between attractions.

Chattanooga is easier without a car, at least in the centre. The riverfront, the aquarium, Bluff View and the Southside are all walkable, the Walnut Street Bridge crosses to the North Shore and a free shuttle runs through downtown. You will still need a car for Lookout Mountain and the trails.

Panama City Beach is a long strip along one road. The pavements are patchy, the trolley-bus is slow and summer traffic crawls. A car is close to essential from the moment you arrive.

Neither city is worth choosing for shopping, but they sell different things. Chattanooga's specialty is outdoor gear, which suits a city built around climbing and trails. Frazier Avenue on the North Shore adds small boutiques and galleries, and Warehouse Row puts shops inside old railway warehouses downtown.\n\nPanama City Beach means mainstream chain stores at Pier Park and large beachwear and souvenir barns along the strip. It is useful for swimwear and little else, and for anything more individual you have to drive west to the 30A towns.

Costs come out much the same, and both have the usual American extras of tipping and car hire. In Chattanooga you save money with the free trails, parks and downtown shuttle, but the aquarium and the Lookout Mountain attractions charge full admission.

Panama City Beach is cheapest if you go outside summer and spring break and cook in a condo kitchen. Peak summer weeks on the beachfront are not cheap.

Chattanooga has a modest but real stage life. There is the gilded 1920s Tivoli Theatre, a symphony and opera company with a regular season, and community theatre on the North Shore. Southside bars host bluegrass and Americana bands.

In Panama City Beach, live performance means cover bands on restaurant decks and summer concerts at the shopping centre. Across the bay, a restored theatre in Panama City puts on the occasional touring show.

Neither city is worth choosing for spas, since both have only hotel and day spas. Where they differ is in how you unwind. In Chattanooga it is a slow afternoon on the riverfront or on a porch in Bluff View. In Panama City Beach it is a long sunset walk on an empty beach between autumn and spring, though in summer the town is loud and crowded.