Chattanooga or West Palm Beach?

For beaches, the two are hardly comparable. Chattanooga is a river city a long way from any coast. Swimming there means small roped-off areas on Chickamauga Lake or at Harrison Bay, or a cold plunge in a plateau creek, all good for an hour on a hot day.

West Palm Beach has the Atlantic a short ride across the bridges. You can choose between the groomed sand at Midtown Beach, the wider and quieter shores of Singer Island and Juno, or the calm lagoon at Peanut Island for children and snorkellers. Because the Gulf Stream passes so close, the sea is warm enough to swim in even in January, so the beach can be the centre of the whole stay.

Neither city is a destination for food lovers, but West Palm Beach has a little more range. You can count on plainly grilled grouper and snapper, stone crab in season, and Cuban and Haitian bakeries away from the centre.

Chattanooga's strength is Southern home cooking: meat-and-three plates, biscuits, barbecue and catfish, plus a cluster of craft breweries on the Southside. International food and fine dining are thin. Expect a few good comfort meals rather than variety.

The two are level on sights, and both fill two or three good days, but the themes are different. Chattanooga's story is about war and railways: the 1863 battlefields at Point Park and Missionary Ridge, the old Terminal Station, and the Bessie Smith Cultural Center for African American history. The Hunter Museum adds American art on its bluff.

West Palm Beach leans towards art and Gilded Age wealth. The Norton Museum has the broader collection, Whitehall tells the story of Flagler and his railway, and an afternoon among the Mediterranean Revival villas of Palm Beach covers the architecture.

West Palm Beach has the livelier nights, though only just. Clematis Street and Rosemary Square have rooftop terraces and a couple of dance spots that fill at weekends. For real clubbing, people still go down to Miami.

A night out in Chattanooga is quieter: a brewery patio, a cocktail bar on the Southside, or a drink on the short Station Street strip, and most places wind down early.

Chattanooga is clearly ahead for the outdoors. The Tennessee River cuts through the ridges of the Cumberland Plateau right at the city's edge. That gives you climbing on sandstone bluffs, hang gliding from Lookout Mountain and trails along the gorge, with Ocoee whitewater and the waterfalls of Cloudland Canyon and Fall Creek Falls within driving range.

West Palm Beach has no hills at all, and its outdoors is mostly on the water. Its best moments are the seahorses and rays under the Blue Heron Bridge, Gulf Stream drift dives and alligators seen from the boardwalks at Grassy Waters, and in summer the heat limits activity to the mornings.

Both are about as good for day trips, but they work differently. From West Palm Beach a fast train reaches Miami in about an hour, with South Beach and Little Havana at the other end. The other options are mostly coastal towns such as Delray Beach and Jupiter.

From Chattanooga, every outing needs a car. Nashville and Atlanta are long days at about two hours each, and Huntsville's rocket centre, Lynchburg's distillery town and the Chickamauga battlefield are the less obvious choices.

A family trip to Chattanooga is built around an aquarium and a mountain, while in West Palm Beach it is built around the beach. Chattanooga has the Tennessee Aquarium on the riverfront, the steep Incline Railway up Lookout Mountain, the underground waterfall at Ruby Falls and the carousel in Coolidge Park.

In West Palm Beach, children get calm, guarded beaches, giraffes at Lion Country Safari and manatees at Manatee Lagoon in winter. Beyond that the two are equally easy with children. Either way you will drive between attractions, and summer heat calls for some planning.

Chattanooga has no passenger trains, while West Palm Beach has fast trains south to Fort Lauderdale and Miami. Apart from that, the two are about level. Each has a small, walkable downtown with a free shuttle or trolley, and in Chattanooga the walk across the Walnut Street Bridge to the North Shore is part of the pleasure.

Beyond the centre, both are car country. Chattanooga's mountains and trailheads need a car, and so do West Palm Beach's beaches and safari park. The one exception in Florida is Palm Beach itself, which is close enough to cycle to over the bridges and then along the Lake Trail.

West Palm Beach is clearly the better place to shop. On Worth Avenue, luxury fashion and jewellery houses line tiled courtyards and passages. Nearby consignment shops resell designer pieces, and Antique Row on South Dixie Highway is good for an afternoon of browsing furniture and lighting.

In Chattanooga, the one real specialty is outdoor gear. Frazier Avenue's boutiques and the converted warehouses of Warehouse Row are pleasant stops, but they aren't a reason to come.

Neither is a budget destination, but Chattanooga goes easier on the wallet. Hotels and casual meals cost less, and trails, parks and riverfront walks are free. The main costs are the hire car and admission to the aquarium and the attractions on Lookout Mountain.

West Palm Beach is expensive, especially from December to April, when rooms on Palm Beach are among the costliest on the coast and restaurants are priced for a well-off crowd. Summer rates are much lower, but you pay for them in heat and storms.

For an evening at a show, West Palm Beach offers more. At the Kravis Center you can see touring Broadway musicals, visiting orchestras and the Palm Beach Opera, while Palm Beach Dramaworks puts on serious plays. Most of the programme runs from late autumn to spring.

In Chattanooga, the gilded Tivoli Theatre and a small symphony and opera company fill a night or two. Bluegrass and Americana in Southside bars give it a regional flavour, but anyone travelling mainly for music would do better to drive to Nashville.

For a slow, pampered few days, West Palm Beach is the better choice. The oceanfront resort spas along the coast have pools and treatment rooms, and Palm Beach's quiet, manicured streets and the promenades on the lagoon suit unhurried mornings.

Chattanooga offers little beyond hotel spas. The closest it comes to relaxing is a slow afternoon on a porch in Bluff View, and most visitors come here to be active.